NCJ Number
119133
Date Published
1988
Length
201 pages
Annotation
Recorded conversations excerpted in this book were introduced as evidence in various criminal trials of the Mafia.
Abstract
A Federal Organized Crime Strike Force, coordinating Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surveillance and government prosecutors, has jailed about half of the top Mafia leaders. The Strike Force's efforts are facilitated by the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute and electronic surveillance. The RICO statute permits the indictment and conviction of individuals conspiring as an organization to commit crimes and infiltrate legitimate businesses and unions. Individual members of the Mafia conspiracy have received sentences of up to 100 years in prison in trials from 1983 to the present. Evidence in these trials consisted largely of audio tapes from bugs and wiretaps permitted under a statute that allows FBI agents under court order to break and enter and install transmitters to record private conversations of suspected criminals. The recorded conversations obtained from electronic surveillance of Mafia leaders were presented in court in a series of trials in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.