According to the indictment, the Native Mob membership is estimated at more than 200, mostly young American Indian men. The gang’s leader is known as the “Ogema,” which is Ojibwe for chief.
A racketeering trial involving three members of a Native American gang began Monday in federal court.
The three men are members of the Native Mob, an organization the FBI describes as one of the largest and most violent American Indian gangs in the country.
Prosecutors say Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, 34, the head or the “chief” of the gang and two so-called soldiers, Anthony Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25, committed various crimes in order to support a well-organized enterprise. Twenty-two other gang members named in the superseding indictment have agreed to plea deals.
Federal prosecutors said gang members shared guns used to assault and kill rivals or informants. They said gang members also used money raised from selling illegal drugs to help fund the gang’s activities.
In opening statements, assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Schleicher accused Cree and Morris of committing a drive-by shooting of Amos LaDuke, who they believed was informing on the gang to police. Schleicher said on March 4, 2010, LaDuke was walking with his five-year-old daughter along a rural Minnesota road when Morris and Cree pulled up in a car. Schleicher said Morris stepped out of the car and fired three shots into LaDuke, who tried to pick up his daughter and run.
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