31 charged with drug smuggling after SC nightclub investigations

COLUMBIA — A series of Lowcountry nightclub raids led to drug trafficking charges for 31 people believed to be associated with Mexican drug cartels, state law enforcement officials said Monday.

A state grand jury indictment announced Monday was part of a widespread investigation into unlicensed nightclubs where officials have found evidence of illegal activity, including trafficking narcotics, prostitution and gang violence, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Three of those charged with drug smuggling also face gun charges, and one faces charges of prostitution and operating a brothel, according to the attorney general’s office. Investigators found large amounts of narcotics, such as cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, as well as 33 guns, including machine guns.

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“Families across South Carolina fell victim to these vast, illicit networks that put many South Carolina communities at risk,” Mark Keel, chief of the State Law Enforcement Division, said during a Monday news conference.

The widespread investigation began last year with a raid on a Summerville nightclub called Alamo, said Attorney General Alan Wilson. Officers arrested 80 people and seized guns, cocaine and cash, Charleston County Sheriff Carl Ritchie said at the time.

Five of those arrested faced criminal charges. The remaining 75 were taken into custody on civil immigration charges, officials said.

Community members pushed back soon after the raid, saying many of the people arrested for immigration charges had no idea what criminal enterprises were taking place at the club and that many people didn’t know where their family members ended up. Law enforcement officials on Monday gave no update on their status.

But Wilson said the investigation, dubbed Operation Last Stand, continued after that raid. Law enforcement wanted to know where the drugs came from, he said.

“We began looking into who was behind nightclubs like the Alamo, so we began to conduct other raids,” Wilson said.

That led to a raid in February on another unlicensed nightclub called La Fogata, this time in North Charleston. There, law enforcement arrested 86 people, including 79 on civil immigration charges, according to the attorney general’s office.

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Officers also seized cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and marijuana, according to the attorney general’s office. Continued investigation into the source of the drugs led law enforcement to conclude that “international narco-terrorist cartels and gangs were involved in large-scale trafficking of narcotics, predominantly in the Charleston area,” Wilson said.

“This trafficking pipeline was historically responsible for hundreds of kilos of cocaine coming into our state across the southern border from Mexico,” Wilson said.

Among those cartels were Los Zestas, also known as Cartel de Noreste, and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, both of which are considered terrorist organizations under a 2025 executive order.

Affiliates of the cartels then smuggled the drugs through Texas, Florida and Georgia, officials said. Federal Homeland Security Investigations officers and South Carolina law enforcement, including statewide investigators and local sheriffs, worked with those other states to track the illicit substances, Wilson said.

“No single agency can face this alone,” Ritchie said Monday. “But we share information, coordinate operations and train side by side. We close gaps the dangerous criminals try to exploit and deliver a significant blow to these criminal organizations and cartels.”

All 31 people charged are in jail and awaiting initial hearings in front of a judge. The investigation is ongoing and could lead to more charges, Wilson said.