D.E.A. Says More Than 100 Undocumented Immigrants Were Detained in a Colorado Raid


Federal agents raided an underground nightclub in Colorado early Sunday morning and detained more than 100 people who they said were undocumented immigrants, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The raid occurred at a club in Colorado Springs, about 70 miles south of Denver. Federal officials said there were more than 200 people inside the club at the time, including 114 who were in the country illegally. More than a dozen active-duty members of the U.S. military were detained as well, they said.

Officials said agents found weapons and illicit drugs inside the nightclub, including cocaine, methamphetamine and a mixture of powdered drugs known as pink cocaine.

Jonathan C. Pullen, the DEA Rocky Mountain Division special agent in charge, said in a news conference that the club had been under law enforcement surveillance for months and that “drug trafficking, prostitution and crimes of violence” had been taking place inside the club.

Mr. Pullen said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of the immigrants detained at the club. He said the members of the military were “running security at the club and involved in some of these crimes.”

The service members were handed over to the criminal investigation division of the U.S. Army, which did not respond immediately on Sunday to a request for comment.

Mr. Pullen said that during the investigation of the club, law enforcement officers saw members of the Hell’s Angels, MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs inside the club.

“I don’t have the information about whether those members were there tonight, but we’re still working through a lot of that, because we have so many people in custody,” Mr. Pullen said.

The D.E.A. and several members of the Trump administration posted videos and photos of the raid on their social media accounts on Sunday.

In one video posted on X by the D.E.A.’s Rocky Mountain Division, agents can be seen breaking through a window as red and blue police lights flash around them. When the agents crack the window, several people run out of the building and raise their hands as law enforcement agents appear to point weapons at them.

Another video showed a line of dozens of people with their arms tied behind their backs.

The agency said that the undocumented immigrants who were detained were placed on buses “for processing and likely eventual deportation.”

Mr. Pullen said there were about 300 law enforcement agents from several agencies who participated in the raid.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi praised the raid in a statement on social media, saying that two people with existing warrants had been arrested.

The raid was the latest display of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, which appear to be struggling to round up enough people to meet Mr. Trump’s mass deportation goals.

The administration has publicized its raids in big cities and its deportation flights to Latin America, using tactics steeped with showmanship that have profoundly unnerved immigrant communities.

Efforts on Sunday to reach local immigrant advocacy groups for comment were not immediately successful.

President Trump’s administration has been criticized for wrongly deporting people, including U.S. citizens, who have been caught up in the crackdown.

A federal judge said on Friday that the Trump administration had deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras “with no meaningful process” and against the wishes of her father.



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