How A $200,000 Lego Fight Turned Into Arrests

A $145 million warehouse near the Salt Lake City airport was supposed to become an ICE “megacenter” holding thousands of people and now the story is shifting fast. We walk through the new joint lawsuit from Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County against DHS and ICE, why leaders say the process was “cloaked in secrecy,” and the detail that has everyone watching the property again: after a reported pause for review, semi-trailers start showing up in the back lot and they keep multiplying. If the plan is changing, is it truly a scale-back, or was that the strategy from day one?

Then we jump into one of the strangest Utah-adjacent stories to go national: the Bricks and Minifigs saga. A family says a massive Star Wars Lego collection worth around $200,000 disappears after a franchise ownership change. A YouTuber known as Reckless Ben publishes a viral investigation, a GoFundMe surges, confrontations happen in American Fork, and arrests and lawsuits follow. We break down what’s known, what’s alleged, and why “internet justice” can collide hard with real courts and real consequences.

We end with the best kind of local news: Centro Civico Mexicano, founded in 1935, is planning a $27 million community and cultural center with a theater, childcare, an art gallery, classrooms, and more, right as the surrounding neighborhood transforms. Plus: the Salt Palace closure timeline, new Utah Supreme Court nominees, the Pentagon’s religious affiliation list controversy, and a reminder that the Utah Arts Festival is coming up and we’re giving away tickets. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review if you want more smart, grounded Salt Lake City reporting every week.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is up, everybody, and welcome back to the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Nilsson. Now let's get into this because we have a lot going on in this week's weekly update. The Ice Detention Center story got a significant update, and it's one of those stories where the more you dig into it, the more interesting it gets. We've got a really meaningful development story about one of the oldest Latino organizations in Utah and what they're building next. We've got the Bricks and Minifig saga, which, if you haven't heard, it's absolutely wild and involves Utah in a pretty direct way. And some of the smaller stories, the Salt Palace is going dark, the Utah Supreme Court is getting a new look, and the Pentagon accidentally started a theological debate in Salt Lake City of all places. Let's get into it. But before we do, if you missed last week's episode, go back and listen to my conversation with Thane Rich. Thane grew up right here in Salt Lake, skiing Alta as a kid, built a full professional skiing career that took him all over the world, and eventually came back to design his own signature ski with forefront the Inn Thane. It's a genuine hometown hero story, a great conversation about what it looks like to build a life around something you love. So go check it out. All right, let's lead with the big one. And there's a new wrinkle this week that changes the feel of the story. Quick recap: Back in March, the federal government spent $145 million to buy an 833,000 square foot warehouse at 6020 West, 300 South on Salt Lake City's west side near the airport. The plan was to convert it into one of eight national, quote, megacenters, unquote,

Weekly Update Preview

SPEAKER_00 1:31

for ICE, with capacity for 7,500 to 10,000 people. For context, that's more than twice the size of the Utah State Correctional Facility. This week, Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County filed a joint lawsuit against DHS and ICE to stop it, calling the whole process, quote, cloaked in secrecy, unquote. They say the Fed skipped the environmental review, ignored local infrastructure concerns, and on a utility application asking for anticipated water and sewer needs, ICE literally wrote TBD. A second lawsuit from a local advocacy group called Uproar Utah is also on the way. But here's the part that's getting attention this week, and it's what gives this story a different flavor. Earlier this spring, the new

Last Week’s Skiing Career Story

SPEAKER_00 2:14

DHS secretary paused the warehouse program for review, and the facility went largely quiet. People protesting outside the warehouse every week noticed that the property seemed dormant. Then in late May, semi-trailers started appearing in the rear parking lot, and they kept multiplying. Protesters noticed, reporters noticed, everyone started asking, is this supposed to be paused? Now here's the skeptical read. The original plan was

ICE Warehouse Lawsuit And New Signs

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for a 10,000-person mega center. The number being floated around is significantly smaller, closer to a regional processing facility than a full hub. And some observers are asking whether this, quote, pause and scale back move was the strategy all along. Announce something enormous to create maximum pressure and leverage, and then walk it back to something that slips through with less resistance. Governor Cox supports the facility. Mayor Mendenhall and County Mayor Jenny Wilson are fighting it hard. The feds have 20 days to respond to the lawsuit, and those semi-trailers are still parked out back. Keep watching this one because it's definitely not over. Okay, this next one is genuinely one of the weirder stories to come out of Utah this year, and it went fully national. So here's the backstory. A family in Salem, Oregon, Brian Mansell and his 83-year-old grandfather consigned a massive Star Wars Lego collection to a Bricks and Mini Figs franchise location back in 2023. We're talking 780 unopened sets, 1,200 rare figures, including a Cloud City set worth way over $10,000. The whole collection, it's estimated at $200,000. Now, the franchise ownership changed. The new owners said the collection wasn't there when they took over. The Mansell family said it was stolen. The corporate office, which is based here in Utah, run by CEO Ammon McNeth, said they weren't a party to the original consignment deal and denied any wrongdoing. Enter Reckless Ben, a Los Angeles-based YouTuber named Benjamin Schneider, who takes up consumer justice cases. He made a 90-minute investigation video that crossed 2 million views on YouTube. He launched a GoFundMe for the family that's raised over $128,000. And then, and this is where Utah enters the picture, he traveled to American Fork to personally confront people connected to the new franchise owners. American Fork police arrested him twice. Charges included stalking, targeted residential picketing, criminal trespassing, and disorderly conduct. He was booked in the Utah County jail. The arrest video got 1.3 million views. People online accused American Fork Police Department of being in the pocket of the new franchise

