Investigating claim federal agents used helicopters in Chicago raid on alleged Tren de Aragua members

On the night of Sept. 29, 2025, a group of agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided a large apartment building in Chicago, arresting 37 people. A statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security claimed some of the arrested were “believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes and immigration violators” and were connected with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

However, one particular detail about the raid made it into many social media posts, which gave some users pause — reportedly, some agents rappelled onto the building from Black Hawk helicopters hovering overhead. Snopes readers wrote in asking for details about the raid, and whether federal agents actually rappelled from helicopters.

The rumor appeared to stem from reporting from NewsNation, which was allowed to film the raid. However, Snopes was unable to locate public footage from NewsNation showing agents rappelling from helicopters. With that said, several witnesses who spoke to local outlets confirmed that helicopters were present during the raid. 

While we were able to confirm many details about the raid, there was no video evidence proving that agents rappelled from helicopters — only written reporting from NewsNation and a building resident who told a local outlet he heard “people dropping on the roof.” 

While likely true, Snopes has not provided a rating on the claim because the secondhand accounts do not meet our standards for evidence. We reached out to all agencies involved in the raid for comment, including asking whether their agents rappelled from helicopters during the raid. None responded, possibly a result of the ongoing government shutdown. Here’s what we know:

Operation Midway Blitz

President Donald Trump was elected on a platform of sweeping immigration enforcement. The primary agency responsible for such actions is ICE, and the first eight months of his second term in office saw the agency’s operations grow dramatically in both size and scope. 

Part of that growth has featured partnership with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and ATF. At some points, it’s even involved the National Guard, as seen in Los Angeles in June and Washington, D.C., in August. Chicago, one of the nation’s largest cities and another stronghold for the opposition Democratic Party, has been another frequent target of immigration raids.

On Sept. 8, 2025, ICE announced “Operation Midway Blitz,” whose stated aim was to “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor [JB] Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.” (Many immigrants have arrived in Chicago in recent years because Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered them bused to the city, not because they chose to go to Chicago.)

According to an ICE news release on Oct. 1, the operation has resulted in more than 800 arrests so far, with the Sept. 29-30 overnight raid as the largest single mission. NewsNation reported that about 300 federal officers were involved. 

7500 S. South Shore Drive

Snopes first attempted to identify exactly where the raid took place. NewsNation’s raw footage of the raid, made public on its YouTube channel, used footage taken from the app Citizen, which sends users safety alerts based on their location. Some of the Citizen footage showed a street sign reading “E 75th Street.”

Numbered streets in Chicago run east-west on the city’s South Side, and 75th Street in particular is shorter than others because of railroad tracks to the west. Using Google StreetView quickly revealed a match for the raid’s location — the building on the southwest corner of 75th and South South Shore Drive, located in the South Shore neighborhood.

From there, we turned to local news outlets. The Chicago Sun-Times and Block Club Chicago both published stories about the raid, and confirmed the address of the building — 7500 S. South Shore Drive.

NewsNation’s account of raid

According to NewsNation, officials said the operation was justified because members of Tren de Aragua were operating from the building and had been “terrorizing residents and carrying out illegal operations” in the area.

Agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters in order to secure the perimeter, according to the reporting. Suspected gang members in the building “refused to open the doors,” so agents forced their way inside. (Neither NewsNation nor any agency involved in the raid provided proof that building residents were associated with Tren de Aragua. Previous reporting detailed one killing in the building possibly linked to the gang, which we cover below.)

Several U.S. citizens were “temporarily detained,” according to NewsNation. Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander-at-large, said the operation went “very smoothly” and that South Side residents of the city could expect a larger presence in the coming weeks. 

Local reporting detailed the aftermath

The Chicago Sun-Times, Block Club Chicago and the city’s ABC affiliate WLS spoke to building residents and neighbors. Their reports told a different story.

Rodrick Johnson, a U.S. citizen who lives in the building, told Block Club Chicago he heard “people dropping on the roof,” during the raid. FBI agents kicked his door down and zip tied him, he said. 

“I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer,” Johnson told the Sun-Times. “They never brought one.”

Charles Szymanski, a neighbor, called the raid “terrifying.” 

“There were masked and unmasked military personnel, carrying heavy artillery. They were showing up in box trucks full of them,” he told Block Club Chicago. “They tore the whole building apart.”

A neighbor, Eboni Watson, told WLS the agents also detained children. “I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other,” she said. “That’s all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where’s the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, ‘f*** them kids.'”

The one possible TdA connection

None of DHS, ICE, the FBI or the ATF provided any evidence that members of Tren de Aragua lived in the building, although Snopes and Block Club Chicago noted one possible connection to the gang.

According to CWB, an outlet that documents crime in the city, a 25-year old Venezuelan migrant named Jose Coronado-Meza killed another Venezuelan migrant, 31-year-old Gregori Arias, in the building in June 2025. CWB reported that Coronado-Meza was suspected of being a member of Tren de Aragua, but Snopes could neither confirm nor refute that claim.

Sources