Two dozen suspected members of Native Mob, a Minneapolis-born, American Indian gang, were indicted this week. Matt McKinney and I wrote a story today giving more details about the gang and talking to people familiar with Native Mob about its influence. This isn't the first time that Native Mob has been on authorities' radar. The gang has been around since the 1990s. We've had several crime stories throughout the years that have mentioned Native Mob members. Earlier this month, a Native Mob member admitted to fatally shooting a rival gang member more than 15 years ago in a Minneapolis alley. During his tenure, former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger actively pursued local Indian issues, including the Native Mob. “The Native Mob was an issue of concern for tribal, federal and local law enforcement during the time I was the U.S. attorney,” he said on Friday. Native Mob’s scope didn’t just stop in Minnesota, Heffelfinger said. There were concerns that it also stretched into Wisconsin and North Dakota, he said. In the Phillips neighborhood, which has more than a dozen gangs operating in it last time City Council Member Gary Schiff checked, Native Mob graffiti can be found. "Joining a gang is a sign that these kids have lost hope, that they don’t believe the American dream applies to them," Schiff said, on Friday. Things are getting better though, he said, pointing to improvements at Little Earth and the new East Phillips Park Cultural and Community Center. The six suspected Native Mob members that were arrested Tuesday have all pleaded not guilty. In addition to the six who were arrested and the dozen who were already incarcerated, two others who weren't previously named also turned themselves in this week. They were Matthew Steven Poitra, 21, of Minneapolis, and Jason Francis Poitra, 26, of Minneapolis.
state of Tamaulipas, where troops have seized around 110 armored cars, including more than 20 monsters that evoke scenes from the 1979 film "Mad Max." Most are heavy trucks that were equipped with armor at clandestine workshops, mostly located in Tamaulipas. Some of the vehicles can carry 12 gunmen, the officer said. Soldiers dismantled one workshop in the Tamaulipas town of Camargo in a June 2011 operation, seizing two armored vehicles and nearly three-dozen more - including 23 tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks - that had not yet been plated. One monster seized last year weighed more than 30 tons because it was covered in thick steel plates and further reinforced with railroad tracks. The officer said troops also confiscated a cargo van dubbed the "pope-mobile" that had an elevated cabin similar to the "room" in the Roman Catholic pontiff's vehicle, although the Mexican van was secured with metal plating instead of bullet-proof glass. "The vehicles are built with steel plates at least an inch thick. Small-caliber projectiles, such as bullets from assault rifles, have a hard time penetrating the armor. They can only be destroyed with heavy weapons or anti-tank shells," the officer added. "They don't circulate on roads or in the cities, but instead operate on byways, which are the routes used to take drugs to the border with the United States," the source said. The brutal turf war being waged in Tamaulipas between the Gulf and Los Zetas gangs - former allies turned arch-enemies - has forced both organizations to develop these armored vehicles to run their businesses. The officer noted that the state has vast semi-arid plains with hundreds of small side roads and byways where the traffickers transport their drugs in light vehicles escorted by the monsters. A ranch where suspected Zetas hit men killed 72 undocumented migrants in August 2010 - apparently after they had refused to work for the gang as enforcers or couriers - was located on one of these unpaved side roads in Tamaulipas. "The cartels are fighting to control and protect these routes both for drug- and people-trafficking and in the opposite direction for the smuggling of weapons to Mexico, as well as to bring in a large quantity of merchandise illegally," the source said.
