Opinion ID: 397156
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Meinster and Platshorn

Text: 93 Meinster and Platshorn were charged with and convicted of three offenses in this case which are relevant to their double jeopardy argument: (1) conspiracy to violate the racketeering statute or RICO, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1962(d); (2) substantive violation of RICO, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1962(c); and (3) violation of the continuing criminal (narcotics) enterprise statute, 21 U.S.C.A. § 848. Meinster and Platshorn were previously convicted in a North Carolina federal district court for aiding and abetting the importation of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. §§ 952(a), 960(a)(1), and 18 U.S.C.A. § 2. 46 The aiding and abetting charge against each arose out of the OSSPREY-DON ELIAS incident. Count 1 of the indictment in the instant case set forth 407 overt acts; among the overt acts was a series of events relating to the OSSPREY incident. 94 Meinster 47 advances what is essentially a two-pronged double jeopardy argument. He maintains first that the aiding and abetting offense was a transaction within a larger, unified conspiracy-the continuing criminal enterprise-and that the government may not proceed with multiple prosecutions, either for conspiracy or for substantive offenses, if there is a unified conspiracy. Second, he argues that in narcotics conspiracy cases a RICO charge is a lesser included offense of a § 848 continuing criminal enterprise offense. 95 Before addressing Meinster's contentions, we review the double jeopardy law that is relevant to issues raised by both Meinster and Grant. Both rely in large part on Jeffers v. United States, 432 U.S. 137, 97 S.Ct. 2207, 53 L.Ed.2d 168 (1977); United States v. Ruigomez, 576 F.2d 1149 (5th Cir. 1978); and United States v. Smith, 574 F.2d 308 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 931, 99 S.Ct. 321, 58 L.Ed.2d 325 (1978), subsequent appeal sub nom. United States v. Stratton, 649 F.2d 1066 (5th Cir. 1981). 96 The double jeopardy clause protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal, against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction, and against multiple punishments for the same offense. Albernaz v. United States, 450 U.S. 333, 101 S.Ct. 1137, 1145, 67 L.Ed.2d 275 (1981); United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332, 343, 95 S.Ct. 1013, 1021, 43 L.Ed.2d 232 (1975); North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969). The test for determining whether two offenses are the same for purposes of double jeopardy is whether each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not. Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932); see Albernaz v. United States, supra, 101 S.Ct. at 1141; Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 692, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 1438, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980); Jeffers v. United States, supra, 432 U.S. at 151, 97 S.Ct. at 2216; Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 166, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 2225, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977). The Blockburger test is the test for determining whether two offenses are the same for the purposes of barring successive prosecutions as well as simultaneous prosecutions. Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 416, 100 S.Ct. 2260, 2265, 65 L.Ed.2d 228 (1980); Brown v. Ohio, supra, 432 U.S. at 166, 97 S.Ct. at 2225. 48 97 Although the Blockburger test has been referred to as the same evidence test, that standard focuses not on the evidence adduced at trial but rather on the elements of the offense charged. Brown v. Ohio, supra, 432 U.S. at 166, 97 S.Ct. at 2225; United States v. Cowart, 595 F.2d 1023, 1029 (5th Cir. 1979). If each (offense) requires proof of a fact that the other does not, the Blockburger test is satisfied, notwithstanding a substantial overlap in the proof offered to establish the crimes. Ianelli v. United States, 420 U.S. 770, 785 n.17, 95 S.Ct. 1284, 1293 n.17, 43 L.Ed.2d 616 (1975). 98 Under the Blockburger test it is possible for a single act or transaction to give rise to separate and distinct offenses under separate statutes. Albernaz v. United States, supra, 101 S.Ct. at 1142, 1145 n.3; Harris v. United States, 359 U.S. 19, 79 S.Ct. 560, 3 L.Ed.2d 597 (1959); Gore v. United States, 357 U.S. 386, 389, 78 S.Ct. 1280, 1282, 2 L.Ed.2d 1405 (1958); United States v. Davis, 656 F.2d 153, 156 (5th Cir. 1981); United States v. Dunbar, 591 F.2d 1190, 1192 (5th Cir. 1979), panel opinion adopted in relevant part and remanded, 611 F.2d 985 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 926, 100 S.Ct. 3022, 65 L.Ed.2d 1120 (1980); United States v. Smith, supra, 574 F.2d at 310. 99 As one court has noted, the Blockburger test is not easily applied to complex conspiracy prosecutions. United States v. Solano, 605 F.2d 1141, 1144 (9th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1020, 100 S.Ct. 677, 62 L.Ed.2d 652 (1980). This Court stated in United States v. Marable, 578 F.2d 151, 153 (5th Cir. 1978), that determining whether two conspiracies are in fact the same requires a more detailed inquiry than that required with respect to other offenses under the Blockburger test because the precise bounds of a single conspiracy are more difficult to determine. 