Opinion ID: 2816856
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: vicar

Text: Defendants next contest their VICAR convictions, focusing here as well on the statute’s interstate-commerce requirement. The VICAR statute punishes violent crimes committed “for the purpose of gaining entrance to or maintaining or increasing position in an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity.” 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a). Similar to RICO, VICAR limits the definition of enterprise to a group “which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce.” Id. § 1959(b)(2). The indictment identified the Norteños gang as such an enterprise and Defendants’ predicate VICAR offenses as various crimes under Kansas law, specifically, murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and related attempt and conspiracy offenses. Defendants raise an as-applied challenge to their VICAR convictions. Their argument is much the same as their argument against the RICO instruction: “Application 28 of VICAR to [Defendants], violated the Commerce Clause because the murder and other violent crimes had no effect on interstate commerce and were non-commercial in nature, and [were] unrelated to organized interstate trafficking efforts in drugs or other contraband.” Garcia Aplt. Br. at 33. Our response is likewise similar. The factual predicate of the argument is incorrect. As previously discussed, the Norteños’ enterprise did have a commercial component—namely, drug trafficking. We reject the VICAR challenge because it is based on a false factual premise.