Bricks And Minifigs Lego Dispute Explodes

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owners. With some floating a quote, Mormon mafia unquote conspiracy angle because several of the parties involved are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The police chief released a 26-minute public statement defending the arrests. Then the company sued Reckless Ben and the Mansell family for what they called a viral extortion campaign. Then the CEO publicly apologized to the Mansell family on a podcast and offered mediation. Then Reckless Ben reportedly fled to Mexico after a new warrant was issued. This all happened in the last two weeks. It's still active, civil and criminal litigation going across Utah and Oregon, and it started as a local Lego dispute. Peak Internet, Peak Utah. This one is a good news story and it deserves some attention. Centro Civico Mexicano, founded in 1935 by Mexican immigrants who moved to Salt Lake City to work and raise families, is one of the oldest nonprofits in Utah and the cornerstone of the city's Latino community for over 90 years. The current building at 155 South 600 West in the Depot District is a two-story cinder block structure from 1980. It served its community well, but the vision is much bigger. This week the Tribune highlighted plans for a major new development to replace the aging building. Centro Civico Mexicano and Centro de la Familia, another long-standing Hispanic organization, have come together on a $27 million community and cultural center. The new 35,000 square foot building will include a gymnasium, a multipurpose theater, childcare facilities, an art gallery, an incubator kitchen, classrooms, and office space for both organizations. It's located right next to Casa Milagros, the 61-unit affordable senior housing complex that CCM already built on an adjacent property. The neighborhood context matters here too. This stretch of 600 West is surrounded by new residential development on all sides. The old building is coming down to make way for something that can actually serve the community at scale. This is the kind of institution building that doesn't make headlines as often as it should. Centro Civico Mexicano has been here for 90 years, and they're not going anywhere. They're growing. If you want to support them or learn more, it's Centro Civico Mexicano.org.

Centro Civico Mexicano’s $27M Community Center

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Alright, now let's touch on a few other smaller stories going around Salt Lake and Utah. First, the Salt Palace Convention Center is closing. Not yet, but fall of 2027 is when the full closure kicks in. But it'll stay dark for three full years as part of the massive downtown sports, entertainment, culture, and convention district redevelopment tied to Ryan Smith's entertainment group and the Delta Center expansion. The revamp Salt Palace is expected to reopen by 2031. In the meantime, major conventions are going to need new temporary homes. And FanEx, the popular pop culture convention that draws tens of thousands downtown every fall, is already planning its exit strategy. This year's FanEx in September is being billed as, quote, the last big send-off. So if you're a fan, make sure to go. Second, Governor Cox nominated two new justices to the Utah Supreme Court this week: Jay Jorgensen, a senior attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Stephen Dent, a federal prosecutor from St. George. The court was recently expanded from five to seven justices by the legislature. After these two are confirmed, Cox will have appointed six of the court's seven justices. Critics, including the advocacy group Coequal Utah, say neither nominee has ever served as a judge at any level. Cox says he picked the best legal minds available. Third, and this one is Peak Utah. The Pentagon released a new streamlined list of religious affiliation categories for military service members, cutting from over 200 down to 31. The list categorized basically every faith group that professes

Salt Palace Shutdown And Supreme Court Picks

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belief in Jesus Christ as quote Christian, with one exception, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis went public immediately. Lee posted on X, Can anyone tell me why the Church was left out? Curtis called it unacceptable. By the end of the week, the Pentagon revised the list. It's a small story on a national scale, but in a state where the church is headquartered and half the population are members, it landed differently here. Make sure to mark your calendars, the Utah Arts Festival is next week, June 18th through the 21st at Library Square downtown. Now this is the 50th anniversary, and headliners include Jizza, Shaky Graves, and YOLA. There's incredible art and music, and it's one of the best weekends of the summer, so make sure you do not sleep on it. And just to make sure you have an opportunity to go, we're giving away 10 pairs of tickets. And all you have to do is join the Small Lake City Discord and liked the pin message in the general channel. And that's it. The link is in the show notes below, so go do that right now. And next week on the podcast, I'm sitting down with Maxwell Knutson and Jordy Kirkman, the founders of Thieves Guild Cidery, right here in Salt Lake. If you haven't been, it's one of the most unique spots in the city. Think dim lighting, old world tavern vibes, velvet booths, board games on every table, themed drinks, and genuinely great cider. It's a whole vibe. We're going to talk about how you build something that original in Salt Lake and what it actually takes to make it work. So that's the past week in Salt Lake. There's a lot going on in the city, and it's only June. So make sure to follow the show on Instagram and TikTok at Small Lake Pod. Please leave a review if you've been meaning to, and go check out the Utah Arts Festival next weekend. And I will see you next week with Thieves Guild Sideryowners and have a great weekend.