49 The characteristic which defines the scope of a conspiracy is the unlawful agreement, and in order to determine whether the government can prosecute a defendant for more than one conspiracy a court must ordinarily determine whether there was more than one agreement. Id. 50 100 This Court has on several occasions confronted the problem of double jeopardy in the context of a narcotics conspiracy case. In United States v. Ruigomez, 576 F.2d 1149 (5th Cir. 1978), the defendant was first acquitted on a charge of conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute. A second indictment, which charged an identical conspiracy count and an additional count of conspiring to distribute marijuana, was dismissed on double jeopardy grounds because the government split a unitary narcotics conspiracy into multiple prosecutions. The Court stated that, rather than apply the same offense test which focuses on the similarity vel non of the evidence adduced, it would apply the following test: whether the particular transactions alleged in the indictments were within a larger, unified conspiracy. Id. at 1151. The Court found that there was but a single, continuing conspiracy. The Court applied 101 the usual tests for determining the existence of a unified conspiracy-the participants shared a continuing, common goal of buying and selling (or importing) marijuana for profit; the operations of the conspiracy followed an unbroken and repetitive pattern; and the cast of conspirators remained much the same. 102 Id.; see United States v. Futch, supra, 637 F.2d at 389; United States v. Stricklin, supra, 591 F.2d at 1122. 103 It is also settled in this Circuit that the government may not split a single narcotics conspiracy to distribute different drugs for purposes of a separate conspiracy prosecution for each drug. United States v. Marable, supra, 578 F.2d 151 (heroin and cocaine). 104 Although the government may not ordinarily separately prosecute a defendant for two conspiracies that are in reality the same conspiracy, or prosecute a defendant for a conspiracy or transaction that is part of a larger conspiracy, under the Blockburger test it is possible for a single criminal agreement or conspiracy to give rise to distinct offenses under specific, separate conspiracy statutes. See Albernaz v. United States, supra, 101 S.Ct. at 1142, 1145 n.3; American Tobacco Co. v. United States, 328 U.S. 781, 788, 66 S.Ct. 1125, 1128, 90 L.Ed. 1575 (1946); United States v. Dunbar, supra, 591 F.2d at 1192-93; United States v. Smith, supra, 574 F.2d at 311. 51 While courts have restricted the prosecutor's power to interpret statutes so as to permit multiple punishments, they have not generally restricted the legislature's power to enact such statutes. Albernaz v. United States, supra, 101 S.Ct. at 1145; Ianelli v. United States, supra, 420 U.S. at 791, 95 S.Ct. at 1296; United States v. Davis, supra, 656 F.2d at 156; United States v. Chagra, 653 F.2d 26, 31 (1st Cir. 1981). 105 In Albernaz v. United States, supra, 101 S.Ct. 1137, the Supreme Court held that a single narcotics conspiracy or agreement may constitute the separate offenses of conspiracy to import marijuana, 21 U.S.C.A. § 963, and conspiracy to distribute marijuana, 21 U.S.C.A. § 846. The Court held that Congress intended that consecutive sentences could be imposed for violations of Sections 846 and 963 in a case 52 involving only a single agreement or conspiracy. The Court focused on the distinct elements of each section, noting that each provision requires proof of a fact that the other does not and that each requires proof of a different objective of the agreement, and held that the Blockburger test was satisfied. 106 In United States v. Smith, supra, 574 F.2d 308, the defendant had been convicted in an earlier trial for conspiracy to distribute marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 846 and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 841(a)(1). He was subsequently indicted for a substantive RICO violation and for conspiracy to violate RICO. Seventy-two overt acts were alleged in the RICO indictment; five of those acts-relating to attempts to bribe public officials-had also been alleged to support the earlier marijuana conspiracy conviction. However, the RICO indictment did not allege any drug offenses as racketeering activity as it could have under 18 U.S.C.A. § 1961(1)(D). Rather, the predicate acts included bribery, obstruction of justice, and obstruction of a criminal investigation. This Court held that the previous conspiracy to distribute conviction did not bar the RICO conspiracy because the marijuana conspiracy and the RICO conspiracy, even if parts of a single larger conspiracy, are separate offenses .... Id. at 311. The Court noted that although the two conspiracies shared one common element-an agreement must be shown under each statute-the offenses required proof of different essential facts and elements. 