Hennepin County charges two with racketeering

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says he has charged two Minneapolis men with racketeering after years of investigation by state and federal authorities.

Joseph Duane Gustafson, Jr., 36, and Troy Michael Neuberger, 38, are charged with 14 felonies, including kidnapping, assault, drug trafficking, and running a mortgage fraud ring.

Freeman said they have been "terrorizing" north Minneapolis and other areas for years.

"We finally said enough is enough. It's time to charge on the Mr. Bigs, and we have. This has been a lot of folks working a long time," Freeman said. "There are hard to do and it's not going to be easy to prove. But we don't charge them unless we think we have the goods."

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said Gustafson and Neuberger operated in North Minneapolis.

"Going after this group has been something that we've been striving to do for a long long time. They're very very good at avoiding being prosecuted," he said. "They're very slippery in a lot of ways, They're involved with organized crime in a number of other ways.

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