Summary and Conclusion

            The continuing criminal enterprise statute, Title 21 United States Code (U.S.C.) subsection 848, is considered one of the kingpin statutes, or those meant to incapacitate large individuals and their organizations from committing large scale contraband operations. Persons engaged in 300 times the quantity of a substance described in subsection 841(b)(1)(B) of this title, or those persons or the enterprise who received $10 million dollars in gross receipts during any twelve-month period of its existence in regards to the racketeering of contraband face a mandatory minimum of no less than 10 years in prison and upwards to a life sentence.

            The code like RICO, Chapter 96, subsection 1961, enhances the rights of the United States Attorney General in pursuit of assets and evidence of the enterprise. The prosecutor is given discretion in the use of the death penalty. Unique in establishing precedent in this area is the case of Juan Garza. Garza, 44, was convicted of killing Thomas Rumbo and ordering murders of Gilberto Matos and Erasmo De La Fuente because he thought they were informants. The United States Government stated Garza controlled an extensive marijuana trafficking organization based in Brownsville Texas, from early 1980s until 1992. He was to be the first federal prisoner executed since 1963, but President Clinton delayed a December, 2000 execution pending Justice Department review of the federal death penalty system. Garza was executed June 19, 2001.

            Richard H. Burr, esq. of Houston, Texas supplied an affidavit in support of Garza to the Organization of American States and raised the following arguments on his behalf. The OAS has no enforceable jurisdiction in the United States. Burr cited 28 cases in which the USAG did not seek the death penalty. Most of these cases according to Burr represent the killing of more persons than Garza was culpable of. Burr also raised the question of the right of the United States to present aggravating circumstances to the court after a guilty conviction. Race and its admissibility in the court were also issues.

Attorney General John Ashcroft had these comments regarding Garza:

"Juan Raul Garza's guilt is not in doubt. In conjunction with his activities as the leader of a drug smuggling ring. He personally committed the murder of Thomas Rumbo by shooting him five times in the head and neck. He ordered the murder of Erasmo De La Fuente and paid the killers $10,000 each. He also ordered the murder of Gilberto Matos whose killers were given money and a car.

"In addition to these three murders, in the sentencing phase of the trial the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that Garza was responsible for ordering the murders of Antonio Nieto, Bernabe Sosa, Diana Flores Villareal, Oscar Cantu, and Fernando Escobar Garcia. Thus, the jury found that Garza was responsible for eight murders.

            The use of the death penalty is infrequent with the federal system. Garza was also in the federal facility with Timothy McVeigh. Garza was the first federal execution since 1963.

            The new emphasis on conducting a war on racketeering has lead to greater power in law enforcement. However, the political climate in which to build the law of case and subsequent dispensation is problematic in reconciling abstract code with concrete fact and the trial process. It remains that the Continuing Criminal Enterprise is the strongest federal code available against drug trafficking.