53 107 Appellants rely heavily on Jeffers v. United States, 432 U.S. 137, 97 S.Ct. 2207, 53 L.Ed.2d 168 (1977). This Court in United States v. Stricklin, supra, 591 F.2d at 1123, discussed Jeffers in some depth: 108 (T)he two offenses involved (in Jeffers) were a conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 and a continuing criminal enterprise to violate the drug laws in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848. Although the facts in Jeffers made it unnecessary to settle definitively the issue of whether § 846 is a lesser included offense of § 848, 432 U.S. at 152-53 n.20, 97 S.Ct. 2207, (at 2217 n.20) the Court's discussion of the issue indicates that the question would be answered affirmatively because § 848 requires proof of an agreement among the persons involved in the continuing criminal enterprise and thus requires proof of every fact necessary to show a violation under (§ 846) as well as proof of several additional elements. Id. at 147-54, 97 S.Ct. 2207 (at 2214-2218). See also Id. at 160 n.7, 97 S.Ct. 2207 (at 2221 n.7) (Stevens, J., concurring in part). Furthermore, it is our conclusion that § 846 is a lesser included offense of § 848 where the agreement and transactions involved in the two cases are the same. A double jeopardy defense will lie where the government has previously prosecuted a defendant under either § 846 or § 848 and then seeks to prosecute him again on the basis of the same criminal agreement under the other statute. 109 The Stricklin Court held that a prior conspiracy prosecution under § 846 does not bar a later prosecution under § 848 if the government has evidence of a separate conspiracy with which to satisfy the in concert element of § 848. 591 F.2d at 1124. 110 The First Circuit recently considered the issue whether a conviction on a § 848 charge encompasses for double jeopardy purposes all narcotics offenses that might have been, but were not, used to prove a § 848 charge, and thus bars a subsequent prosecution for all the narcotics offenses that occurred during the period covered by the § 848 charge and that might have been, but were not, used to prove the § 848 charge. United States v. Chagra, 653 F.2d 26, 27 (1st Cir. 1981). The court reject(ed) the defendant's claim that double jeopardy automatically attaches to underlying offenses that might have been used to help prove a § 848 violation-when those violations were not in fact so used. Id. at 33-34. 54 The court reasoned that to adopt the defendant's position would be in effect to hold that, if the government brings a § 848 charge and loses, all underlying offenses in addition to all offenses that occurred during the period covered by the § 848 charge would thereby be immunized from prosecution. Id. at 32. 111 We turn now to Meinster's specific contentions. He argues that the aiding and abetting offense was a transaction within a larger unified conspiracy, the continuing criminal enterprise, and that the government is barred from proceeding with multiple prosecutions, even for substantive offenses, if there is a unified conspiracy. This contention is without foundation. 112 Meinster's assertion that the aiding and abetting offense is a transaction within a larger unified conspiracy is based primarily upon United States v. Ruigomez, supra, 576 F.2d 1149. Meinster focuses on the word transaction in the Ruigomez test: whether the particular transactions were within a larger unified conspiracy. 576 F.2d at 1151. Meinster would have us read Ruigomez as precluding multiple trials for all transactions-all offenses, substantive or conspiracy-within a larger unified conspiracy. Such a reading is an unwarranted extension of Ruigomez. We read Ruigomez as prohibiting the government from carving up a single conspiracy into multiple conspiracy prosecutions. Were we to read Ruigomez as broadly as Meinster would have us read it, prior prosecutions of substantive predicate offenses or narcotics violations would preclude later conspiracy prosecutions under RICO and § 848. That result is inconsistent with the very nature of those two statutes, which is that they require proof of predicate offenses or violations. 55 113 Meinster asserts that in the situation in which a defendant is charged under § 848, the perpetration of constituent substantive offenses is part and parcel of the large conspiracy-type offense. Indeed, this is true; underlying violations are the very matters that trigger the applicability of § 848. Jeffers v. United States, supra, 432 U.S. 137, 97 S.Ct. 2207, 53 L.Ed.2d 168, does not support Meinster's claim that a prior substantive narcotics charge which is committed in the operation of a continuing criminal enterprise precludes a later § 848 prosecution. Jeffers indicates that a prosecution for conspiracy to distribute narcotics in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 846 is a lesser included offense of § 848 because § 848 requires proof of an agreement among the persons participating in the continuing criminal enterprise and thus requires proof of every fact necessary to show a violation under § 846 as well as proof of several additional elements. Jeffers does not stand for the proposition that a prior prosecution for a substantive offense bars a later continuing criminal enterprise prosecution under § 848. 