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Federal prosecutors on Tuesday released more details about a drug trafficking investigation that led to the search of a Minneapolis restaurant last week. The large law enforcement presence on Lake Street — which included ICE agents — drew protesters who believed that it was an immigration raid. One of those protesters is charged with assaulting an FBI agent. 

The search warrants remain sealed, but the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office says in a criminal complaint against the protester that the investigation began with a much earlier search of a storage unit in Burnsville, where investigators found more than 900 pounds of crystal meth worth $22 million to $25 million hidden inside spools of metal.

Prosecutors aren’t releasing details that could compromise the case. But in late May, a judge authorized federal agents to search eight locations related to an investigation of drug and human trafficking, and money laundering over several years involving a group with “ties to one or more transnational criminal organizations.”  

The locations searched on June 3 included businesses and homes in Burnsville, Bloomington, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Northfield and Minneapolis. 

At a home in Northfield, agents seized gold-plated pistols along with documents and electronic devices. At a Burnsville business, the investigators took multiple Al Pacino portraits from the movie Scarface, “homage” items that prosecutors say are popular with people involved in real-life organized crime. 

Investigators deemed several of the search locations high risk. They started the searches at 6 a.m. at the residences; agents typically raid homes early in the morning when the residents are more likely to be there. Later, they moved on to the businesses and arrived at Taqueria y Birrieria las Cuatro Milpas at Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue just after 10 a.m. 

Because ICE agents were there, many in the largely Latino and immigrant community thought it was an immigration raid, and dozens of people showed up to protest. The law enforcement tactics appeared similar to recent ICE raids elsewhere in the country in part because it involved armored vehicles and some of the agents wore face masks.

In court documents, federal prosecutors say that law enforcement at the scene tried to explain to the crowd that the search was not related to immigration and that agents had to leave the scene before completing the search because of the hostile crowd. 

While federal agents did not arrest anyone in the drug trafficking investigation, several protesters were taken into custody.

The Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office last week charged Maxwell Louis Collyard, 33, with gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor counts of obstructing and fleeing police. Hennepin County prosecutors are considering possible felony charges against another man. But Isabel Lopez of St. Paul is facing the most serious charges — federal counts of assaulting law enforcement.

In a criminal complaint, prosecutors allege that Lopez, 27, was recorded on video trying to punch an FBI SWAT officer as others in the crowd tried to stop her. Lopez then allegedly kicked the agent before breaking free of the crowd and pushing another FBI agent. 

Six minutes later, Lopez allegedly kicked officers who were trying to get her down from a trash can. As law enforcement was leaving the scene, prosecutors say Lopez lobbed a softball at them, retrieved it, and threw it again and hit a sheriff’s deputy in the back. 

In a news release, prosecutors added that Lopez “punched an FBI agent in the head” as agents arrested her. 

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Lopez on three counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding officers and obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder. 

Those are the same charges that federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. brought against many January 6 rioters. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued blanket pardons to people who tried to violently overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Lopez was booked into the Sherburne County Jail on Monday and is expected to remain there ahead of a detention hearing on Thursday. 

Matt Sepic

Author

Federal prosecutors Tuesday released more information about the drug trafficking investigation that led to the raid.

MPR News correspondent Matt Sepic shares news details on the Lake Street raid

A woman in a blue jacket is seen in a video still in front of a crowd.

Details emerge on Lake Street raid as feds charge protester with assaulting FBI agent

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