Jury finds 3 'Native Mob' gang members guilty
After a jury deliberated for more than five days, MPR reports three members of a violent American Indian gang were found guilty of operating a criminal enterprise that terrorized people in the Upper Midwest.
Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, 34, the gang’s alleged leader, and two others, Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25, faced several federal charges including conspiracy to participate in racketeering and attempted murder in the aid of racketeering.
The Native Mob started in Minneapolis in the 1990s. According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, the Native Mob is considered to be one of the largest and most violent American Indian gangs in the U.S., the Associated Press reported.
Of more than two dozen suspected mob members charged in a 57-count indictment in January 2012, McArthur, Cree and Morris were the only suspects that did not accept plea deals.
Defense attorneys denied the Native Mob was an organized gang and claimed the defendants may be guilty of individual crimes, but not racketeering.