114 Meinster also complains that the government listed as overt acts in the instant indictment several incidents which gave rise to the North Carolina prosecution. He contends that the government is barred from using the facts underlying the aiding and abetting conviction as overt acts in this conspiracy prosecution. However, the allegation of an independent crime as an overt act of a conspiracy does not immunize a defendant from an indictment on that separate offense. United States v. Brunk, 615 F.2d 210, 211 (5th Cir. 1980); see also United States v. Smith, supra, 574 F.2d 308 (no double jeopardy violation where same overt acts alleged in prior prosecution for conspiracy to distribute marijuana, 21 U.S.C.A. § 846, also alleged in later RICO (substantive and conspiracy) prosecution). 56 115 Meinster seems to recognize that his suggested reading of Ruigomez and Jeffers as prohibiting prosecution of a larger conspiracy after one or more prosecutions of substantive offenses may be an overly expansive reading because he also claims that the aiding and abetting prosecution is in effect a detailed conspiracy case. This claim ignores the substantive nature of an aiding and abetting offense. 57 116 The essence of a conspiracy offense is proof of knowledge of and voluntary participation in an agreement to violate the law, whereas aiding and abetting requires that there be a community of unlawful intent between the aider and abettor and the principal. United States v. Bright, 630 F.2d 804, 813 (5th Cir. 1980). That community of intent is not the same as a conspiratorial agreement, id., and proof of aiding and abetting does not require proof of an agreement. Ianelli v. United States, supra, 420 U.S. at 777 & n.10, 95 S.Ct. at 1289 n.10; Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 11, 74 S.Ct. 358, 364, 98 L.Ed. 435 (1954). An aiding and abetting offense occurs when a defendant willfully associated himself in some way with the criminal venture and willfully participated in it as he would in something he wished to bring about. United States v. Indelicato, 611 F.2d 376, 385 (1st Cir. 1979); see United States v. Cowart, supra, 595 F.2d at 1035; United States v. Longoria, 569 F.2d 422, 425 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Martinez, 555 F.2d 1269, 1271-72 (5th Cir. 1977). In order to prove association there must be evidence that the defendant shared the criminal intent of the principal, while in order to prove participation there must be evidence that the defendant committed some overt act designed to aid in the success of the criminal venture. United States v. Cowart, supra, 595 F.2d at 1035; United States v. Longoria, supra, 569 F.2d at 425; United States v. Martinez, supra, 555 F.2d at 1272. Aiding and abetting has two components:  '(a)n act on the part of a defendant which contributes to the execution of a crime and the intent to aid in its commission.'  United States v. Smith, 546 F.2d 1275, 1284 (5th Cir. 1976), quoting United States v. Greer, 467 F.2d 1064, 1069 (7th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 929, 93 S.Ct. 1364, 35 L.Ed.2d 590 (1973). 117 The second prong of Meinster's double jeopardy argument is his claim that the RICO charges in this narcotics conspiracy case are lesser included offenses of the § 848 continuing criminal enterprise count. 58 Before addressing this contention we must discuss the charges against Meinster and the elements of both RICO and § 848. 118 Count 1 of the superseding indictment charged Meinster and all other appellants except Grant with conspiring to violate RICO, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1962(d). Count 1 incorporated numerous other counts of the indictment as the predicate acts of racketeering activity, including charges of violations of 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1201(a)(3) and (c), 1503, and 1952, and 21 U.S.C.A. §§ 841(a)(1), 843(b), 952, and 963. Count 2 charged a substantive violation of RICO, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1961, 1962(c), and 1963. Count 2 listed many of the same predicate acts included in Count 1. Most of the predicate acts included in Counts 1 and 2 referred to counts brought under Title 21, United States Code. With respect to Meinster, all of the predicate acts listed in Counts 1 and 2 were alleged violations of Title 21. With respect to Platshorn, the predicate acts listed in the first two counts included, in addition to the numerous Title 21 narcotics charges, two counts charging violation of Title 18: 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1952 and 1201(a)(3) and (c). 119 Count 34 of the superseding indictment charged Platshorn and Meinster with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. The violations listed as part of the continuing series of narcotics violations were violations of 21 U.S.C.A. §§ 841(a)(1), 843(b), 952, and 963. However, Count 34 did not allege that the underlying violations were limited to other incidents charged in the indictment. 