Statutes and Enforcement, Organized Crime - Coursework Example

Use of the RICO standard is what allowed Galante's employees and associates to be charged; under that statute, even belonging to his organization is a crime (Abadinsky, 2010, pp 369). Galante's organization was a group of companies involved in trash hauling, also called carting. He was the owner of twenty-five companies that among them controlled approximately eighty percent of the waste-hauling market in Connecticut and eastern New York state. At least forty other companies were found to have connections to Galante's organizations, and Galante himself was found to have connections to larger organized crime enterprises (FBI, 2008).

One of the individuals charged as a member of this group was a member of the Genovese crime family, a group in New York City involved in several other cases of extortion and illegal gambling rings (FBI, 2008; Department of Justice, 2010). Also involved were several public officials, including a former mayor of Waterbury CT, Joseph Santopietro, “a federal drug agent, and a Connecticut state trooper” (FBI, 2008; News-Times, 2008). Galante's group was guilty of racketeering due to their organization of what the FBI calls a “property rights system” (FBI, 2008). . This set-up caused an imbalance in the bidding system for the customer contracts, since the companies involved in this organization communicated with each other to rig the bidding.

The lack of competition led to higher costs for the customer accounts; since these were primarily municipal customers, this meant higher prices for the individual taxpayers in these districts (FBI, 2008). Federal agents used wiretaps to determine which companies were connected to Galante's organization, and which were victims. Some of the phone calls that were intercepted even allowed them to warn potential future victims about the scheme. The key to the investigation was the use of an undercover agent working for a victim company.

The undercover agent was eventually hired by one of Galante's companies as a salesperson, giving him unparalleled access to Galante's operation. The other method used to collect evidence against Galante was an analysis of his and his companies tax records (FBI, 2008). Galante was indicted by a grand jury at the same trial as twenty-eight of his co-conspirators, and was held awaiting trial without bail, though all others charged by the same jury posted bond. The charges at this point included “racketeering, extortion, conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, witness tampering and tax evasion” (News-Times, 2008).

Galante was eventually convicted of “racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud” (Koonz, 2009). He was sentenced to the maximum federal prison term, eighty-seven months, and then an additional year under a plea bargain for violations of state campaign finance laws (News-Times, 2008). Additionally, all twenty-five of Galante's companies were forfeited to the federal