The
continuing criminal enterprise statute, Title 21 United States Code (U.S.C.) subsection 848, is the most important federal criminal statute in the United States directed at illegal drug traffickers and their
organizations. The statute was enacted in 1970 as part of
a comprehensive legislative policy aimed at drug abuse prevention and control. It is the only statute in the federal drug
laws that contain a mandatory minimum sentencing provision of not less than 10 years and up to life imprisonment following conviction.
The
continuing criminal enterprise statute also provides for rights enabling the
United
States to seek forfeiture
of the proceeds obtained by the defendant from the criminal enterprise. As organizations succeeded to move their finances
out of the United States in an effort to launder
those funds and or hide their financial interest, or to invest the funds in assets out of the United States, the necessity
for prosecutors to identify assets in order to seek forfeiture, and the cooperation of private institutions and the courts
in other countries came to the forefront to obtain evidence of violations of the laws of the United States.
The continuing criminal enterprise statute, 21 U.S.C. 848, was enacted as part
of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The statute is aimed at any person who "occupies a position
of organizer, a supervisory position, or any other position of management" in a drug-producing and drug-distributing
enterprise. This legislation provides for one of the most severe penalties of any federal criminal statute. Under the CDAPCA,
convicted violators must be sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 10 years imprisonment with no possibility of parole. The court
may impose a life sentence without parole and fines totaling $ U.S. 2,000,000 for an individual or $5,000,000 if such is an
organization. On the second conviction of this statute the minimum sentence is 30 years. All profits and assets that have
afforded the defendant a source of influence over the illegal enterprise are subject to forfeiture (Carlson & Corcoran,
1983).
Subsection
(b) defines cause for life imprisonment:
Any
person who engages in a continuing criminal enterprise shall be imprisoned for life and fined in accordance with subsection
(a) of this section, if -
(1)
such person is the principal
administrator, organizer, or leader of the enterprise or is one of several
such principal administrators, organizers, or leaders; and
(2)
(A)
the violation referred
to in subsection (c)(1) of this section involved at least 300 times the quantity
of a substance described in subsection 841(b)(1)(B) of this title, or
(B)
the enterprise,
or any other enterprise in which the defendant was the principal or one of several principal administrators,
organizers, or leaders, received $10 million dollars in gross receipts during any twelve-month period of its existence for the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a substance described in section 841(b)(1)(B) of this title.
