What is the requirement for a conviction under the federal RICO law?

The Federal RICO statute, which stands for Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, was primarily designed to target organized
crime (mafia) activities, but especially with the drug war, its application has become
quite widespread.

In order to convict someone of RICO
violations, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that at least two
violations of 35 RICO qualifying crimes were committed within no more than a ten year
period of time.  There are 27 Federal laws and 8 State laws that qualify as RICO
violations, for example, murder, extortion, bribery, narcotics trafficking,
etc.

It should be noted that while the RICO statute has
been used very successfully to break up criminal enterprises, it is most often used as
to compel criminals to plead guilty to lesser offenses, or to testify against "bigger
fish" in the criminal enterprise.  This happened very recently when the FBI rounded up
120 members of organized crime based on the testimony of an informant they had indicted
under the RICO laws.