A federal grand jury has indicted 11 alleged members of the Minneapolis Lows gang. Prosecutors say the defendants are responsible for a series of murders and attempted murders over the past three years targeting their rivals. The indictments unsealed Wednesday are the latest in a crackdown on gangs by the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota.

The men are all reputed associates of the Lows gang that generally operates in north Minneapolis south of W. Broadway Avenue. All 11 are charged with racketeering conspiracy. Most also face other charges, including drug conspiracy and murder with a firearm.

U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said the defendants are connected to seven shootings involving 10 victims, five of whom were killed. He said “information we received from gang members and others in the community” indicated the group was particularly violent.

The indictment lists the murders dating back to May 2021, when 20-year-old Albert Jerome Lucas allegedly shot a rival gang member at a gas station on West Broadway. The most recent incident occurred in February, when Lucas and another defendant, Victor Mortar Collins, 22, allegedly opened fire near Chicago and Franklin avenues in south Minneapolis, killing one person and wounding three others.

Both cases were originally filed by the Hennepin County District Attorney’s Office, but federal prosecutors are taking them over. The indictment also includes two shootings from 2022 and three from 2023.

Almost 80 alleged members of other gangs – the Highs, Bloods, 10z and 20z – have been charged since last May. About 40 of the defendants pleaded guilty, and earlier this month a federal jury in St. Paul convicted three Bloods members in connection with the murders of two rivals.

That case was a major victory for prosecutors because it was the first time a jury returned a racketeering conviction against a member of a Minneapolis street gang. Several others pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including Highs member Montez Brown, who received nearly 20 years in prison in April.

Congress passed RICO in 1970 to target East Coast mob families. Luger said it also applies to street gangs because it allows the government to go after criminal organizations by targeting the group as a whole. Although it has a higher burden of proof and more work for prosecutors, it can result in longer sentences compared to individual prosecution of the underlying crimes.

“You have to prove the general existence of a criminal enterprise and then (that) these people were not just members of the enterprise or associated with it, but participated in the achievement of the objectives and purposes of the enterprise, which is here, shooting at rivals, arms trafficking and the sale of fentanyl,” Luger said.

Luger noted that the anti-gang effort required the work of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, ATF, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Minneapolis Police and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s offices.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the impact is visible in an area of ​​the city that has had a high level of gang activity in the past.

“In north Minneapolis, where the Highs and Lows have been terrorizing people for years, the number of shooting victims to date is less than the number of shooting victims in north Minneapolis, (in) the 4th precinct at this time in 2019.” , O’Hara said.

Luger added that community members tell him they notice a difference in their neighborhoods and that when alleged gang members are taken into custody, they sometimes ask if their arrest is part of the RICO effort.