Alleged Minnesota gang members charged with string of killings in federal crackdown
FILE - Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger speaks at a news conference in Minneapolis, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal grand jury indicted 11 alleged members of a Minneapolis street gang on charges that include murder, conspiracy and drug trafficking, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Some of the alleged gang members have been charged for their role in seven shootings that killed five people, unsealed court records show. Five people have been charged with firearm murder, while all 11 defendants were charged with conspiracy.
The charges are part of a federal gang crackdown authorities announced in 2023 that has ensnared dozens of members or associates of several Minneapolis gangs. With Wednesday’s announcement, over 90 people have been charged with gang-related offenses since the operation started, prosecutors said.
The alleged members of the Lows gang also stand accused of trafficking fentanyl and possessing illegal guns.
“The Lows are an exceptionally violent criminal street gang that has terrorized north Minneapolis for nearly 20 years. Through threats and violence — shootings and murders — the Lows gang has long sought to establish dominion over large swaths of our city,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said. “My office will continue to respond to gang violence by treating it as the organized criminal activity it is. This indictment is an important step in dismantling a violent street gang that has devastated families and communities in north Minneapolis.”
Luger’s office has built its operation targeting gangs around the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. The anti-corruption law is used to target organized crime.
Instead of RICO cases, gang-related crimes in Minnesota were traditionally prosecuted on an individual basis, Luger said. In recent years, his office shifted its approach and began building cases against the criminal organizations to which individual gang members belong, he added.
Earlier this month, three other people charged in connection with the federal gang crackdown were convicted under the RICO statute.