MINNEAPOLIS — A federal grand jury indicted 11 alleged members of a Minneapolis street gang on charges including murder, conspiracy and drug trafficking, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Some of the alleged gang members have been charged for their role in seven shootings that killed five people, unsealed court records show. Five people have been charged with murder with a firearm, while the 11 defendants were charged with conspiracy.

The charges are part of a federal crackdown on gangs Authorities announced in 2023 that they have caught dozens of members or associates of several Minneapolis gangs. With Wednesday’s announcement, more than 90 people have been charged with gang-related crimes since the operation began, prosecutors said.

The alleged Lows gang members are also accused of trafficking fentanyl and possessing illegal weapons.

“The Lows are an exceptionally violent criminal street gang that has terrorized north Minneapolis for nearly 20 years. “Through threats and violence (shootings and murders), the Lows gang has long sought to establish dominance over large swaths of our city,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. “My office will continue to respond to gang violence by treating it as the organized criminal activity that it is. “This indictment is an important step in dismantling a violent street gang that has devastated families and communities in north Minneapolis.”

Luger’s office has built its gang-targeting operation around the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. The anti-corruption law is used to combat organized crime.

Instead of RICO cases, gang-related crimes in Minnesota were traditionally prosecuted on an individual basis, Luger said. In recent years, his office changed its focus and began preparing cases against the criminal organizations to which individual gang members belong, he added.

Earlier this month, three more people charged in connection with the federal gang crackdown were convicted under the RICO statute.