Guns, alcohol, hookahs: Police describe chaotic scene at illegal nightclub in Boston basement

BOSTON — When police officers responded to a Mattapan house for a loud party early Monday morning, they found a scene that has been infuriating neighbors for months.

It wasn’t just your ordinary house party.

Officers found what appeared to be an illegal night club being run out of the basement of a multi-family house, complete with a fully-stocked bar, multiple hookahs, and illegal guns.

Neighbors told police the loud basement “parties” at the house have been an ongoing issue since June, with “multiple” disturbance calls made to 24 Rexford Road since July 13, police said in Monday’s incident report.

Officers described a chaotic scene, with partygoers threatening police and throwing alcoholic drinks at responding officers.

Illegal basement nightclub inside Boston home busted by police

The commanding sergeant “instructed all on scene Officers to release all detained revelers to preserve Officer safety,” Officer Kevin Ashe wrote in his report.

Police seized three guns and arrested two men for disorderly conduct and trespassing, among other charges.

“Every weekend is a big party and the aftermath is like trash, bottles, the loudness,” one neighbor who asked not to be identified told Boston 25 on Monday. “Forty years on this street and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

When officers arrived around 4:35 a.m. Monday, they made their way to the back of the house. They saw the bulkhead door to the basement padlocked from the outside, preventing people inside the basement from getting out.

Officers then knocked on a side door. No response.

Smoke alarms from the house were blaring, with no response from the building’s residents, Ashe wrote.

Officers used a battering ram to breach the side door, which also had been padlocked from the inside.

Inside, they found more than 50 “revelers,” with hookahs set up throughout the basement, open bottles of alcohol, and multiple air conditioners running “with no ventilation leading outside,” Ashe wrote. Smoke billowed from the hookahs, vapes, and marijuana.

A fully-stocked bar sat on a far side of the basement, with unopened bottles of liquor, coolers containing beer, and a note pad listing partygoer tabs.

“None of the partygoers wanted to identify themselves,” Ashe wrote, as police tried to find the homeowner or party organizer.

Officers then smelled gas, and noticed “open flames in the form of lit candles were also in the basement.”

A Boston Fire Department ladder truck responded and crews removed both the exterior side door and basement door to evacuate people.

Police began evacuating the basement, and started to frisk people as they exited the building, because of recent gunshot calls and gun violence in the area, Ashe wrote.

To avoid getting frisked, some people tried to leave through the bulkhead basement door, which was padlocked from the outside.

“This resulted in those partygoers kicking and slamming against the bulkhead door in an attempt to circumvent being pat frisked by Officers waiting outside,” the police report states.

Officers arrested Jorge Jimenez-Vargas, 35, who allegedly had a large vape in his waistband and three debit cards, with none of the cards carrying his name. Police said he grabbed an officer’s arm while being pat frisked and tried to break away. He was charged with receiving stolen credit cards, three counts; resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and trespassing. He later refused to be booked at the jail.

Another man, Fitgerald Custodio-Pimentel, 31, jumped the fence off of the porch and began running to the street, where an officer intercepted him and tackled him to the ground, as police faced a “large number of agitated and aggressive revelers.”

Police said another officer responded and commanded Custodio-Pimentel to put his hands behind his back, but he ignored the officer, and kept resisting arrest. Officers arrested Pimentel and charged him with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, interfering with a police officer and trespassing.

Once police cleared the basement, they found three loaded firearms, including:

• A Ruger LC9 discovered on basement stairs with four rounds of ammunition in the magazine, with the serial number scratched off;
• A Polymer 80, also with no serial number, floating in a bucket of water near the bulkhead door with one round of ammunition in the chamber and 12 rounds of ammunition in the high-capacity magazine; and
• A Sig Sauer P238 discovered on stairs between the first and second floors, with five rounds in the magazine.

Police detained partygoers in the back yard for a brief time until they were released, due to concerns for the safety of responding officers, Ashe wrote.

Responding firefighters and the city’s Inspectional Services Department conducted a walk-through of the basement.

Boston Inspectional Services has issued a violation to the property owners for not having a permit to run a nightclub out of the basement, city officials said. The owners will need to clear this up within 30 days.

The property owners told Boston 25 earlier this week that they’re trying to evict the tenant who is running the illegal basement nightclub, and pledged they will correct the violation as soon as possible.

“Mattapan is home to a lot of families where they own their homes, we want to make sure they’re taken care of, that the quality of life is not interrupted,” said City Councilor Enrique Pepen, who represents the district.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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