Opinion ID: 577092
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Agreement to Participate in RICO Conspiracy

Text: 28 Church claims that he was ignorant of the overall RICO conspiracy and thus did not agree to join the conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d). Agreement to participate in a RICO conspiracy, however, can be proved in either one of two ways: (1) by showing an agreement on an overall objective, United States v. Valera, 845 F.2d 923, 929 (11th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1046, 109 S.Ct. 1953, 104 L.Ed.2d 422 (1989); or (2) in the absence of an agreement on an overall objective, by showing that a defendant agreed personally to commit two predicate acts and therefore to participate in a single objective conspiracy. See United States v. Carter, 721 F.2d 1514, 1531 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 819, 105 S.Ct. 89, 83 L.Ed.2d 36 (1984). Here, the government presented sufficient evidence that Church agreed personally to commit two predicate acts of selling cocaine. The existence of the conspiracy agreement can be inferred from the conduct of the alleged participants or from circumstantial evidence of the scheme. United States v. Ard, 731 F.2d 718, 724 (11th Cir.1984) (quoting United States v. Ayala, 643 F.2d 244, 248 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981)). 29 Moreover, the government proffered evidence establishing Church's knowledge that Lee was part of a group that was distributing cocaine in Kansas City. This evidence was sufficient to convince a reasonable trier of fact that Church must necessarily have known that others were also conspiring to participate in the same enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity, thus proving agreement on an overall objective as well. Valera, 845 F.2d at 929 (quoting United States v. Manzella, 782 F.2d 533, 585 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1123, 106 S.Ct. 1991, 90 L.Ed.2d 672 (1986)).