Full opinion text
Memorandum and Order KEETON, District Judge. On September 14, 1984, a grand jury returned a thirteen-count indictment against the seven defendants in this case. All defendants are charged with violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. (1982) (Counts 1, 2). Defendants Angiulo, Cincotti, Kazonis, Lamattina, and Orlandella are charged with operating an illegal gambling business, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1955 and 2 (1982) (Counts 3-6). Defendants Angiulo, Gambale, Kazonis, and Limone are charged with obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503 (1982), and conspiracy to obstruct justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (1982) (Counts 7-9). Finally, defendants Gambale, Limone, and Orlandella are charged with conspiracy to make and collect extortionate extensions of credit in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 892(a) and 894(a) (1982) (Counts 10-13). With the exception of defendant Lamattina, who is still at large, defendants have moved to dismiss the indictment and/or suppress evidence obtained as a result of electronic surveillance conducted by the government at 98 Prince Street, Boston, Massachusetts, from January 9, 1981 to May 3,1981 and at 51 North Margin Street, Boston, Massachusetts, from January 30, 1981 to February 26, 1981 and from March 27,1981 to May 12,1981. Defendants have also moved for an evidentiary hearing on the above motions. In addition, defendants have made various motions which are unrelated to the electronic surveillance in this case. Oral arguments on these motions have been presented in three hearings, written submissions have been filed, and the motions are now ready for consideration. I. Motions Related to Electronic Surveillance During oral argument, and in submissions to the court, defendants essentially asserted eleven different grounds in support of the various motions to dismiss the indictment and/or suppress evidence obtained as a result of electronic surveillance. Each will be considered in turn. The first six of these grounds, discussed in Sections I.B. through I.G., were asserted in similar fashion by defendant William Cintolo in motions before me, and the reasoning of the memorandum of decision in that case is equally applicable herein. See United States v. Cintolo, CR 84-397-G(K) (D.Mass., April 26, 1985). Rather than referring to that memorandum, however, for greater convenience I have incorporated applicable portions of it into the present memorandum. A. Questions of Standing Before turning to defendants’ arguments, I first consider whether any or all defendants have standing to challenge the various interceptions at issue in this case. The government argues that only defendant Cincotti and defendant Lamattina, who is not now before the court, have standing to challenge evidence obtained as a result of electronic surveillance at 51 North Margin Street. The government asserts, and defendants have not disputed, that none of the other defendants was either named in the orders authorizing electronic surveillance at 51 North Margin Street or was a party to conversations intercepted at that location. Nor is it claimed that any of the defendants had a proprietary interest in 51 North Margin Street. Under the provisions of Title III, “[a]ny aggrieved person ... may move to suppress the contents of any intercepted wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom,” on the ground that it was unlawfully intercepted. 18 U.S.C. § 2518(10)(a) (1982). The statute defines an “aggrieved person” as any “person who was a party to any intercepted wire or oral communication or a person against whom the interception was directed.” Id. § 2510(11). Case law has clearly established that under Title III, as under Fourth Amendment principles, a defendant has standing to assert only his own rights and may not successfully challenge the admissibility of evidence on the ground that it was obtained in violation of another person’s rights. See, e.g., Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171-72, 176, 89 S.Ct. 961, 965, 968, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969); United States v. Williams, 737 F.2d 594, 616 (7th Cir.1984) (citing cases), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 1354, 84 L.Ed.2d 377 (1985). Rather, a defendant has standing to challenge electronic surveillance only if he can “show that it was directed at him, that the Government intercepted his conversations or that the [intercepted] communications occurred at least partly on his premises. Unless he can establish one of these events, it is legally irrelevant that the surveillance was unlawful.” United States v. Williams, 580 F.2d 578, 583 (D.C.Cir.) (emphasis in original), cert. denied sub nom. Lincoln v. United States, 439 U.S. 832, 99 S.Ct. 112, 58 L.Ed.2d 127 (1978). Since only defendants Cincotti and Lamattina can establish one of these events, I conclude that none of the other defendants — Angiulo, Gambale, Kazonis, Limone, and Orlandella — has standing to challenge the evidence obtained as a result of electronic surveillance at 51 North Margin Street. Defendants’ argument that they should have standing to challenge conversations intercepted at North Margin Street because “the Government is intending to introduce the sum total of all that evidence against all the defendants” is unavailing. Transcript, Oral Argument on Motions, April 29, 1985, at 28. The Supreme Court has specifically stated that suppression of evidence “can be successfully urged only by those whose rights were violated by the search itself, not by those who are aggrieved solely by the introduction of damaging evidence.” Alderman, 394 U.S. at 171-72, 89 S.Ct. at 965. I therefore turn to the grounds for suppression and/or dismissal of the indictment raised by defendants in their motions. Although only defendant Cincotti of the six defendants before this court has standing to challenge the interceptions at 51 North Margin Street, I refer as a matter of convenience to the arguments being raised as being made by defendants, in the plural, since there is no question that all defendants have standing to challenge the interceptions at 98 Prince Street, since the arguments made are, with one exception, equally applicable to both locations and both locations are therefore treated together, and since defendants have raised the same challenges to the evidence obtained at both locations. B. Taint Defendants first argue that evidence obtained as a result of electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street and 51 North Margin Street should be suppressed because the surveillance was conducted pursuant to court orders on applications and supporting affidavits that were the fruit of illegal electronic surveillance. Specifically, they assert that the applications for authorization to conduct surveillance at the two locations were supported by evidence derived from unlawful interceptions conducted between March 1962 and June 1965 at the office of Raymond L.S. Patriarca on Atwells Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, and between January 19, 1963 and July 10, 1965 at Jay’s Lounge in Boston. Therefore, defendants argue, the evidence obtained against them as a result of the Prince Street and North Margin Street interceptions should be suppressed because it is the tainted product of earlier, illegal interceptions. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487-88, 83 S.Ct. 407, 417, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). They assert that, at the very least, this court should hold an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the evidence which supported the applications for authorization to conduct surveillance at 98 Prince Street and 51 North Margin Street was in fact tainted. The above argument cannot be sustained. None of the defendants was present at either Atwells Avenue or at Jay’s Lounge when the allegedly illegal interceptions took place. None had a proprietary interest in either location. As noted in Section I.A., supra, under both Fourth Amendment principles and Title III law, a defendant has standing to assert only his own rights, and may not successfully challenge the admissibility of evidence on the ground that it was tainted by the illegal infringement of some other person’s rights. See, e.g., Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171-72, 176, 89 S.Ct. 961, 965, 968, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969); United States v. Williams, 737 F.2d 594, 616 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 105 S.Ct. 1354, 84 L.Ed.2d 377 (1985); United States v. Fury, 554 F.2d 522, 525-26 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 436 U.S. 931, 98 S.Ct. 2831, 56 L.Ed.2d 776 (1978). Therefore, even if the interceptions at At-wells Avenue and Jay’s Lounge were determined to be illegal, a question I need not address, defendants have no standing to challenge either the Prince Street or the North Margin Street surveillance as tainted by the surveillance at those two locations. That earlier surveillance, even if illegal, did not violate the rights of any of the defendants. At oral argument,.defendants suggested that the court should apply the law of standing as it existed between 1962 and 1965, at the time of the interceptions at Atwells Avenue and Jay’s Lounge, rather than the law of standing as it exists today. I reject this suggestion. Defendants have advanced no valid reason to apply the law of standing as it existed between 1962 and 1965, rather than to follow the general practice of applying current law regarding standing. Nor have defendants shown that they would have had standing to challenge the interceptions at Atwells Avenue and Jay’s Lounge under the law regarding standing then in effect. Defendants also argue that the First Circuit’s holding in United States v. Plotkin, 550 F.2d 693 (1st Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Considine v. United States, 434 U.S. .820, 98 S.Ct. 61, 54 L.Ed.2d 76 (1977), supports their position. They correctly note that the First Circuit, in Plotkin, reversed a district judge’s refusal to order the Federal Bureau of Investigation to produce for a defendant transcripts of telephone calls involving the defendant which had been illegally intercepted, holding that such transcripts were a possible source of evidence that a second wiretap was the poisoned fruit of the first wiretap. They fail to note, however, that the First Circuit applied Plotkin only to the one defendant in the case who had standing to challenge the first interception as illegal: At the outset we note that all of the appellants are challenging the admission of the evidence on the ground that it is the fruit of an illegal wiretap which intercepted conversations of appellant Serino. None of the other appellants were allegedly overheard during any other illegal wiretap. Only appellant Serino therefore has standing to assert a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights in seeking to suppress the evidence. Id. at 695. Since defendants here do not have standing to challenge the interceptions at Atwells Avenue or Jay’s Lounge, the motion to suppress evidence or for an evidentiary hearing on this ground must be denied. C. Authorization Defendants next argue that the evidence against them gained through electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street and 51 North Margin Street must be suppressed because the authorizations for such surveillance were not made by a specially designated Assistant Attorney General, as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2516(1) (1982). That section provided, at the time the authorizations for surveillance in this case were signed, that “[t]he Attorney General, or any Assistant Attorney General specially designated by the Attorney General, may authorize an application to a Federal judge of competent jurisdiction for ... an order authorizing or approving the interception of wire or oral communications ...” Defendants assert that the authorizations for surveillance were not made by an Assistant Attorney General with proper authority and that the orders permitting such surveillance are therefore invalid. Careful consideration of the facts of this case, as well as the case law on this subject, indicates that this argument must be rejected. The facts concerning the challenged authorizations are as follows: On January 9, 1981, Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr., issued an order authorizing the interception of oral communications at 98 Prince Street. Attached to the application for the order was an authorization, dated January 2, 1981, from Philip Heymann, then Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division. Also attached was a copy of order number 799-78, issued by then Attorney General Griffin Bell on August 14, 1978. The order specially designated the Assistant Attorneys General in charge of the Criminal Division, the Tax Division, and the Office of Legal Counsel as officials empowered to authorize applications for electronic surveillance under 18 U.S.C. § 2516. In August 1979, Benjamin Civiletti succeeded Bell as Attorney General. As of January 9, 1981, no new § 2516 order was issued, nor was order number 799-78 revoked. On January 30, 1981, Judge Garrity issued an order authorizing the interception of oral communications at 51 North Margin Street. Attached to the application for the order was an authorization, dated January 23, 1981, from Sanford Litvack, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division. Litvack acted pursuant to order number 931-81, issued by then Attorney General Civiletti on January 19, 1981. That order designated the four Attorneys General in charge of the Criminal Division, the Tax Division, the Office of Legal Counsel, and the Antitrust Division, in that order, to exercise the power of the Attorney General, in his absence, to authorize applications for electronic surveillance and revoked order number 799-78. On January 23, 1981, the same day Litvack authorized the application for surveillance at 51 North Margin Street, William French Smith was sworn in as Attorney General. On February 6, 1981, Judge Garrity issued an order authorizing a thirty-day extension of the original surveillance order at 98 Prince Street. Litvack also authorized the application to extend surveillance. On February 27, 1981, Attorney General Smith issued order number 934-81, which specially designated the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office for Improvements in the Administration of Justice and stated that Civiletti’s order remained in effect. Maurice Rosenberg, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of that office, authorized on March 5, 1981, an application to extend the surveillance at 98 Prince Street, which was approved by Judge Garrity on March 6, 1981. Judge A. David Mazzone approved the final thirty-day extension for surveillance at 98 Prince Street on April 3, 1981. Smith himself authorized that application to extend surveillance. Smith also authorized, on March 26, 1981, another application for surveillance at 51 North Margin