Supporters of a tougher approach to enforcement pointed to the anti-narcotics raid at a nightclub in Colorado’s second biggest city as yet another confirmation that criminal elements have embedded themselves among the tens of thousands of immigrants who arrived in the state over the past two years — attracted, they argued, by local “sanctuary policies.”

Federal law enforcement officials said they detained more than 100 people unlawfully living in the country during the raid at an “underground” Colorado Springs nightclub early on Sunday morning. The Drug Enforcement Administration said officers also seized cocaine and guns during the operation.

In a post on X, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, linked the raid to organized crime, saying the club is frequented by members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and the international gang MS-13.

It’s the second major raid of a nightclub in Colorado. In January, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division also executed a search warrant in the wee hours at a “makeshift nightclub” in Adams County. Agents detained 49 individuals. Of those, 41 were unlawfully residing in the country, officials have said. Media reports said no criminal charges were filed against the people arrested. 

Anti-narcotics and immigration agents have arrested scores of people in subsequent operations.

Typically, illegal immigration directly affects border states like Texas and California. However, interior cities, such as Denver, began experiencing an influx two years ago. The city saw nearly 43,000 immigrants, mostly from South and Central America, arrive after illegally crossing America’s southern border. Bus, plane and train tickets city officials purchased to send immigrants on to their final destination suggest about half have stayed in Colorado.

Some blamed Colorado “sanctuary policies” for the situation, while the Johnston administration in Denver argued it was compelled to provide humanitarian help, given that the many of the immigrants arrived in the middle of winter, and lamented that the city was forced to confront a problem that the U.S. Congress has failed to solve. 

“Immigration brings in a criminal element,” retired U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement  field office director John Fabbricatore told The Denver Gazette.

“Because of illegal immigration,” he said, “we get more drug trafficking, more cartel involvement, more gang activity, more foreign born terrorist organizations operating inside the United States.”

“It’s easier for them to do so, especially in sanctuary states like Colorado,” he added. 

Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who also blamed the policies in Colorado and Denver for the criminal activities, said the raid in Colorado Springs confirmed what she has long argued.  

“There are criminal elements we see in every one of these raids,” Jurinsky said. 

“It just continues to confirm what I have said from Day One — that they are here in mass numbers,” Jurinsky said. “They have come with a lot of guns. They have robbed a lot of gun stores on their way. They have a lot of drugs that they have come across the border with, and they are running huge sex rings.”

Referring to reports that both MS-13 and TdA members frequented the nightclub in Colorado Springs, Jurinsky added, “That makes it even more scary to me that these two powerhouse transnational gangs are potentially teaming up.”

Jurinsky said she believes the metro Denver region has become TdA’s “ground zero.”

Originally, a prison gang that started in Tocorón Penitentiary Center in Aragua, a state in north-central Venezuela, TdA has expanded the footprint of its criminal enterprises into at least eight Latin American countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Chile. The organization has an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 members, according to Ronna Rísquez, a Venezuelan investigative journalist.

It’s unclear when TdA was first discovered in the United States, but it is believed that gang members embedded themselves with immigrants fleeing the political and economic collapse in Venezuela. Nearly eight million Venezuelans have already fled their country under President Nicolás Maduro’s oppressive regime, with more than 500,000 estimated to be living in the U.S.

Local police have arrested several alleged members on a variety of charges, including an armed home invasion in Aurora, in which a Venezuelan couple was bound, pistol-whipped, and tortured. 

Last month, the Trump administration invoked the Aliens Enemies Act and ordered the arrest of TdA members, declaring that the gang — which took over at least two apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado —  is “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”

Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly insisted local authorities are limited in their ability to work with federal immigration agents because of state policy. 

“Colorado, without question, has been a hub for illegal immigration due to the sanctuary policies of the city of Denver in conjunction with radical legislation (including this session), from the State Capitol afforming Colorado’s sanctuary status,” Weekly told The Denver Gazette after hearing the news in Colorado Springs.

Weekly said his office assisted DEA agents in a “support role” during the massive raid operation.

“This was a criminal investigation for drugs and guns,” he said.

Douglas County filed a lawsuit targeting a Colorado law that restricts the ability of state and local governments from making agreements with federal immigration officials over the detention of immigrants who are unlawfully staying in the country, as well as another statute that blocks local law enforcers from arresting or detaining an immigrant solely on the basis of a federal immigration detainer. Denver district courts dismissed the lawsuit, which the county has appealed.

Fabbricatore, the retired ICE field office Director, warned criminals who are in Colorado.

“Federal law enforcement is cooperating with each other and they will hunt you down,” he said. “They are going to work together safely, put together operations plans and make sure that our communities are kept safe.”

Denver Gazette reporter Nicole Brambila contributed to this report.