San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks during a City Council meeting. Credit: Screenshot / San Antonio Government Channel
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is demanding answers about the status and whereabouts of roughly 140 individuals taken into custody last weekend during a federal raid at an after-hours club on the North Side.
In a statement released over the weekend, Jones said her office sent a letter to the recently established Homeland Security and Security Task Force requesting that the San Antonio-based entity provide update on its activities and provide more details about the raid and the detained individuals.
“I look forward to receiving the answers our community rightly deserves,” Jones said in the statement. “Transparency is the foundation of a safe community, and we must ensure that everyone receives due process.”
Answers from federal authorities have been few and far between about the raid, which took place near the intersection of San Pedro Avenue and Basse Road on Nov. 16. Agents from 14 state, local and federal agencies took more than 140 partygoers into custody, according to a government statement.
The Department of Homeland Security alleges 27 of those detained have ties to the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.
Even so, authorities have only publicly identified seven of the detainees with alleged gag ties. Of those, only three have prior criminal convictions, including larceny and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a weapon, according to DHS’s statement. Two others have prior arrests for illegal entry and theft, while the remaining two have no listed arrests or convictions.
Authorities also seized cocaine, three firearms and $35,000 cash during the raid, DHS officials said.
Details, including the whereabouts, names, ages and charges against the remaining people detained during the raid remain unknown as of press time.
U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, both Democrats representing San Antonio in Congress, sent a letter to the Trump administration demanding a full accounting of all those detained.
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