Street, which was approved by Judge Garrity on March 27, 1981. On April 27, 1981, Judge Garrity entered an order extending surveillance at 51 North Margin Street for a period of 15 days. D. Lowell Jensen, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, authorized the application to extend surveillance. Defendants essentially argue that the Heymann authorization and, as a result, the order of January 9, 1981, authorizing electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street, is invalid because Heymann relied on a designation from Attorney General Bell although Civiletti was Attorney General at the time of Heymann’s action in this matter. They argue that the Litvack authorization and, as a result, the order of January 30, 1981, authorizing electronic surveillance at 51 North Margin Street and the order of February 6, 1981, extending surveillance at 98 Prince Street, are invalid because Litvack relied on a designation from Civiletti although, at the time of Litvack’s action on this matter, Smith was Attorney General. Furthermore, they assert that Litvack’s authorization is invalid because it did not state that the Attorney General and three other Assistant Attorneys General, who had priority over Litvack under order number 931-81, were absent or unavailable. Finally, defendants argue that the remaining orders of March 6, 1981, March 27, 1981, April 3, 1981, and April 27, 1981, are invalid because the evidence used to demonstrate probable cause for these orders was derived from the three prior, invalid orders. Defendants’ contentions must be rejected. No valid reason is advanced for interpreting § 2516(1) to require a special designation from the particular Attorney General in office at the time of the application for surveillance, rather than from an Attorney General in office at the time of the designation itself. There is, in fact, “no basis for holding that § 2516(1) represents a deviation from the usual rule that administrative orders ordinarily remain in effect beyond the tenure of the individual who issued them.” United States v. Wyder, 674 F.2d 224, 227 (4th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Mallory v. United States, 457 U.S. 1125, 102 S.Ct. 2944, 73 L.Ed.2d 1340 (1982). The First Circuit, when faced with another challenge under § 2516(1), recently stated that “a valid designation continues in effect until revoked.” United States v. Bynum, 763 F.2d 474, 475 (1st Cir.1985). It is true that a major purpose of § 2516 is to centralize “in a publicly responsible official subject to the political process the formulation of law enforcement policy on the use of electronic surveillance techniques,” S.Rep. No. 1097, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 96-97 (1968), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1968, pp. 2112, 2185, and that the Supreme Court, in United States v. Giordano, 416 U.S. 505, 94 S.Ct. 1820, 40 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974), held that the Executive Assistant to the Attorney General could not authorize applications for wiretaps, even though the Attorney General wanted him to do so, because a purpose of § 2516(1) was to limit power to authorize wiretaps “to those responsive to the political process, a category to which the Executive Assistant to the Attorney General obviously does not belong.” Id. at 520, 94 S.Ct. at 1829. Nonetheless, it is clear that Heymann and Litvack, who were appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, see id. at 520 n. 9, 94 S.Ct. at 1829 n. 9, were clearly identifiable and politically accountable persons within the Justice Department. See United States v. Robinson, 698 F.2d 448, 452 (D.C.Cir.1983); United States v. Wyder, 674 F.2d at 227. Numerous circuit courts have upheld the validity of authorizations made by Heymann and Litvack under similar circumstances. See, e.g., United States v. Messersmith, 692 F.2d 1315, 1317 (11th Cir.1982) (Heymann authorization); United States v. Wyder, 674 F.2d at 226-27 (same); United States v. Terry, 702 F.2d 299, 310-11 (2d Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Williams v. United States, 461 U.S. 931, 103 S.Ct. 2095, 77 L.Ed.2d 304 (1983) (Litvack authorization); United States v. Robinson, 698 F.2d at 452 (same). I conclude that the fact that the Attorney General who designated Heymann and Litvaek to authorize applications for electronic surveillance was not in office at the time the application was filed does not invalidate the order granting such surveillance. I further conclude that Litvack is presumed to have properly exercised his designated power and acted because the Attorney General and other Assistant Attorneys General with higher priority were absent or unavailable, although his authorization does not so state. Defendants have failed to offer evidence to the contrary, and their contention is no more than conjecture or speculation. United States v. Terry, 702 F.2d at 311. Defendants’ motion to suppress on this ground must therefore be denied. D. Sealing and Unsealing Defendants next argue that the evidence against them should be suppressed because the government failed to comply with the sealing requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 2518(8)(a) by unsealing the tapes at issue in this case to make duplicate or enhanced copies. The pertinent portion of § 2518(8)(a) provides that “[ijmmediately upon the expiration of the period of the order [permitting electronic surveillance], or extension thereof, such recordings shall be made available to the judge issuing such order and sealed under his directions.” Defendants’ contention essentially has three prongs. First, they argue that Title III nowhere provides for the unsealing of tape recordings of intercepted oral communications before trial, once the tapes have been sealed. Second, analogizing the government’s unsealing of the tapes in this case to cases involving delays in sealing, they argue that the government has not presented a satisfactory explanation for its actions in unsealing the tapes. Finally, they argue that the government misled Judge Garrity as to the necessity for his permitting the tapes to be unsealed. Defendants are correct that Title III does not explicitly provide the statutory authority to unseal tapes originally sealed. Their argument that a court therefore has no authority to permit the unsealing of tapes proves too much, however. They do, not contest that the statute implicitly permits unsealing for use at trial. If it did not implicitly permit, also, unsealing of tapes before trial, defendants would never be able to gain access to them before trial, a result clearly at odds with the language and purpose of Title III. Instead of inferring that the absence of explicit authorization for unsealing is to be interpreted as a prohibition of unsealing (a classic instance of the fallacy of the undistributed middle) a court more reasonably approaches this issue as one that Congress simply did not address in enacting Title III. In such circumstances, courts should be guided in answering the question by the aims, principles, and policies that manifestly underlie the enacted statute. Cf. Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 487, 71 S.Ct. 456, 463, 95 L.Ed.2d 456 (1951) (Frankfurter, J.); In the Matter of an Application of the United States for an Order Authorizing Interception of Oral Communications and Videotape Surveillance, 513 F.Supp. 421, 423 (D.Mass.1980). Title III is sensibly construed as not prohibiting the unsealing of tapes for good cause, such as to make enhanced or duplicate tapes. A contrary interpretation, as noted above, would not make sense. Several courts have allowed the unsealing of tapes for the purpose in question here. See, e.g., United States v. Lambert, No. 84-4-S (E.D.Ky., May 23, 1984); In the Matter of an Application of the United States of America for an Order Authorizing the Interception of Wire Communications, Misc. No. 10122 (C.D.Cal., Apr. 23, 1981). See also United States v. Diana, 605 F.2d 1307, 1315 (4th Cir.1979) (“No reason is apparent why the government could not have obtained a court order to unseal the specific tapes it needed.”), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1102, 100 S.Ct. 1067, 62 L.Ed.2d 787 (1980). I conclude that a court has inherent authority to order the unsealing of tapes previously sealed upon a showing of good cause. Defendants argue, however, that the government has not provided a satisfactory explanation for its actions. Analogizing the unsealing in this case to cases involving delays in sealing, they contend that suppression of the tapes is required absent such an explanation. The analogy is inapt, and must be rejected. In cases involving delays in sealing, a problem arises because the tape recordings which are made are not placed under the supervision and control of a neutral judicial officer for a certain period of time. Suppression may therefore be appropriate in circumstances where there is a fear of tampering or manipulation of recorded evidence. Here, by contrast, the tapes were unsealed only pursuant to a court order and in the presence of an authorizing judge. Given such judicial supervision and control of the government's actions, the problems associated with delays in sealing simply are inapplicable here, especially since there was no delay in sealing the tape recordings made either at 98 Prince Street or at 51 North Margin Street. Defendants argue, however, that suppression is nonetheless appropriate because the government misled Judge Garrity as to the need to unseal the tape recordings. They argue that the government could have accomplished its purposes by enhancing duplicate, rather than original recordings. Defendants argue as well that the government could have used multiple tape recorders to make simultaneous original recordings and then enhanced one of the duplicate originals. They assert that duplicate originals were in fact made during a portion of the monitoring at 51 North Margin Street. I conclude, based on the submissions before me (including materials examined in camera pursuant to oral order on defendants’ motion in the alternative to a motion for production), that defendants have not shown that the government misled Judge Garrity into granting its motions to unseal. Nor was the government obligated to follow the procedures suggested by defendants. Even if it be assumed that some other way of meeting the government’s demonstrated need would have been possible, and perhaps even wiser or better in some way, I cannot find on the record before me that the government was either unreasonable or lacked good cause in presenting its request for authorization to unseal the tapes. Defendants’ motion to suppress on this ground is therefore denied. E. Subterfuge Defendants next argue that the government’s entire Title III application process was founded upon subterfuge. They assert that the government was actually conducting a RICO investigation of the Angiulo family and its associates before 1981, but that it knew in the beginning of 1981 that it could not make a showing of probable cause sufficient to permit the issuance of orders for electronic surveillance for RICO offenses under the law of the First Circuit at the time. The First Circuit, in United States v. Turkette, 632 F.2d 896 (1st Cir.1980), rev’d, 452 U.S. 576, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981), had decided on September 23, 1980, that the RICO statute applied only to the infiltration of legitimate business activities and not to individuals engaged in wholly illegitimate acts, and the Supreme Court did not reverse this decision until June 17, 1981. Therefore, defendants allege, the government intentionally misled Judges Garrity and Mazzone (who granted the surveillance orders) by presenting applications based on alleged gambling and loansharking offenses, when in fact it was conducting a RICO investigation all along. Based on the record before me (including materials examined in camera as noted above), I cannot say that defendants have presented any evidence that would support — or even tend to suggest good cause for supposing that other evidence sought to be developed by discovery demands or an evidentiary hearing would support — a finding of such subterfuge on the part of the government. It is true that a RICO code number appears on some materials and documents related to this case. It is also uncontested that the government was conducting a RICO investigation of the Angiulos as early as 1976. Finally, it is true that Wendy Collins, a special attorney who helped supervise the surveillance in the case, sought and obtained in April 1981 an order under 18 U.S.C. § 2517(5) authorizing the use in a RICO prosecution of conversations intercepted at 98 Prince Street. A leap of speculation rather than reasoned inference remains, however, between each of these facts, or the combination of all of them, and any suggested finding that the government engaged in some sort of subterfuge. Certainly it was not improper for the government to attempt a RICO investigation of the Angiulos before the First Circuit’s decision in Turkette. For purposes of considering this issue I assume, as defendants contend, that once Turkette was decided by the First Circuit (and before reversal by the Supreme Court), it would have been difficult if not impossible for the government to show a valid basis for obtaining an order authorizing electronic surveillance of the Angiulos for RICO violations. Collins in fact testified that she had considered filing a Title III application citing RICO, but rejected this course of action because of the holding in Turkette. The inference to be drawn, however, is not that the government thereafter engaged in some sort of subterfuge. Rather, the more compelling inference is that after the First Circuit’s ruling, the government attempted to make the best of an adverse situation and therefore filed a Title III application based upon gambling and loansharking violations. That the government failed to change all its file numbers is plainly insufficient to support the sinister inference for which defendants argue. Indeed, it would be more likely that such a step as that would have been given first order attention if a plan of deception had been generated. Thus, neither the existence of a RICO file designation on certain documents nor the § 2527(5) application filed in April 1981, supports a finding contrary to the one I make on the submissions before me. Defendants have made no more than a conclusional submission to contradict Collins’ assertion that she filed a § 2517(5) application for an order authorizing the use of intercepted conversations in a RICO prosecution because the government had obtained evidence through interceptions of possible infiltration of legitimate businesses. In any event, such an application was filed after the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Turkette. Given the requirement that such an application be filed “as soon as practicable,” 18 U.S.C. § 2517(5) (1982), I cannot say that the filing of such an application is evidence of government subterfuge. I therefore conclude that the defendants have not