Wheel Conspiracy Law and Legal Definition
A wheel conspiracy is a conspiracy in a which a single member (usually the ringleader) or a group engages in separate illegal dealings with two or more other member or groups, and there exists a shared criminal purpose among all the member/groups engaged in the activities. The ringleader or group which deals with other members or groups is called the hub, and the subsidiary parties that maintain individual relationship with the hub is called spokes. Such conspiracy is also known as hub-and-spoke conspiracy.
Parallel but separate objectives between similarly situated people do not make a wheel conspiracy, it would instead constitute multiple chain conspiracies. A wheel conspiracy is shown when a number of people, the spokes, are engaged in similar relationships with the same individual, the hub. In a "wheel" conspiracy, the prosecution would have to prove that the existence of the other spokes was known to a particular defendant, and that that defendant did something in furtherance of a single, illegal enterprise to prove that s/he have conspired with the other spokes of the wheel. [Bolden v. State, 44 Md. App. 643 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1980)].
