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Illinois Compiled Statutes

720 ILCS 5/33G-3 (2026)

Definitions

✓ current as of May 2026
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(720 ILCS 5/33G-3)
    (Section scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2027)
    Sec. 33G-3. Definitions. As used in this Article:
    (a) "Another state" means any State of the United States (other than the State of Illinois), or the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any territory or possession of the United States, or any political subdivision, or any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof.
    (b) "Enterprise" includes:
        (1) any partnership, corporation, association,
    
business or charitable trust, or other legal entity; and
        (2) any group of individuals or other legal entities,
    
or any combination thereof, associated in fact although not itself a legal entity. An association in fact must be held together by a common purpose of engaging in a course of conduct, and it may be associated together for purposes that are both legal and illegal. An association in fact must:
            (A) have an ongoing organization or structure,
        
either formal or informal;
            (B) the various members of the group must
        
function as a continuing unit, even if the group changes membership by gaining or losing members over time; and
            (C) have an ascertainable structure distinct from
        
that inherent in the conduct of a pattern of predicate activity.
    As used in this Article, "enterprise" includes licit and illicit enterprises.
    (c) "Labor organization" includes any organization, labor union, craft union, or any voluntary unincorporated association designed to further the cause of the rights of union labor that is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining or of dealing with employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or apprenticeships or applications for apprenticeships, or of other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment, including apprenticeships or applications for apprenticeships.
    (d) "Operation or management" means directing or carrying out the enterprise's affairs and is limited to any person who knowingly serves as a leader, organizer, operator, manager, director, supervisor, financier, advisor, recruiter, supplier, or enforcer of an enterprise in violation of this Article.
    (e) "Predicate activity" means any act that is a Class 2 felony or higher and constitutes a violation or violations of any of the following provisions of the laws of the State of Illinois (as amended or revised as of the date the activity occurred or, in the instance of a continuing offense, the date that charges under this Article are filed in a particular matter in the State of Illinois) or any act under the law of another jurisdiction for an offense that could be charged as a Class 2 felony or higher in this State:
        (1) under the Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal
    
Code of 2012: 8-1.2 (solicitation of murder for hire), 9-1 (first degree murder), 9-3.3 (drug-induced homicide), 10-1 (kidnapping), 10-2 (aggravated kidnapping), 10-3.1 (aggravated unlawful restraint), 10-4 (forcible detention), 10-5(b)(10) (child abduction), 10-9 (trafficking in persons, involuntary servitude, and related offenses), 11-1.20 (criminal sexual assault), 11-1.30 (aggravated criminal sexual assault), 11-1.40 (predatory criminal sexual assault of a child), 11-1.60 (aggravated criminal sexual abuse), 11-6 (indecent solicitation of a child), 11-6.5 (indecent solicitation of an adult), 11-14.3(a)(2)(A) and (a)(2)(B) (promoting prostitution), 11-14.4 (promoting commercial sexual exploitation of a child), 11-18.1 (patronizing a sexually exploited child; patronizing a sexually exploited child), 12-3.05 (aggravated battery), 12-6.4 (criminal street gang recruitment), 12-6.5 (compelling organization membership of persons), 12-7.3 (stalking), 12-7.4 (aggravated stalking), 12-7.5 (cyberstalking), 12-11 or 19-6 (home invasion), 12-11.1 or 18-6 (vehicular invasion), 18-1 (robbery; aggravated robbery), 18-2 (armed robbery), 18-3 (vehicular hijacking), 18-4 (aggravated vehicular hijacking), 18-5 (aggravated robbery), 19-1 (burglary), 19-3 (residential burglary), 20-1 (arson; residential arson; place of worship arson), 20-1.1 (aggravated arson), 20-1.2 (residential arson), 20-1.3 (place of worship arson), 24-1.2 (aggravated discharge of a firearm), 24-1.2-5 (aggravated discharge of a machine gun or silencer equipped firearm), 24-1.8 (unlawful possession of a firearm by a street gang member), 24-3.2 (unlawful discharge of firearm projectiles), 24-3.9 (aggravated possession of a stolen firearm), 24-3A (gunrunning), 26-5 or 48-1 (dog-fighting), 29D-14.9 (terrorism), 29D-15 (soliciting support for terrorism), 29D-15.1 (causing a catastrophe), 29D-15.2 (possession of a deadly substance), 29D-20 (making a terrorist threat), 29D-25 (falsely making a terrorist threat), 29D-29.9 (material support for terrorism), 29D-35 (hindering prosecution of terrorism), 31A-1.2 (unauthorized contraband in a penal institution), or 33A-3 (armed violence);
        (2) under the Cannabis Control Act: Sections 5
    