made a “substantial preliminary showing that a false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth” was made by the government in seeking authorization for electronic surveillance. See Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 155, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2676, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978). I therefore deny defendants’ motion to suppress, and their motion for an evidentiary hearing, on this ground. F. Minimization Defendants next argue that evidence against them should be suppressed because, in conducting electronic surveillance, the government failed to minimize the interception of non-pertinent conversations. See 18 U.S.C. § 2518(5) (1982) (electronic surveillance “shall be conducted in such a way as to minimize the interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception under this chapter ... ”). They assert that the government effectively turned its surveillance into a general search warrant, by listening to two out of every three minutes of conversations, regardless of subject matter, and by monitoring conversations not within the scope of the surveillance authorized by the court. Whether the government properly minimized its interceptions is to be determined by a case-by-case analysis of the reasonableness of the government’s conduct. Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 139-40, 98 S.Ct. 1717, 1724, 56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978). Whether government agents acted reasonably in a given case is affected by such factors as the nature and scope of an alleged conspiracy, the government’s reasonable expectation of the character of the conversations they will be intercepting, and the extent of ongoing judicial supervision over the surveillance. See United States v. Dorfman, 542 F.Supp. 345, 390 (N.D.Ill.1982) (citing cases), affd sub nom. United States v. Williams, 737 F.2d 594 (7th Cir. 1984), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 105 S.Ct. 1354, 84 L.Ed.2d 377 (1985). Applying the above factors to the record before me, I cannot sustain defendants’ contention that the government’s actions in this case concerning minimization were improper or unreasonable. I credit the affidavits of Agent Edward M. Quinn, who supervised electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street, and Agent Sean Rafferty, who supervised the surveillance at 51 North Margin Street. The Quinn affidavit states that the government took the following steps when conducting electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street: Government attorneys personally instructed all monitoring agents concerning minimization procedures. Every agent reviewed the applications, orders, and memoranda concerning minimization prepared by government attorneys before monitoring any conversations and such documents were prominently posted at the monitoring site. Monitoring equipment was operated manually so that no conversations were recorded without being monitored and vice versa. Every monitoring agent maintained a log book in which the date, time, and substance of any intercepted communications were recorded, as well as the identities of the participants, if known. Other agents reviewed the logs and tapes on a daily basis and five-day progress reports, submitted to the supervising judge, detailed the progress and results of the surveillance. The Rafferty affidavit describes similar procedures which were used when conducting electronic surveillance at 51 North Margin Street. Both affidavits also indicate that intermittent monitoring, or spot checking, was used until conversations of a criminal nature were detected. Monitoring ceased when agents determined that only personal, non-criminal activity was being discussed. Such intermittent monitoring did not commence until it was ascertained that one of the interceptees named in the order authorizing surveillance was in the room. I cannot say that such intermittent monitoring is improper as a matter of law, even if, as defendants contend, the procedure consisted of turning on the recording equipment for two minutes and turning it off for one minute. Intermittent monitoring is a “reasonable method” for complying with minimization requirements. See, e.g., United States v. Daly, 535 F.2d 434, 442 n. 8 (8th Cir.1976). Furthermore, the provision of five-day reports to the authorizing judge supports the conclusion that the monitoring in this case was reasonable. See, e.g., United States v. Quintana, 508 F.2d 867, 875 (7th Cir.1975). Finally, the extensive monitoring in this case may be justified by the broad nature and scope of the conspiracy being investigated. The government’s bill of particulars, filed in this case and in United States v. Angiulo, CR 83-235-N, indicates that numerous persons were involved in the allegedly illegal gambling activities of the Angiulos. [W]hen the investigation is focusing on what is thought to be a widespread conspiracy more extensive surveillance may be justified in an attempt to determine the precise scope of the enterprise. And it is possible that many more of the conversations will be permissibly interceptable because they will involve one or more of the co-conspirators. Scott, 436 U.S. at 140, 98 S.Ct. at 1724. The conversations cited by defendants in their motion for evidentiary hearing as supposed examples of non-criminal conversations intercepted by the government do not change the result herein. These conversations all took place at 98 Prince Street between January 26, 1981 and February 9, 1981. Monitoring of conversations began there on January 19, 1981. “During the early stages of surveillance the agents may be forced to intercept all calls to establish categories of nonpertinent calls which will not be intercepted thereafter.” Scott, 436 U.S. at 141, 98 S.Ct. at 1725. As Judge Marshall has explained, “[i]t is not enough for the defendants to identify particular calls which they contend should not have been intercepted; they must establish a pattern of interception of innocent conversations which developed” over the period of surveillance. United States v. Dorfman, 542 F.Supp. at 391. I conclude that defendants have not established a pattern of government interception of innocent conversations. I therefore deny the motion to suppress on this ground. I further conclude that defendants have not produced “evidence that a substantial number of nonpertinent conversations [were] intercepted unreasonably.” United States v. Cirillo, 499 F.2d 872, 881 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1056, 95 S.Ct. 638, 42 L.Ed.2d 653 (1974). I therefore deny defendants’ motion for an evidentiary hearing on the minimization question. See United States v. Migely, 596 F.2d 511, 513 (1st Cir.), citing Cohen v. United States, 378 F.2d 751, 761 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 897, 88 S.Ct. 217, 19 L.Ed.2d 215 (1967) (evidentiary hearing is appropriate only if defendant alleges facts “sufficiently definite, specific, detailed, and non-conjectural, to enable the court to conclude that a substantial claim is presented”), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 943, 99 S.Ct. 2887, 61 L.Ed.2d 313 (1979). G. Compliance With § 2517(5) Defendants next contend that the evidence against them should be suppressed because the government improperly disclosed evidence of “other crimes” not listed in the order authorizing electronic surveillance, thereby violating 18 U.S.C. § 2517(5) (1982). Defendants have also moved to dismiss various counts of the indictment on this ground. Section 