A fatal shooting during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis set in motion a federal investigation that authorities now describe as one of the largest corruption and narcotics cases in the region’s history.

The incident began shortly after midnight in South Minneapolis when federal immigration agents conducting an enforcement action were confronted by a hostile crowd.

According to official statements, a vehicle accelerated toward the officers in what investigators later described as an attempt to strike them.

One agent fired a single shot, killing the driver, a 37-year-old woman.

The episode immediately drew public attention and protests, with some media outlets and community activists questioning whether excessive force had been used.

Vice President J.D.Vance defended the officer in a public statement, saying the agent’s life had been in danger and that the shot was fired in self-defense.

While public debate focused on the legality of the shooting, federal authorities turned their attention to evidence recovered from the woman’s vehicle.

Investigators say a mobile phone found at the scene revealed connections that would lead to the unraveling of a criminal organization that had operated in the Twin Cities for nearly a decade.

According to court filings, the woman was not a bystander or protest participant but a courier for what authorities described as a mobile security unit protecting a trafficking network.

The phone contained contact lists, location data, and encrypted messages that pointed investigators to a large operation centered around a 14-story hotel near an interstate corridor in South Minneapolis.

At approximately 3:12 a.m., federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Drug Enforcement Administration moved into position around the hotel.

Intelligence briefings described the building not as temporary housing, but as a staging center for migrants and narcotics couriers.

Unmarked vehicles sealed the perimeter, exits were secured, and elevators were disabled as armed teams entered the building.

Agents moved floor by floor, forcing occupants to the ground and detaining them for questioning.

Within 45 minutes, 236 undocumented immigrants had been taken into custody.

DHS later announced that more than 2,500 people had been arrested in immigration operations in Minneapolis during the previous five weeks, including nearly 180 Somali nationals.

Interviews with detainees revealed what officials described as a system of debt bondage.

Migrants reported that smugglers confiscated their passports upon arrival and warned that any attempt to escape would result in retaliation against family members in Somalia.

Many were forced to work as couriers and lookouts to repay debts that investigators said were structured to be nearly impossible to clear.

As agents searched the hotel, the operation shifted from immigration enforcement to a major narcotics and weapons case.

Hidden compartments in luggage and ceiling panels yielded envelopes of cash, 127 forged passports, and dozens of prepaid phones.

In maintenance rooms and locked containers, agents recovered 39 firearms, including loaded pistols and assault-style rifles.

Nearby, they discovered large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl packaged for distribution.

By dawn, more than $4 million in cash had been seized.

Federal officials described the hotel not as a shelter but as an armed distribution hub.

Processing of biometric data from detainees produced alerts from criminal databases and watch lists.

Analysts tracing the burner phones found repeated contact with two prominent figures: Khalif Nurelme, a 45-year-old judge born in Somalia, and Hodan Alanur, a 42-year-old immigration attorney.

Publicly, both were known as advocates for immigrant rights and community integration.

Investigators alleged that privately they had provided legal protection to the trafficking network.

According to affidavits, the judge delayed or blocked warrants while the attorney filed motions that stalled investigations and diverted scrutiny.

Prosecutors later alleged that their actions allowed the network to operate largely undetected for years.

By midmorning, surveillance teams observed both individuals arriving separately at Minneapolis–St.

Paul International Airport carrying minimal luggage and using newly issued passports.

They had purchased one-way international tickets.

Federal agents tracked them through security cameras and detained them moments before boarding.

The arrests were completed without resistance.

With the network’s alleged legal shield removed, prosecutors expanded the investigation.

Within 24 hours, federal warrants were executed across six states in what authorities named Operation Iron Fortress.

More than 1,200 agents participated.

In rural northern Minnesota, a fortified compound was breached after armed suspects resisted arrest.

In Milwaukee, agents exchanged gunfire with a suspect firing from an elevated platform inside a converted auto shop.

Two suspects were wounded during the raids.

By the end of the first day, 412 people had been arrested.

By the second day, the total exceeded 640.

Authorities reported seizing tons of cocaine and methamphetamine and tens of millions of dollars in cash.

The DEA later announced that the operation included the largest methamphetamine seizure in U.S.history.

The investigation soon reached into city government.

Court filings alleged that the mayor of Minneapolis, who was born in Somalia and elected on a reform platform, had provided political protection to the network.

Prosecutors said he manipulated zoning laws to designate cartel warehouses as community development sites, shielding them from inspections and lowering taxes.

He allegedly awarded municipal contracts to shell companies tied to the organization, allowing public funds to subsidize drug distribution.

Faced with wiretaps, financial records, and witness statements, the mayor’s attorneys signaled an intent to negotiate a guilty plea.

Prosecutors said evidence showed he had received financial benefits and delayed enforcement actions that might have exposed the network earlier.

Attention then turned to law enforcement itself.

Interrogations of mid-level suspects revealed repeated references to police officers who had accepted bribes, provided advance warning of raids, or escorted vehicles carrying narcotics.

Internal affairs units and federal prosecutors issued subpoenas and searched lockers and offices.

By the end of the week, 12 local officers had been arrested.

Investigators later charged a sitting police chief with accepting payments to divert patrols away from trafficking corridors and suppress complaints.

Emails recovered from department servers showed that citizen reports about suspected drug activity had been reclassified or deleted.

Prosecutors said the department maintained “shadow dockets,” informal files where legitimate complaints were buried to protect the organization.

The scope of the corruption extended to municipal administrators and immigration consultants accused of steering clients into the trafficking system.

In closed briefings, prosecutors described the operation as an “ecosystem” of corruption in which silence was purchased and normalized.

Federal health officials reported that within a month of the raids, overdose admissions at several Minnesota hospitals declined by nearly 40 percent, suggesting that major supply lines had been disrupted.

Police reported fewer street-level seizures not because enforcement had slowed, but because distribution networks had collapsed.

Assets belonging to the judge, the attorney, and the mayor were frozen and seized.

Courtrooms where the judge once presided became venues for conspiracy hearings.

Authorities said the network had operated for nearly ten years, moved hundreds of tons of narcotics, and contributed to a dramatic rise in fentanyl deaths in several neighborhoods.

In a statement summarizing the case, federal prosecutors said the investigation demonstrated how institutions can be compromised gradually through small acts of corruption that accumulate over time.

“This organization did not survive through violence alone,” one official said.

“It survived because people in positions of trust chose silence over duty.”

As sentencing proceedings begin, legal scholars say the case may reshape oversight of immigration enforcement, municipal contracting, and judicial conduct in Minnesota.

Whether the accused officials receive penalties comparable to those imposed on traffickers remains an open question, but prosecutors insist the principle is the same.

“The rule of law depends not on titles or uniforms,” a senior investigator said, “but on vigilance.

”The raids, arrests, and seizures mark the largest coordinated federal action in the region in decades.

For Minneapolis, the case stands as a reminder of how deeply organized crime can penetrate civic life—and how difficult it can be to remove once embedded.