MINNEAPOLIS — Now two years into his second tenure as U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, Andy Luger says his work addressing violent crime isn't over despite an improvement in crime statistics over the last year.
"I think a crime stat tells part of the story. I think the question is, can we stand up a year from now, two years from now, six months from now and say it's not just violent crime is going down in certain areas, but also the quality of the violence is going down. So that fewer people are using automatic machine guns on the streets. Fewer people are dying of fentanyl poisoning. Those kinds of measures, so it's quality as well as quantity," Luger said.
In May 2022, Luger announced a violent crime initiative with state, city and other federal partners. His office started prosecuting all adult carjacking cases and zeroed in on illegal gun cases.
And part of the reason the initiative will continue for the foreseeable future, they are attempting to take down Minneapolis street gangs.
"The gangs took a couple years to gear up and get strengthened. We're taking them apart piece by piece. That's going to take a while. If this was a football game, we're in the first quarter," Luger said.
Luger's office has handled several high-profile cases over the last two years, including charging the largest pandemic fraud in the country — known as the Feeding our Future case. The first trial is scheduled to start next month.
Luger is proud of the successful prosecution of sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro. And he wants to raise awareness of the disturbing trend of online predators extorting young teens of sexually explicit photos known as sextortion.
"It is horrific," Luger said. "I would have every parent in the state of Minnesota talking to their kids about this. Everybody."
Just last week, Luger's office charged Ashley Dyrdahl, the girlfriend of the Burnsville first responder murderer Shannon Gooden, with making straw purchases to provide the guns he used.
It is a high-profile example of a crime Luger wants to address more.
"I would like to do more of those cases. I think they're important and I know my partners in law enforcement do as well," Luger said.
Looking into the future, Luger says Department of Justice partners from Washington will be helping his officer with a top-to-bottom review of the their gang strategy and they'll be sharing more information on that.
Luger hopes to have more time to continue other initiatives.
"I love this job. This is all I ever wanted to do," Luger said.
The U.S. Attorney is a position appointed by the President of the United States. So the 2024 election could play a role in how long Luger stays at his post. When Donald Trump took office in 2017, he relieved Luger of his duties.
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