But sometimes racketeering charges are the best course. So what drives a decision to charge RICO?

There are a couple of factors that might lead towards the path of RICO:

State Law Crimes: RICO makes it illegal to engage in a pattern of crimes that include, among other things, a long list of state crimes -- which means that you can charge an enterprise that commits these crimes in federal court, even if the underlying crimes are purely state law crimes. So, for example, a gang that commits a series of murders as part of its operations can be charged as a racketeering enterprise even if there is no federal hook for these murders. This has been a primary factor in driving federal RICO prosecution of Italian mafia organized crime cases in New York over the past 40 years.

Statute of Limitations: RICO allows prosecutors to charge crimes that happened so long ago that the law does not usually permit them to be prosecuted any longer -- provided the enterprise's pattern of activity extends back to when the crime happened. This can be handy for prosecuting criminal enterprises that have persisted for years without being held accountable.

Association Evidence: With RICO's higher standard of proof comes greater latitude in the evidence admissible at trial. For example, prosecutors might offer evidence of defendants spending time together at a social club to prove the existence of the "association in fact." Ravenite, the club where John Gotti hung out, featured prominently in his prosecution.

Avoiding the Multiple Conspiracies Trap: Charging a complicated conspiracy with many underlying crimes runs the risk the jury might conclude that there were multiple conspiracies, not one overarching conspiracy. Multiple conspiracies can mean there isn't a single agreement to violate the law -- and thus the defendants aren't guilty of the charged conspiracy. RICO avoids this risk because the whole structure of the racketeering statute allows charging an enterprise that encompasses a broad pattern of crime.

Using RICO Telling the Story: Most importantly, RICO is sometimes just the best way to tell the story -- which is how you win over a jury. RICO was adopted to empower prosecutors to ferret out organized crime root and branch, from kingpin to henchman, by criminalizing participation in the sprawling enterprises that do not fit neatly into traditional concepts of conspiracy, and which are not defined by a single crime or type of crime. For this type of criminal enterprise, RICO is the only fit because it allows the prosecutor to weave together all facets of that complex enterprise with a common thread.