2517(5) states as follows: When an investigative or law enforcement officer, while engaged in intercepting wire or oral communications in the manner authorized herein, intercepts wire or oral communications relating to offenses other than those specified in the order of authorization or approval, the contents thereof, and evidence derived therefrom, may be disclosed or used as provided in subsections (1) and (2)- of this section. Such contents and any evidence derived therefrom may be used under subsection (3) of this section when authorized or approved by a judge of competent jurisdiction where such judge finds on subsequent application that the contents were otherwise intercepted in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. Such application shall be made as soon as practicable. On April 10, 1981, Judge Garrity signed an order pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2517(5) authorizing the disclosure of evidence obtained through electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street of possible violations of, among other offenses, 18 U.S.C. § 1962, the RICO statute under which defendants are charged in Counts 1 and 2. On October 16, 1981, Judge Garrity signed a similar disclosure order for evidence obtained through electronic surveillance at 51 North Margin Street. Defendants raise several objections to Judge Garrity’s § 2517(5) authorizations and to the actions taken by the government in disclosing evidence of violations of RICO, a crime for which interception of communications was not authorized under the orders permitting electronic surveillance. First, defendants argue that the orders signed by Judge Garrity are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the statute, in part because the orders did not include specific findings that the conversations which the government wished to disclose were otherwise intercepted in accordance with the provisions of Title III. They add that such conversations could not possibly have been “otherwise intercepted” or incidentally intercepted given the pervasive monitoring of the government in this case. Second, defendants argue that the government did not and in fact could not present the information upon which Judge Garrity could make the specific findings they allege are necessary to support an order pursuant to § 2517(5). In this regard, defendants note that the April 3, 1981 affidavit of Agent Quinn submitted by the government in support of its application to extend surveillance at 98 Prince Street was not necessarily before Judge Garrity when he issued the § 2517(5) order on April 10, 1981, since it was Judge Mazzone who authorized the extension of surveillance at 98 Prince Street on April 3, 1981. Third, defendants argue that certain conversations must be suppressed because they were not described to Judge Garrity with enough specificity to enable him to determine whether they could properly be disclosed under § 2517(5). Therefore, they argue, such conversations are not covered by Judge Garrity’s order. I conclude that these arguments must be rejected. First, contrary to defendants’ assertions, Title III does not require or even impliedly authorize a de novo review of the sufficiency of the evidence presented to Judge Garrity, or of Judge Garrity’s order itself. As Judge Marshall explained in United States v. Dorfman, 542 F.Supp. 345 (N.D.Ill.1982), affd sub nom. United States v. Williams, 737 F.2d 594 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 1354, 84 L.Ed.2d 377 (1985): Suppression of evidence is only authorized pursuant to § 2515 or 2518(10). Since an order permitting the use of the evidence in this proceeding was obtained, there can be no argument that “disclosure of the information would be in violation of this chapter” under § 2515. All the statute requires on its face is that an order be secured and that was done in the case at bar. Nor can an insufficient showing under § 2517(5) render the interception “unlawful” under § 2518(10). That section of the statute focuses on the lawfulness of the interception, not the subsequent acts of the government. Id. at 401 (footnotes omitted) (emphasis in original). Even were I to evaluate Judge Garrity’s order, I could not say such an order was insufficient, or that the information placed before Judge Garrity by the government, in applying for authorization under § 2517(5), was insufficient. If he required information in addition to that contained in the government’s application, Judge Garrity was free to consult the readily available materials. See United States v. Masciarelli, 558 F.2d 1064, 1068 (2d Cir.1977); United States v. Dorfman, 542 F.Supp. at 402 n. 74. It is of no import that Judge Mazzone authorized the April 3rd extension of electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street but Judge Garrity entered the § 2517(5) order. See United States v. Arnold, 576 F.Supp. 304, 311 (N.D.Ill.1983) (“the defendants’ complaint that the change of chief judges who supervised the wiretap authorizations prejudiced them is also frivolous. The defendants have not demonstrated how the change of chief judges prejudiced them or interfered with the proper monitoring of the wiretaps. Absent more, a mere conclusory allegation that this change prejudiced them is an insufficient basis upon which to grant a motion to suppress.”). Moreover, defendant has provided no more than a conclusional allegation that Judge Garrity somehow did not have the April 3rd affidavit of Agent Quinn before him. I reject defendants’ argument that the “other crimes” conversations for which disclosure was authorized in Judge Garrity’s order could not have been incidentally intercepted given the pervasiveness of the government’s monitoring. As I have ruled in Part I.F., supra, the government did not act improperly as to minimization, and did not fail to minimize the interception of noncriminal conversations. Since the interception of evidence related to the offenses named in the surveillance order was conducted lawfully, evidence of other crimes could be intercepted “incidentally” during the course of lawfully executing the order authorizing surveillance. United States v. McKinnon, 721 F.2d 19, 22 (1st Cir.1983). The First Circuit has stated that “something does not have to be unanticipated in order to be incidental. Evidence of crimes other than those authorized in a wiretap warrant are intercepted ‘incidentally’ when they are the by-product of a bona fide investigation of crimes specified in a valid warrant.” Id. at 23. Applying such a standard, I conclude that evidence of other crimes was properly intercepted incidentally in this case. I also reject the argument that certain conversations must be suppressed because they were not disclosed with enough specificity to enable Judge Garrity to determine whether they could properly be disclosed under § 2517(5). Defendants’ suggestion that “other crimes” conversations need to be particularized and specified in order for them to be eligible for disclosure is simply not borne out by the statute. Section 2517(5) merely states that the contents of “other crimes” conversations may be disclosed when authorized by a judge, as Judge Garrity did here. There is no requirement in § 2517 that the judge listen to or know about each such conversation. United States v. McKinnon, cited by defendants, simply does not support their argument on this point. The First Circuit in that case upheld the district court’s suppression of one conversation and its refusal to suppress two other conversations because it found that the disclosure of the two other