120 In order to prove a substantive RICO violation, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1962(c), 59 the Government must prove the following elements: (1) the existence of an enterprise which affects interstate or foreign commerce; (2) that the defendant associated with the enterprise; (3) that the defendant participated in the conduct of the enterprise's affairs; and (4) that the participation was through a pattern of racketeering activity, i. e., by committing at least two acts of racketeering activity designated in 18 U.S.C.A. § 1961(1). United States v. Bright, supra, 630 F.2d at 829; United States v. Elliott, 571 F.2d 880, 897-99 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 953, 99 S.Ct. 349, 58 L.Ed.2d 344 (1978). RICO does not criminalize engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity standing alone; the gravamen of a RICO offense is the conduct of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. United States v. Elliott, supra, 571 F.2d at 899 n.23. The two predicate crimes need not be related to each other but must be related to the affairs of the enterprise. Id. It does not matter that each defendant participated in the affairs of the enterprise through different or unrelated crimes, so long as an inference may be drawn that each crime was intended to further the enterprise's affairs. Id. at 902-03. 121 In United States v. Turkette, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981), the Supreme Court held that the term enterprise encompasses both legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. 60 In that decision the Court discussed the elements of RICO: 122 In order to secure a conviction under RICO, the Government must prove both the existence of an enterprise and the connected pattern of racketeering activity. The enterprise is an entity, for present purposes a group of persons associated together for a common purpose of engaging in a course of conduct. The pattern of racketeering activity is, on the other hand, a series of criminal acts as defined by the statute. 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1). The former is proved by evidence of an ongoing organization, formal or informal, and by evidence that the various associates function as a continuing unit. The latter is proved by evidence of the requisite number of acts of racketeering committed by the participants in the enterprise. While the proof used to establish these separate elements may in particular cases coalesce, proof of one does not necessarily establish the other. The enterprise is not the pattern of racketeering activity; it is an entity separate and apart from the pattern of activity in which it engages. The existence of an enterprise at all times remains a separate element which must be proved by the Government. 123 101 S.Ct. at 2528 (footnote omitted). 124 Proof of a RICO conspiracy charge requires that the Government prove the additional element of agreement. The defendant must have objectively manifested an agreement to participate directly or indirectly, in the affairs of an enterprise through the commission of two or more predicate crimes. United States v. Elliott, supra, 571 F.2d at 903 (emphasis omitted); see United States v. Stratton, 649 F.2d 1066, 1074 (5th Cir. 1981). Such agreement is the gravamen of a RICO conspiracy charge. The Elliott Court stated: 125 (T)he object of a RICO conspiracy is to violate a substantive RICO provision-here, to conduct or participate in the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity-and not merely to commit each of the predicate crimes necessary to demonstrate a pattern of racketeering activity. 126 571 F.2d at 902. 127 In order to prove a continuing criminal enterprise, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 848, 61 the Government must prove that the defendant engaged in a continuing series of narcotics violations. (A) which are undertaken by such persons in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom such person occupies a position of organizer, a supervisory position, or any other position of management, and (B) from which such person obtains substantial income or resources. United States v. Michel, 588 F.2d 986, 1000 (5th Cir. 1979). 128 The Government need only prove, under § 848, that the defendant organized, supervised, or managed at least five other persons; the section is disjunctive in that respect. United States v. Mannino, 635 F.2d 110, 116 (2d Cir. 1980). Such relationships need not have existed at the same moment in time; it is sufficient if there exist separate, individual relations of control with at least five persons. Id. at 116-17. Furthermore, the requisite five persons need not act in concert at the same time. United States v. Michel, supra, 588 F.2d at 1000 n.14; United States v. Bolts, 558 F.2d 316, 320-21 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 930, 98 S.Ct. 417, 54 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978). Additionally, the same type of superior-subordinate relationship need not exist between the supervisor and each of the five other persons involved. United States v. Mannino, supra, 635 F.2d at 117. The series element is established by proof of three or more related violations. United States v. Johnson, 575 F.2d 1347, 1357 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Fry, 413 F.Supp. 1269, 1272 (E.D.Mich.1976), aff'd, 559 F.2d 1221 (6th Cir. 1977); United States v. Bergdoll, 412 F.Supp. 1308, 1317 (D.Del.1976). 