Federal law enforcement agencies did not warn state officials before they raided a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis earlier this week, Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday.
“They didn’t tell us what was happening,” Walz told a group of States Newsroom editors, according to a recording of the interview shared by Walz’s staff.
The raid was one of eight across the Twin Cities on Tuesday and culminated in confrontations between protestors and law enforcement on E. Lake Street.
“It was chaotic,” Walz said. “Any professional, especially in law enforcement or the military, tells you, you do not want chaos.”
Federal officials said the raids were part of a probe into a “transnational criminal organization” and were focused on human and drug trafficking and money laundering.
The raids were carried out by an alphabet soup of federal agencies, including the DEA, FBI, ATF and ICE. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the operation was the state’s first under the “Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) umbrella — marking a new chapter in how we confront complex, multidimensional threats."
State officials are supportive of federal efforts to combat such crimes, Walz said, but he criticized how it was carried out.
“I don’t see how anybody can think it’s a good situation to see a heavy militarized presence in a residential neighborhood,” Walz said.
