MINNEAPOLIS — Three alleged members of an American Indian gang known for terrorizing people in the Upper Midwest were part of a criminal enterprise in which members dealt drugs, attacked informants and used other violent tactics to maintain the gang and its reputation, federal prosecutors said during closing arguments Tuesday in the men’s trial.

But defense attorneys told jurors in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis that the government’s case was overblown, and that while gang members may have committed individual crimes, there was no evidence to support racketeering charges that allege the trio was part of a large, organized criminal group.

Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, the alleged leader of the Native Mob, “is as much a leader of that group as anyone trying to herd a bunch of cats,” said his defense attorney, Frederick Goetz. “You are dealing with feral, wild kids, frequently high on drugs and alcohol.”

McArthur, 34, and two of the gang’s alleged “soldiers,” Anthony Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25, are being tried on several charges, including conspiracy to participate in racketeering and attempted murder in the aid of racketeering. The attempted murder charge stems from the shooting of another man, which prosecutors say McArthur ordered but defense attorneys dispute.

The three men are the only defendants who didn’t accept plea deals after 25 people were originally charged in a 57-count indictment. Prosecutors have said the case is important not only because of its size, but because the racketeering charge is a tool rarely used against gangs, indicating the case is an attempt to take down the entire enterprise. Authorities have called it one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country.