Narcotics and Racketeering

Thirty people have been indicted in Georgia on charges of selling cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine.^[1] Of those people, twenty-seven are also charged with racketeering activities, such as murder, arson, kidnapping, and extortion.^[2] Twenty-seven of the defendants have been arrested so far, and forty-seven weapons were recovered during one of the arrests.^[3]

Possessing narcotics with intent to sell them is a serious federal crime. 21 U.S.C. § 841(a), criminalizes such possession, and a person who violates section 841(a) faces a potential punishment of life in prison.

Racketeering charges should be differentiated from RICO charges. Racketeering is the interference of commerce through threats of violence.^[4] RICO charges,^[5] on the other hand, concern organized crime and systematic racketeering activity infiltration into legitimate organizations. However, because the statutes are written loosely enough to be applied to drug traffickers, it would not surprise us to find out that the individuals in question in this case had been charged under the RICO statutes, rather than solely under the racketeering statutes.

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[1] Thirty Indicted on Drug Gang Charges, Associated Press, Aug. 29, 2005, available here; see also Federal Indictment Uncovers Racketeering and Murder Charges in Polk, Floyd County, Rome News-Tribune, Aug. 29, 2005, available here.
[2] Associated Press, supra.
[3] Id.
[4] See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1951 et seq.; see also Id. § 1961(a) (“racketeering activity” defined).
[5] Id. §§ 1961 et seq.