More than 80 arrested in Mpls after-hours club raid

Minneapolis police officials say an early morning raid of an illegal after-hours club resulted in one of the largest mass arrests in recent history.

Police spokesman Bill Palmer said officers arrested more than 80 people. He said most were given citations and released, but about a dozen people were booked on weapons and narcotics charges.

Palmer said officers suspected weeks ago that there was an illegal club operating out of the unmarked building.

"It took us this long to get enough probable cause to apply for a search warrant, and last night [at] about 3:05 a.m. our SWAT team did make an entry into the after-hours club," he said. "We used our SWAT team because we were aware that some of the people in the club had firearms."

Palmer said when officers arrived at the club in south Minneapolis they found a sound system and a full cash bar. He said clubs like these illegally serve alcohol after bars close and don't have liquor licenses.

"They're not terribly common. They are addressed as kind of a livability issue," Palmer said. "They do cause issues in the neighborhood in which they're held. Obviously, you're going to have traffic late at night going in and out, noise."

Palmer said in this case, a SWAT team conducted the raid because officers had reason to believe some of the people inside the club were armed.