and acquitted you can t be tried again, but the government considers the state and the federal government as two separate sovereignties and so they can try people for the same offense twice. you know, that s madness. they just decided, we don t give a what these juries say. we re going to find a forum that s going to convict him. narrator: in order to charge smitty under rico, one of his crimes had to have been committed within the previous two years, so the government charged him with narcotics distribution. one of the undercover informants said we was sitting at a table and the guy gave me a line of speed, and i told the guy to give my buddy a line. it wasn t even a line, it was a toot. that was my one distribution charge. narrator: federal prosecutors enlisted many of the same witnesses who had testified against smitty in previous