Gang activity by Muslim Somalis that have resettled in Minnesota is increasing, The Associated Press reports. Shukri Adnan, a former Somali activity, estimated in 2007 that the number of Somali gang members had reached between four and five hundred.

"Despite anger and despair over the killings in Minnesota's Somali community - the nation's largest - police and prosecutors have struggled to catch and try the killers.Few witnesses have stepped forward because of a fear of reprisal and deep-rooted distrust of authority," the news report stated.

One Somali youth counselor was murdered by gang members in September 2008, becoming the seventh casualty in ten months. Charges against the sixteen-year old gang member who is thought to have killed him were dropped because one witness fled Minnesota and another decided not to testify.

Concern about signs of extremism in the Somali-American community in Minnesota elevates the risk the gangs pose.

CNN.com reported on July 2 that two Somali men in Minneapolis had been indicted on charges of recruiting Somalis to go back to their native land to fight alongside the al-Shabaab terrorist group currently trying to seize control of the East African country.

Al-Shabaab has been tied to Al-Qaeda by the U.S. government, and the FBI is still investigating the disappearance of between 12 and 20 Somalis in Minneapolis.