A United States federal offense, commonly called the drug kingpin statute and codified at 21 U.S.C. 848, that targets an offender who organizes, supervises or manages a continuing series of at least three related felony drug violations carried out in concert with five or more other people, and who obtains substantial income or resources from the enterprise. Distinguished from an ordinary drug trafficking charge by requiring proof of a leadership role within an ongoing, multi-person criminal drug organization rather than participation in a single transaction, the statute carries a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years and permits a sentence up to life imprisonment, with an enhanced super-kingpin provision added in 1984 for the principal organizer of an enterprise generating more than ten million dollars in a single year or involving narcotics on a very large scale.
Facts
Classification CodeContinuing Criminal Enterprise, the drug kingpin statute, is codified at 21 U.S.C. Section 848 1 Typical PenaltyA conviction carries a mandatory minimum of 20 years and up to life imprisonment, a fine of up to 2 million dollars for an individual or 5 million dollars for any other defendant, and forfeiture 1 Elements of OffenseA continuing criminal enterprise requires a qualifying felony drug violation that is part of a continuing series of such violations undertaken with five or more other people over whom the defendant holds an organizing, supervisory or managerial role, and from which the defendant obtains substantial income or resources 1 Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. 21 U.S. Code Section 848, Continuing criminal enterprise (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute)
21 U.S.C. Section 848(c)
For purposes of subsection (a), a person is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise if, (1) he violates any provision of this subchapter or subchapter II the punishment for which is a felony, and (2) such violation is a part of a continuing series of violations of this subchapter or subchapter II, (A) which are undertaken by such person 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.
21 U.S.C. Section 848(a)
Any person who engages in a continuing criminal enterprise shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 20 years and which may be up to life imprisonment, to a fine not to exceed the greater of that authorized in accordance with the provisions of title 18 or $2,000,000 if the defendant is an individual or $5,000,000 if the defendant is other than an individual, and to the forfeiture prescribed in section 853 of this title.
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