For conviction under the statute, the offender must have been an organizer, manager, or supervisor of the continuing operation and have obtained substantial income or resources from the drug violations.
Under the so-called "super kingpin" provision added as subsection (b) to the CCE statute in 1984, a person convicted of being a "principal" administrator, organizer, or leader of a criminal enterprise that either involves a large amount of narcotics (at least 300 times the quantity that would trigger a five-year mandatory-minimum sentence for possession) or generates a large amount of money (at least $10 million in gross receipts during a single year) must serve a mandatory life sentence.
[4] The gang's key members – Corey Johnson, Richard Tipton and James H. Roane Jr. – were arrested and charged under the federal drug laws for committing murders in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise, an offence that carried the death penalty.
Originally from the streets of Southwest Detroit, the brothers started selling $50 bags of crack in high school and by the early 1990s were distributing thousands of kilograms of cocaine in over 21 states.
Furthermore, jurors were kept behind bulletproof glass in the courtroom and the defendant, Edmond, was housed at the U.S. Marine Base at Quantico and flown in daily on military transport.
[13] Several leaders of the Tijuana Cartel all would eventually have CCE charges brought against them for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana trafficking offenses; as well as numerous murders.
[14][15] Salvador "Sal" Magluta and Augusto "Willy" Falcon operated one of the most significant cocaine trafficking organizations in South Florida history.
They were indicted by a federal grand jury in April 1991 for a plethora of drug trafficking crimes, including operating a continuing criminal enterprise.
Federal agents involved in the case say there are few drug traffickers in history more successful or well-known than Magluta and Falcon.
In 1985 Felix was convicted of running a continuing criminal enterprise and sentenced to life in prison in USP Leavenworth, one of the most violent facilities in the country.
[18] Ross William Ulbricht was indicted under the Continuing Criminal Enterprise statute, along with other offenses, for running the Silk Road online marketplace.