City working to shut down downtown club following raid

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The city says a recently raided downtown Houston night club is a nuisance and there's a new effort to shut it down.

Saturday night's bust was the end of a five month investigation, but Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen says it is the beginning of an effort to clean up Kryptonite.

"It's my opinion, and it's widely known based on our investigation," says Rosen,"that this club was known to be a place where people could go and buy drugs."

Rosen says his agency, along with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Houston Police Department and others, believe there is a pattern of drug use and even drug related sexual assault happening inside the club. There are more arrests coming, says Rosen. "We found a lot of drugs and we found a lot of drugs packaged in a way that is consistent with selling drugs."

Wendell Campbell, a special agent with the D.E.A., tells Eyewitness News the late night club culture is a magnet for narcotics traffickers and dealers. "We have seen a lot of drug activity within the Houston area in the nightclub scene," he reports. "It's pervasive and it's rampant."

But the attorney for MC Entertainment, the club's owners says they are doing their best to run a clean business and protect the safety of patrons. They have a staff of eight security guards and hire off-duty

officers at the club. And they'd prefer to work with law enforcement rather than work against it. But, attorney Rodney Drinnon adds, they cannot control everyone who comes into their club.

"There are going to be events where people are going to do what they're going to do when they go into a club, or to a football game, or to any type of public arena. And that's the difficulty is that we can't be the

police."

Still, the Harris County Attorney's Office says Kryptonite is a nuisance and it wants the club to clean up or shut down.

"If the business cleans up its act and is acting as a responsible business citizen, says lead Assistant Attorney Fred Keys, "Then we have no further beef with them and there's no need for an injunction."