(manufacture or delivery of cannabis), 5.1 (cannabis trafficking), or 8 (production or possession of cannabis plants), provided the offense either involves more than 500 grams of any substance containing cannabis or involves more than 50 cannabis sativa plants;
        (3) under the Illinois Controlled Substances Act:
    
Sections 401 (manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance), 401.1 (controlled substance trafficking), 405 (calculated criminal drug conspiracy), or 405.2 (street gang criminal drug conspiracy); or
        (4) under the Methamphetamine Control and Community
    
Protection Act: Sections 15 (methamphetamine manufacturing), or 55 (methamphetamine delivery).
    (f) "Pattern of predicate activity" means:
        (1) at least 3 occurrences of predicate activity that
    
are in some way related to each other and that have continuity between them, and that are separate acts. Acts are related to each other if they are not isolated events, including if they have similar purposes, or results, or participants, or victims, or are committed a similar way, or have other similar distinguishing characteristics, or are part of the affairs of the same enterprise. There is continuity between acts if they are ongoing over a substantial period, or if they are part of the regular way some entity does business or conducts its affairs; and
        (2) which occurs after the effective date of this
    
Article, and the last of which falls within 3 years (excluding any period of imprisonment) after the first occurrence of predicate activity.
    (g) "Unlawful death" includes the following offenses: under the Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012: Sections 9-1 (first degree murder) or 9-2 (second degree murder).
(Source: P.A. 103-1071, eff. 7-1-25; 104-10, eff. 6-16-25; 104-434, eff. 11-21-25.)

    
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases (4 in the last 5 years), 2021–2025 · leading case: People v. Spears, 2024 IL App (1st) 181491 (Ill. App. Ct. 2024).
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People v. Spears, 2024 IL App (1st) 181491 (Ill. App. Ct. 2024). · cites it 2× “See 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 2012) (stating a defendant found guilty of more than one murder “shall” be sentenced to life in prison); 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e) (West 2012) (defining “predicate activity” to include first degree murder).”
People v. Villareal, 2021 IL App (1st) 181817 (Ill. App. Ct. 2021). “1-18-1817 ¶ 43 If O’Grady acted in the manner described in Spalding, O’Grady apparently committed the offenses of obstructing justice to further gang activity, a Class 3 felony (720 5/31-4(b)(2) (West 2014)), and the felony of violating the Illinois Street Gang and Racketeer…”
People v. Polk, 2024 IL App (1st) 181933 (Ill. App. Ct. 2024). “1-18-1933 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 2012) (requiring a life sentence for a non-juvenile defendant found guilty of more than one murder); 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e) (West 2012) (defining “predicate activity” to include first degree murder).”
People v. Hoffman, 2025 IL 130344 (Ill. 2025). “2(c), (e) (West 2022)); delivery of a controlled substance within 500 feet of a school when minors are present (720 ILCS 570/407(b)(1) (West 2022)); racketeering predicated on methamphetamine delivery (720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e)(4), 33G-4, 33G- 5, (West 2022)); felony murder predicated…”
— 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e) — 2 cases
People v. Spears, 2024 IL App (1st) 181491 (Ill. App. Ct. 2024). “See 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 2012) (stating a defendant found guilty of more than one murder “shall” be sentenced to life in prison); 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e) (West 2012) (defining “predicate activity” to include first degree murder).”
People v. Polk, 2024 IL App (1st) 181933 (Ill. App. Ct. 2024). “1-18-1933 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 2012) (requiring a life sentence for a non-juvenile defendant found guilty of more than one murder); 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e) (West 2012) (defining “predicate activity” to include first degree murder).”
— 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e)(1) — 1 case
People v. Villareal, 2021 IL App (1st) 181817 (Ill. App. Ct. 2021). “1-18-1817 ¶ 43 If O’Grady acted in the manner described in Spalding, O’Grady apparently committed the offenses of obstructing justice to further gang activity, a Class 3 felony (720 5/31-4(b)(2) (West 2014)), and the felony of violating the Illinois Street Gang and Racketeer…”
— 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e)(4) — 1 case
People v. Hoffman, 2025 IL 130344 (Ill. 2025). “2(c), (e) (West 2022)); delivery of a controlled substance within 500 feet of a school when minors are present (720 ILCS 570/407(b)(1) (West 2022)); racketeering predicated on methamphetamine delivery (720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e)(4), 33G-4, 33G- 5, (West 2022)); felony murder predicated…”
— 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(f)(1) — 1 case
People v. Spears, 2024 IL App (1st) 181491 (Ill. App. Ct. 2024). “See 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(1)(c)(ii) (West 2012) (stating a defendant found guilty of more than one murder “shall” be sentenced to life in prison); 720 ILCS 5/33G-3(e) (West 2012) (defining “predicate activity” to include first degree murder).”
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