Federal authorities in Colorado Springs, Colorado, detained and questioned more than a dozen active-duty soldiers early Sunday after a raid on an underground nightclub frequented by members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua street gangs.
About 200 people were in the club when several federal law enforcement agencies launched the operation at the illegal club, authorities said, adding that more than half of the people in the club were illegal immigrants.
The Drug Enforcement Administration said the raid also resulted in the seizure of drugs and weapons at the club.
Video released by the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division shows heavily armed officers battering through a glass window in front of the shuttered building where the underground nightclub had set up operations. Police were waiting with guns drawn as several patrons streamed out of the club. Some immediately got on the ground and others raised their hands.
Several Army soldiers — likely from the nearby Fort Carson — were in the nightclub as patrons or security guards, DEA officials said.
“It’s obviously concerning to have active duty military involved. We’re working with our partners at Army CID [Criminal Investigation Division] on that case,” Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division, told reporters at the scene. “There are a lot of military bases here, so it’s not necessarily surprising. But we’re going to take that very seriously.”
Only those patrons in the country illegally or with outstanding arrest warrants were taken into custody, officials said.
“Most partygoers were eventually released,” the DEA said in a statement.
