Passed in 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law designed to combat organized crime in the United States. It allows prosecution and civil penalties for racketeering activity performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. Such activity may include illegal gambling, bribery, kidnapping, murder, money laundering, counterfeiting, embezzlement, drug trafficking, slavery, and a host of other unsavory business practices. To  convict a defendant under RICO, the government must prove that the  defendant engaged in two or more instances of racketeering activity and  that the defendant directly invested in, maintained an interest in, or  participated in a criminal enterprise affecting interstate or foreign  commerce. The law has been used to prosecute members of the mafia, the  Hells Angels motorcycle gang, and Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion  group, among many others.