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ICE, FBI raid Aspen home

Charles Agar
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado

ASPEN ” Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested eight people on immigration charges during a raid Thursday morning at a home on Spruce Street in Aspen.

At 7:30 a.m., agents approached the corner home at 560 Spruce St., near Centennial, according to Aspen police.

The raid was part of an ongoing joint FBI/ICE investigation into the creation of fraudulent documents at the residence, according to an ICE spokesman.



Aspen Police Sgt. Rob Fabrocini rode along as “agency assist” on the raid. Fabrocini said the incident was a simple “knock-and-talk” and residents at the Spruce Street address allowed agents to search the home.

Agents made eight arrests on immigration charges, but information officers with both the FBI and ICE were tight-lipped about the ongoing, joint investigation. FBI officials would not divulge where the eight people were taken after the raid, citing safety concerns for the arrestees.




John Gates, who witnessed the raid from his home in nearby Centennial, said he’d seen his neighbors, mostly Latino men, from time to time. The driveway was usually full of vehicles, Gates said, but that the men mostly were quiet.

The Spruce Street house belongs to Delise Donald Lee of Woody Creek, according to records with the Pitkin County Assessor’s Office.

“I was surprised,” Gates said of witnessing the early-morning raid that he said was done quietly and methodically. A handful of agents searched the area around the home, including a dumpster out front, and an ICE van was on the scene.

The raid was over at about 9:45 a.m., Gates said.

Thursday’s search netted some drug paraphernalia, including empty cocaine bindles and a water pipe, which Fabrocini said will be destroyed without any related charges.

Agents also found a wallet belonging to Aaron James Calco, which Fabrocini said was stolen five years ago. (Fabrocini asked residents to report any information on Calco’s whereabouts to Aspen police.)

More details about the ongoing federal investigation are pending.

cagar@aspentimes.com