COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Early Sunday morning, several law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale raid at what they’re calling an ‘underground illegal nightclub’ in Southeastern Colorado Springs.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, there were more than 200 people inside the club, and at least half of them were detained or arrested.

Marvin Melgar said he was one of many at the club, and he told 11 News he was confused as to what was happening in the moment.

“It was like from one moment to another,” Melgar said, “we were just having fun like normal, and then cops just started showing up out of everywhere. They cuffed everybody, and they were very rough with it too. DEA, FBI, all of them were out here last night.”

According to the DEA, an investigation had been going on for several months into suspected drug trafficking, prostitution and other violent crimes in the building.

Mike Moon’s family owns the property, and according to him, the building was originally rented out as an event space. But he discovered Sunday the tenant was reportedly subleasing the building to another party.

“Even that was technically a violation of the lease, and we stated that to her,” Moon said.

Moon said he found out about the raid Sunday morning when one of his employees tried to access the property, but was unable to due to police presence.

“We just didn’t know what was happening,” Moon said, ”the plan is to never have this space open up as an event center again.”

During the raid, the DEA said they seized multiple weapons, as well as what they said looked like pink cocaine.

“It was actually kinda scary to be honest,” Melgar said, “lot of agents, FBI, DEA mostly, supposedly there were some narcotics inside the club.”

According to the DEA, they also took more than 100 people into ICE custody, as they were reportedly in the country illegally.

“They asked for everybody’s IDs and people who didn’t have United States IDs,” Melgar said, “they separated them into a different group and then they ran a background check on them.”

The DEA also told 11 News there may be more arrests in connection to this raid in the next few days. 11 News will continue to provide updates when we have more information.

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