conversations had been implicitly authorized by the supervising judge when he renewed the wiretap but that officers had never sought authorization to use the third conversation. See 721 F.2d at 23. The case simply does not stand for the proposition that a supervising judge, when authorizing disclosure under § 2517(5), needs to engage in a conversation-by-conversation analysis. Defendants’ most troubling argument has two aspects. They assert that the indictment in this case charges them with being members of a wholly illegitimate enterprise. On April 10, 1981, however, when Judge Garrity authorized disclosure of evidence of possible violations of the RICO statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (1982), the First Circuit had held that RICO applied only to infiltration of legitimate businesses and not to wholly criminal enterprises. United States v. Turkette, 632 F.2d 896 (1st Cir.1980). It was not until June 17, 1981, that the Supreme Court reversed this decision and held that the RICO statute applies to both legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981). Therefore, defendants argue, Judge Garrity could not authorize disclosure of evidence of violations of RICO by a wholly illegitimate enterprise such as that charged in the indictment because the law of the First Circuit at the time was that RICO did not apply to such enterprises. They thus assert that Judge Garrity’s order, as applied to disclosure of evidence of violations of RICO by wholly illegitimate enterprises, is a nullity and that the government therefore disclosed “other crimes” information without proper authorization, in violation of § 2517(5). In any event, defendants argue, Judge Garrity’s order, even if valid, cannot provide authorization for the disclosure of “other crimes” information intercepted between April 10, 1981 and May 3, 1981, after the issuance of the order. The government therefore violated § 2517(5) by disclosing information obtained through electronic surveillance during this period, they assert. Of course, the above two arguments do not apply to the disclosure of “other crimes” information intercepted at 51 North Margin Street, since Judge Garrity’s § 2517(5) order for that location was entered on October 16, 1981, after the Supreme Court’s holding in Turkette and after the completion of electronic surveillance. In response, the government notes that Judge Garrity’s order referred merely to disclosure of evidence of possible violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1962. It did not distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. Therefore, the government argues, it could properly disclose evidence of RICO violations by wholly illegitimate enterprises under Judge Garrity’s order following the Supreme Court decision in Turkette. Alternatively, the government asserts that it is not at all clear that the First Circuit’s holding in Turkette should be considered the law of the circuit at the time of Judge Garrity’s order, given that the Supreme Court had already granted certiorari in the case. Under either analysis, the government argues that Judge Garrity’s order should be viewed not as a nullity, but as authorization for the disclosures made by the government. I need not and do not address the difficult and troubling question of the scope and effect of Judge Garrity’s reference in the § 2517(5) order to the RICO statute, and whether such a reference would authorize the disclosure of evidence of RICO violations by a wholly illegitimate enterprise. Instead, I conclude that, even ignoring the reference to § 1962 in Judge Garrity’s order, neither dismissal of the indictment nor suppression of evidence is warranted or necessitated under the circumstances of this case. The issue raised by the circumstances of this case is arguably one of first impression. Research has disclosed no case in which conversations intercepted pursuant to lawfully conducted electronic surveillance subsequently became evidence of another crime because of a Supreme Court ruling. (I assume, for purposes of argument, that the First Circuit’s holding in Turkette was the law of the circuit before the Supreme Court’s reversal). Analogies to other cases involving alleged violations of § 2517(5), however, disclose two alternative grounds requiring denial of defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment or suppress evidence. First, numerous courts, including the First Circuit, have determined that § 2517(5) does not require explicit authorization for the disclosure of “other crimes” information. Rather, authorization can be implicitly obtained when a judge grants an extension of the order authorizing surveillance, after being advised in applications, affidavits, and/or five-day progress reports that “other crimes” conversations have been intercepted. See, e.g., United States v. McKinnon, 721 F.2d at 23-24; United States v. Johnson, 696 F.2d 115, 125 (D.C.Cir.1982); United States v. Masciarelli, 558 F.2d 1064, 1069 (2d Cir.1977). The judge’s approval of an extension, when presented with the above information, constitutes a determination that the original order was lawfully obtained, that it was sought in good faith and not as a subterfuge search, and that the “other crimes” conversations have been incidentally intercepted. See United States v. Masciarelli, 558 F.2d at 1068; United States v. Harvey, 560 F.Supp. 1040, 1066 (S.D.Fla.1982). Here, the progress reports, affidavits, and applications submitted to Judges Garrity and Mazzone during the course of electronic surveillance at 98 Prince Street and in an attempt to obtain extensions of such surveillance clearly described conversations related to the predicate acts which form the basis for the RICO prosecution in this case. Thus, Judges Garrity and Mazzone implicitly authorized the disclosure of evidence of information related to probable violations of RICO intercepted at 98 Prince Street by authorizing extensions of surveillance at that location. It is true that the government, in its submissions, did not refer to the RICO statute by number. This may have been because the Supreme Court had not yet reversed the First Circuit and held that RICO applied to wholly illegitimate enterprises. United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981). Whatever the reason, the lack of specific reference to § 1962 does not at all negate the implicit authorization in this case, given the description of the relevant conversations in the government’s submissions. The Second Circuit’s decision in United States v. Tortorello, 480 F.2d 764 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 866, 94 S.Ct. 63, 38 L.Ed.2d 86 (1973), provides an instructive analogy. In that case, the government obtained a wiretap authorization under New York State law for a variety of offenses, including grand larceny. In carrying out the wiretap the government uncovered a securities fraud scheme which it set out in renewal affidavits to the judge who had authorized the original wiretap. The government did not, however, specify the federal statutes allegedly violated by the securities fraud scheme. Nonetheless, the Second Circuit held that the renewal of the wiretaps satisfied § 2517(5) even without a reference to the specific federal statutory violation, explaining that “[i]t is enough that notification of the interception of evidence not authorized by the original order be clearly provided in the renewal and amendment application papers.” Id. at 783. See also United States v. Masciarelli, 558 F.2d at 1068-69. Similarly, § 2517(5) is satisfied here by the description in