DOJ charges 25 alleged members of 2 Minneapolis street gangs in drug trafficking takedown

The U.S. attorney for Minnesota unsealed indictments Tuesday morning against 25 alleged members of drug trafficking gangs.

The two gangs — known as G-block and the Family Mob — operated along two corridors of Minneapolis, U.S. attorney Daniel Rosen said. They face charges ranging from conspiracy to distribute controlled substances to firearms offenses. 

A superseding indictment adds nine members to a set of charges the Department of Justice announced in February against alleged members of the Family Mob, a gang that originated in the 1990s.

Rosen said the Family Mob ran an open air drug market along Lake Street and Park Avenue South, distributing fentanyl, methamphetamine and crack cocaine. The indictments say two of the gang members also killed a rival drug dealer on East Lake Street last year.

G-block, Rosen said, controlled territory near East 19th Street and Nicollet Avenue. G-block members trafficked "large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine throughout south Minneapolis and beyond," Rosen said, leading to a "general escalation of violence.

The two gangs were not operating together, but running in parallel, according to Minneapolis FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson.

"The amount of fentanyl allegedly distributed by the defendants in these literal open air drug markets is enough to have killed thousands," said Dotson. "And the violence allegedly used to control these drug trafficking enterprises was equally horrendous."

Twelve of the alleged members were arrested as of Tuesday. Several others who are already in state custody will be transferred to the federal system, Rosen said. The search for a 50-year-old man accused in the indictment is still underway. 

Dotson added that the charges targeted members who were high up in the chain of command in an effort to cut off the "head of the snake."

"I'm not going to stand here and pretend to tell you that we are solving Minnesota's fentanyl problem but what I can tell you is that if you're trafficking in fentanyl we are going to get you, we are going to find you, and we are going to take you down," Rosen said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI. You can also report tips online.