The RICO is regarded to be an important tool that is used by the American government for fighting organized crime and the different mafia families. RICO is actually a law and not a special police branch or military wing. It stands for Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, US Code, Sections 1961 – 1968, Title 18. It was during the year 1970 that the law was passed with an intention to fight the Mafias. The task is achieved by having the prosecutors to be enabled and permitting the law to take action against the whole organization, rather just few individuals.
What is Racketeering?
Racketeering is regarded to be accumulating money through unlawful means. Racketeering involves almost any type of crime. The person, under RICO, is an enterprise member, having committed any of the two crimes out of 35 with 8 being state crimes and 27 federal crimes, within a period of 10 years could placed under the racketeering case. People who were found to be guilty might be sentenced to prison for up to twenty years and/or fined around $25,000. Besides it, the government confiscates and all the cash which the person earns from racketeering which he needs to forfeit. The Act also has provisions for extended penalties to cover performed criminal acts, for instance, killing uncooperative entrepreneur, bribing union leader, extorting money and the like, which amounted to racketeering. Even if the Mafia members were not involved in any individual crimes, they still could be prosecuted. This way, the Mafia Don’s basic and most common defense tactics got eliminated, since they used to send new recruits and low level soldiers for committing crimes to ensure that they never get prosecuted.
Meaning of racketeering activity under law
- State statute violation against arson, kidnapping, murder, gambling, bribery, robbery, obscene matter, extortion, dealing with listed chemical or controlled substance.
- Act of counterfeiting, bribery, embezzlement, theft, fraud, justice obstruction, dealing with obscene matter, racketeering, slavery, money laundering, gambling, murder-for–hire commissions, as well as numerous other offenses which Title 18 of Federal criminal code covers.
- Union fund embezzlement
- Securities Fraud or Bankruptcy
- Drug Trafficking
- Assisting, aiding or bringing aliens into the country illegally
- Money laundering activities and related offenses
- Terrorism act
Immense damage was caused to the Mafia families with the formation of the RICO Act. With RICO being seen as a threat, the defendant Mafia members assume to plead it guilty towards lesser charges, since their asset seizure would mean difficulty in having the lawyers paid for their services.