the government’s submissions of “other crimes” conversations, even without a specific statutory reference to RICO. Alternatively, even if the concept of implicit authorization is inapplicable, neither dismissal of the indictment nor suppression of evidence is warranted here. The Supreme Court has stated that, under Title III, suppression is required only for a “failure to satisfy any of those statutory requirements that directly and substantially implement the congressional intention to limit the use of intercept procedures to those situations clearly calling for the employment of this extraordinary investigative device.” United States v. Donovan, 429 U.S. 413, 433-34, 97 S.Ct. 658, 671, 50 L.Ed.2d 652 (1977); United States v. Giordano, 416 U.S. 505, 527, 94 S.Ct. 1820, 1832, 40 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974). Several courts have noted that neither dismissal of an indictment nor suppression of evidence may be an appropriate remedy, even where the technical requirements of § 2517(5) have not been met. See, e.g., United States v. Vento, 533 F.2d 838, 855-56 (3d Cir.1976); United States v. Harvey, 560 F.Supp. at 1082; United States v. Dorfman, 532 F.Supp. 1118, 1137 (N.D.Ill.1981) (citing cases), affd sub nom. United States v. Williams, 737 F.2d 594 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 1354, 84 L.Ed.2d 377 (1985). Rather, “the proper procedure in deciding what, if any, sanction is appropriate requires an examination of the purpose to be served by the Title III requirement which has been violated and a decision as to whether that purpose has been frustrated by the violation.” United States v. Aloi, 449 F.Supp. 698, 721 (E.D.N.Y.1977). Both the First Circuit and the Fifth Circuit have agreed that, by enacting § 2517(5), “Congress wished to assure that the Government does not secure a wiretap authorization order to investigate one offense as a subterfuge to acquire evidence of a different offense for which the prerequisites to an authorization order are lacking.” United States v. Southard, 700 F.2d 1, 31 (1st Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Ferris v. United States, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 89, 78 L.Ed.2d 97 (1983); United States v. Campagnuolo, 556 F.2d 1209, 1214 (5th Cir.1977). I have already concluded in section I.E. above that the government did not engage in a subterfuge search in this case. Furthermore, the fact that Judge Garrity issued a § 2517(5) order on April 10, 1981 means that he determined that the original order was sought in good faith and lawfully obtained and that the “other crimes” conversations were incidentally intercepted during a lawfully executed order. This finding would be true whether or not the reference to § 1962 was broad enough to cover possible violations by wholly illegitimate enterprises, since the § 2517(5) order authorized disclosure of other federal crimes as well. See United States v. Arnold, 576 F.Supp. at 310-11; United States v. Aloi, 449 F.Supp. at 721-23. The situation in Aloi is in fact analogous to this case. In Aloi, the government obtained a series of wiretap orders authorizing the interception of conversations relating to bribery of public officials and conspiracy to commit this act, in violation of state law. No federal offense was alleged in these orders. Subsequently, the government obtained a § 2517(5) order authorizing disclosure of evidence of various federal offenses, including 18 U.S.C. § 1952 (1982), use of interstate commerce to commit bribery. The § 2517(5) order did not, however, authorize the disclosure of information related to 18 U.S.C. § 371 (1982), the conspiracy statute. Defendants, who were indicted under both statutes, contended that dismissal of the indictment or suppression of the evidence was the only appropriate remedy, because the § 2517(5) order did not refer to § 371. The Aloi court rejected this contention. It noted that the purpose of obtaining a § 2517(5) order, that of insuring that the original wiretap was obtained in good faith and not as a subterfuge, was accomplished when the government obtained an order authorizing disclosure of evidence related to possible violations of § 1952: Returning to a judge to get a further disclosure order for the section 371 offense would have served no useful purpose and would have in no way furthered any goal of Title III. This is especially true where, as here, each intercepted conversation was properly intercepted pursuant to the initial state order and is probative of both the offenses named in the initial and amended state orders and section 371. 449 F.Supp. at 722-23 (footnote omitted). The government obtained a § 2517(5) order in this case as well, thereby satisfying the underlying purposes of the statute. Furthermore, intercepted conversations which are probative of RICO violations, because they relate to acts of racketeering indictable under 18 U.S.C. §§ 892, 894, 1503, and 1955, are also probative of those offenses themselves, for which defendants were indicted in Counts 3 through 6 and Counts 8 through 13. The orders and extensions of surveillance at 98 Prince Street specifically authorized the government to intercept conversations related to the above offenses, and, as I have ruled above, such conversations were properly intercepted. No § 2517(5) order was even needed for these conversations. The government’s actions thus did not undermine the goals and purposes of Title III, and neither suppression of evidence nor dismissal of the indictment is appropriate. It would in fact be impossible to suppress such evidence at trial because it was inadmissible in a RICO prosecution when the conversations were properly intercepted and admissible because they related to the other counts of the indictment, to which no claim of violation of § 2517(5) applies. A very recent Eleventh Circuit case, United States v. Watchmaker, 761 F.2d 1459 (11th Cir.1985), also compels the conclusion that neither suppression of evidence nor dismissal of the indictment is appropriate. In Watchmaker, the government obtained orders authorizing the interception of communications related to the delivery and sale of various drugs and controlled substances. Defendants argued that, by disclosing such communications to a grand jury considering RICO (rather than drug law) violations without any prior authorization, the government violated § 2517(5). The Eleventh Circuit rejected a defense request to dismiss the indictment, noting that one rationale for authorizing the use of such evidence in a RICO prosecution was that the prosecution under the RICO statute bears a unique kind of similarity to the prosecution under the drug law. It is not merely a question of crimes which have “some common elements” or “some overlapping proof”: where, as here, a drug offense is one of the predicate acts for the RICO violation, every element of that offense must be proven before the RICO violation can be established. Although the object of the RICO statute might be different, the extent of similarity in what must be proved makes “subterfuge” virtually impossible; the government might seek, in the long run, to offer additional proof against the “enterprise,” but in the context of the intercepted conversation, it is most likely that the government is interested in offering evidence of the predicate offense. Id., at 1470-71. Certainly, if such evidence could be used in Watchmaker, where defendants were charged only with RICO violations, it could be disclosed in this case, where defendants are charged both with RICO violations and with violations of st