MINNEAPOLIS â The Republican running an underdog bid to unseat embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, tore into his progressive opponent after her Washington, D.C., home was raided a month before the midterm election.
John Nagel said it should be easy for the Somali-born congresswoman to clear up any public misunderstandings of her immigration status amid a federal investigation into alleged fraud and said that Omar views herself as Somali first, American second.
He also claimed that Minneapolis has a “terrorist problem” and a gun-running operation, and called for a task force to crack down on the Somali gang violence.
“We have two problems in Minnesota. We have a terrorist problem, which you saw with the Mall of America â thank God that the FBI actually took care of that before anybody got in there â and then we have a Somali gang problem,” the career law enforcement officer told Fox News Digital.
Nagel, who spent 30 years as a state trooper, claims the issue extends beyond Somali gangs, noting: “We have Somali gangs, we have Asian gangs, we have Black gangs, we have Latino gangs and we need a gang task force.”
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The FBI at the Mall of America, located in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, on Oct. 7, 2026.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, was arrested and charged with knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe they would be used to commit a felony and federal crime of terrorism. He is an American citizen born to Somali parents, who allegedly pledged allegiance to Somali-based ISIS offshoot al-Shabaab.
Separately, Somali gangs were blamed by local officials for two separate shooting instances in the Minneapolis suburbs in past weeks. One was a mass shooting at Eden Prairie High School during the school’s homecoming celebration. The shooting, which injured two, occurred in the parking lot of the high school after gang members were seen making gang signs at one another. Abdirahman Ahmed Jama, 18 was arrested on a riot charge in that incident.
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Court documents said that Jama was the target of a later Somali gang shooting at a gas station in the town of Bloomington, likely in retaliation for the homecoming shooting, according to FOX 9. More than 100 rounds of ammunition were fired in that incident.
“They don’t necessarily deal in drugs yet. They’re kind of a low-level gang, but they’re still vicious,” Nagel said of the gangs. “Primarily, they deal in guns. They buy and sell guns, illicit guns. They’re also the ones that know how to take and remove some parts and basically turn a pistol into a little mini machine gun. That’s what we saw in Bloomington and Eden Prairie, you know, where all of those rounds were expanded.”
