Police: Bluffton night club raid leads to 9 arrests, discovery of guns and drugs
This story was updated on Sept. 22, 2015, to correct charges against Thomas Bush.
Nine people were charged Saturday after investigators searched a Bluffton nightclub operating without a business license and found guns and drugs.
The Bluffton Police Department, assisted by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, served a warrant on Burroughs Bar and Grill Night Club at 39 Persimmon St. after a fight at the club two days earlier led them to question the business's practices.
Investigators learned the club was charging admission and serving alcoholic beverages without a business license or an alcohol permit, according to a police department release.
As the search warrant was being executed, police confronted more than 60 patrons and employees in the club, the release said, and two people had firearms, as did the club's owner Keith Fernandez, 30.
A fourth firearm was found inside the business and appeared to have been left there by a patron, the release said.
About .16 grams of suspected heroin were found on one person, the release said.
Other items seized include $260 in cash from cover charges, 59 rounds of ammunition and 610 bottles of illegal alcoholic beverages.
Fernandez was charged with operating without a business license, unlawful manufacture, possessing and storing of alcoholic beverages, illegally storing liquor in a place of business, operating without a permit and unlawfully carrying a firearm on a liquor premises.
Employees Michael Horowitz, 45, Carlos Jimenez, 25, and Valerie Mora-Perez, 23, each were charged with operating a business without a permit.
Customer Leonard Brown Sr., 51, was charged with interfering with law enforcement.
Customer Leonard Brown Jr., 27, was charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm on a liquor premises and felony possession of a firearm.
Customer Terrence Brown Jr. was charged with interfering with law enforcement.
Thomas Bush, 29, another customer, was charged with simple possession of marijuana an unlawful carry of a firearm on a liquor premises.
All but Terrence Brown Jr. are being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing.
The final person was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
The nightclub was previously closed Jan. 2. It was then known as the Encore Lounge and owned by different management.
The Encore Lounge was closed after police investigated several assaults, reports of shots fired at the club and surrounding businesses, and numerous drug violations. Those reports led to the nuisance violation that shut the club down, Lt. Joseph Babkiewicz of the police department said Monday.
Anyone with information about the current club is asked to contact Babkiewicz at 843-706-4563.
Follow Caitlin Turner on Twitter at twitter.com/Cait_E_Turner.
This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Police: Bluffton night club raid leads to 9 arrests, discovery of guns and drugs."