US Attorney’s Office charges 45 alleged gang members as part of crackdown in Minneapolis

By WCCO STAFF, DAVID SCHUMAN

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Authorities on Wednesday afternoon announced 45 alleged members and associates of two “violent street gangs” in Minneapolis have been arrested and indicted as part of a widespread initiative to address crime in the city.

The members of the Highs and the Bloods, who operate in north Minneapolis and south Minneapolis respectively, were arrested in the past 48 hours.

Indictments allege these members participated in a “brutal and unrelenting trail of violence over the course of years.” Twenty shootings and seven murders are outlined in the indictments in incidents that go back seven years, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger.

The incidents include a 2020 shootout and murder at the 200 Club in north Minneapolis and an April 2022 murder outside of William’s Pub in Uptown.

Luger said the crackdown was made possible by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which allows federal authorities to prosecute a large number of gang members at once, after first establishing that the gang is part of a sizable criminal enterprise.

It’s the first time RICO has been used in Minneapolis since the law was established in the 1970s.

“Organized criminal groups require an organized response from law enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr.

Traditionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office has charged violent offenders case by case, shooting by shooting. But Polite and Luger say the new approach allows them to address the root of gang activity in the city. If convicted, the defendants face up to life in prison for racketeering conspiracy involving acts of murder, using a firearm to commit murder, and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

The Highs and the Bloods are two of the three major gangs in the city, Luger said. The Highs started operation in 2008, and the Bloods have existed for decades. The groups have a hierarchy, engage in long-running disputes, and recruit young, often susceptible children. The gangs allegedly participated in murder, assault, drug dealing, and firearms trafficking, according to Luger.

The crackdown is part of an initiative to address violent crime, which the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced last year. The strategy also pushed for all adult violent carjackings to be prosecuted, as well as violent crime.

Since then, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said investigators have been directly embedded into the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a partnership that will continue.

Jamil Jackson, a youth mentor and Minneapolis teacher, reacted to the indictments.

“I hate that we have to go this extreme to where we’re doing almost quasi-mass incarceration to clean up our streets, but at the same time we’re at a place where it’s getting too bad, and we have to have some type of level of safety for community,” Jackson said.

Jackson works with kids in gangs to help them transition out of that lifestyle. He’s converting a downtown church into a youth community center. He envisions it as a refuge from the gang territories of north and south Minneapolis.

“If you’re always in a warzone, if your mind is always in that mind state of survival mode, then how do you ever get the chance to not just visualize your future but start putting the framework together to make the steps necessary to do that?” he said.

Jackson says the arrests will make an immediate impact on safety, but the need for mentors like him is greater than ever.

“There’s gonna be some scare in the community and some guys that are gonna try to clean up their act, but longevity no, it doesn’t stop the crime,” he said. “It doesn’t stop the poverty.”

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