MINNEAPOLIS - To investigators, Joe Gustafson Jr. and Sr. are a father and son bound together by blood and a life of crime. For two years now, police and prosecutors had been building a case to try to put the Gustafson’s behind bars. So why did the case suddenly fall apart?
The case against the Gustafson’s included guns, drugs and arson. There was even talk about going after them under the federal rico statute. But the case dissolved last week.
On the north side of Minneapolis, the Gustafson clan is considered a dynasty, known as the Beat Down Posse. It goes back 20 years when Gustafson Sr. was kicked out of the Hells Angels. He opened a bail bond shop a half block away from the Angels’ clubhouse on Washington Avenue.
Last October, federal agents raided Gustafson’s home in north Minneapolis, the one with the steel shutters over the windows, along with his son's home where they allegedly found a pound of marijuana. Police seized more than 30 guns at three locations.
But what really interested investigators were Gustafson’s former properties, a series of empty lots across the north side. Empty lots where there used to be homes. Many of the properties share a few things in common. Gustafson Sr. bought them cheap and sold them high, in many cases what's know as quick sale, or a quit claim deed sale. And more than six of the homes would burn to the ground.
Property records show the Gustafson’s paid $10,000 for the home at 2615 Newton North. They sold it ten years later to a friend for $169,000. But just four months after the sale, it caught fire, twice in one night. Minneapolis police ruled it arson
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/gustafson-case-falls-apart-sept-12-2010
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