An estimated 114 undocumented immigrants were detained at a Colorado “underground nightclub,” following the Drug Enforcement Bureau’s attack, officials said.
Jonathan Pullen, a special agent with the DEA in Denver, said more than 100 people were taken into custody after a month’s investigation that the Colorado Springs Club attacked Saturday night was attacked on Sunday.
He said at a press conference that some patrons were arrested on an aggressive state warrant. US Attorney General Pam Bondy put the number of people arrested on the warrants.
Pullen also said there are more than a dozen active service members within the club who are working as armed security, pretending to be guns, drugs and patrons.
“When the officers showed up at the door, most of the drugs hit the floor and we found cocaine,” he said. “We didn’t have time to test everything, but there were a lot of small packages.”
An army criminal investigation department official was attacked and assisted in the investigation, Pullen said. Divisions and Army officials at nearby Fort Carson and did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday night.
The DEA posted a video of the moments before the attack on social media. It shows law enforcement officers of tactical devices surrounding the place and features voices of warnings in English and Spanish to those inside to get out in peace.
Pullen claimed the club was something that looked like a strip mall, a place for drug trade and sex workers. He said the event, which had been monitored there by law enforcement for several months.
“What was happening inside was a crime of drug trafficking, prostitution and violence,” Pullen said. “I grabbed a lot of guns there.”
He said the investigation that led to the attack was ongoing, and authorities said “in reality, several other operations are pending throughout the city.”
President Donald Trump has posted some videos of the attacks in his true social accounts, claiming that some of the people who were rounded up are murderers and other violent criminals. The DEA does not identify who has been accused of murder among those detained.
Trump characterized it as “last night, a major assault on some of the worst illegal people in our country.”
Bondi said in X that members of the Venezuela Tren de Aragua gang and members of the MS-13 gang, set in Los Angeles, have been detained. Both gangs have been repeatedly named as violent threats to the United States as the Trump administration moves forward in crackdown on illegal immigration.
Pullen said the agents who are monitoring the venue have discovered people who believe they are members of Tren de Agua and MS-13 and are members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang.
Bondy praised Trump for “achieving results” in his mission to “make America safe again.”
The massive roundup of suspected people in the country has long been concerned about advocates against immigrants and civil liberty lawyers.
The Colorado Rapid Response network, which provides information about attacks on immigrant communities, urged relatives of detained people to remind them that they remain silent and can request legal representatives without the need to sign documents.
“We don’t know all the facts,” the group said on Facebook.
Party attendee Jose Dominguez said in an interview that some of them aired on NBC Affiliate Clothes in Denver.
“Then they let me go,” he said, “as if nothing had happened.”
