-from startribune.com-

By Paul Walsh

A drug-trafficking operation that operated for nine years in the Twin Cities area has been busted, federal authorities said today.

The enterprise trafficked in crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, and involved weapons, money laundering and carjacking, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The indictment of 23 people — from Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park, Richfield and Tonka Bay — was unsealed late last week after 19 of the defendants were arrested, the office said.

The indictment alleges that a “safe house” in the 2600 block of Cedar Avenue S. in Minneapolis was used to store, package and distribute illicit drugs.