Man sentenced to 9 years in prison for RICO charge stemming from gang crackdown
One of the dozens of people arrested after a widespread initiative to address crime in Minneapolis and charged with racketeer influenced corrupt organization conspiracy has been sentenced.
On Wednesday afternoon, Carlos Serrano was ordered to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to RICO.
Serrano becomes the 16th person to be convicted and sentenced following the crackdown on violence involving street gangs known as the Highs and the Bloods.
A total of 45 people were charged in 2023 during the crackdown, which was the first time RICO had been used in the city since the law's establishment in the 1970s.
Indictments allege that the dozens of members charged 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 then-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.