129 Section 848 is a conspiracy-type statute. The Supreme Court stated in Jeffers v. United States, supra, 432 U.S. at 149-50, 97 S.Ct. at 2215, that it assume(d), arguendo, that § 848 does require proof of an agreement among the persons involved in the continuing criminal enterprise. However, § 848 is an unusual conspiracy statute. Unlike a typical conspiracy statute, which proscribes an inchoate offense, the essence of which is an agreement to commit an unlawful act, Ianelli v. United States, supra, 420 U.S. at 777, 95 S.Ct. at 1289, § 848 requires that the defendant commit a federal narcotics violation which is part of a continuing series of such violations committed by the defendant in concert with, i. e., in conspiracy with, five or more persons with respect to whom the defendant acts as an organizer, supervisor or manager. 62 130 We conclude that the RICO counts are not lesser included offenses of the § 848 count. Both the substantive RICO and RICO conspiracy counts require proof of facts and elements not required to be proved under § 848, even though there is a substantial overlap in the proof offered to establish the crimes. In a substantive or conspiracy RICO prosecution the Government must prove the existence of an enterprise that affects interstate commerce. The existence of an enterprise is an element that is separate from the element of the pattern of racketeering activity in which the enterprise engages; the enterprise is proved by evidence of a continuing organization and by evidence that the members function as a continuing unit. United States v. Turkette, supra, 101 S.Ct. at 2528. Mere proof of a pattern of racketeering activity, i. e., commission of at least two acts of racketeering activity, is not sufficient to establish a RICO violation; there must also be proof of the existence of the enterprise itself. Section 848, by contrast, does not require proof of a RICO type enterprise. Rather § 848 merely requires proof that the defendant undertook a continuing series of violations in concert or in conspiracy with five or more persons. 131 Proof of a § 848 conspiracy does not establish proof of every fact and element necessary to show a RICO conspiracy violation. The object of a RICO conspiracy, as this Court stated in United States v. Elliott, supra, 571 F.2d at 902, is to violate a substantive RICO provision, not merely to commit each of the predicate crimes constituting a pattern of racketeering activity. The gist of a RICO offense is that the defendant furthered a racketeering enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity; a RICO count charges not the commission of the predicate crimes but rather the furthering of the enterprise. United States v. Bright, supra, 630 F.2d at 813. The object of a § 848 conspiracy could be merely to commit the particular narcotics violations which taken cumulatively constitute a continuing series of violations. 132 We cannot agree with Meinster that in this case the RICO charges are lesser included offenses of the § 848 count for another reason. A RICO substantive charge is not a conspiracy charge and it is axiomatic that a substantive offense is distinct from a conspiracy to commit that or another substantive offense. We hold that a RICO conspiracy count is not the same offense, for double jeopardy purposes, as a RICO substantive count. We find no principled basis for holding that a RICO substantive charge is a lesser included offense of a § 848 conspiracy-type charge. 133 Finally, we decline to hold that the RICO counts are lesser included offenses of the § 848 count because although in one sense the former counts are narrower than the latter, in another crucial sense the former counts are broader. Meinster asserts that in a case concerning a unitary narcotics conspiracy the only time a RICO count would not constitute a lesser included offense of § 848 is when the defendant was not a manager, supervisor or organizer. He further maintains that the conspiracy in this case was exclusively a narcotics conspiracy. However, the RICO counts charged numerous predicate acts which could not have been and were not charged in the § 848 count, including: conspiracy to commit kidnapping within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States (air piracy), 18 U.S.C.A. § 1201(a)(3) and (c); obstruction of justice, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1503; and interstate or foreign travel in aid of racketeering, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1952. Although those Title 18 offenses were integrally related to the narcotics enterprise, nevertheless they were offenses that could not have been charged against the defendants as underlying violations under § 848. The scope of RICO is broader than the scope of § 848; the very purpose of RICO is to enable the government to reach criminal enterprises such as the Black Tuna group which commit diverse crimes in furtherance of their organized criminal efforts. As we noted earlier, one court has stated that racketeering activity in the abstract does not necessarily involve drug related activity. United States v. Solano, supra, 605 F.2d at 1145, citing United States v. Smith, supra, 574 F.2d at 310-11. 63 134 We do not agree with Meinster that the RICO conspiracy and the § 848 conspiracy constitute a unitary conspiracy. The RICO conspiracy included numerous acts not chargeable under § 848, including air piracy, interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering and obstruction of justice. Meinster's reliance upon United States v. Ruigomez, supra, 576 F.2d 1149, is misplaced.