Organized crime.

[kato13]

In the chaos of war Law enforcement is often moved to the back burner. Explosive expansion of organized crime seems inevitable.

I would be very interested in hearing opinions on where you see each of the following would find themselves in a T2k world:

The Italian mafia.
US street gangs.
Soviet bloc black marketeers/mafia.
Central American Drug Lords.
East Asian Gangs
or any others you can think of.

[natehale1971]

My first quesiton for this is, would the Russian Mob end up being founded by ex-KGB officials or would they get a genesis from the already existing blackmarketeers that existed during the Communist Regime?

Kato and I where talking about how different factions in the USSR would pop up... I have the idea that not only would their be indepdenence movements (such as the Baltic states and the Ukraine), and I had came up with the Russian White Army in my campaigns. The Russian White Army is the pro-Democratic faction, that is pushing for the birth of a democratic pro-western government with the return of the Romanov family as constitutioinal monarchs.

In my old gaming group we had the heir of the Romanov's having been invited by the Danilov regime before the war started as part of a 'goodwill' media tour that would show just how much the Soviet Union had imporved. Said Romanov was an extremely popular humanitarian (kind of like how Princess Di had become before her tragic death) as well as a major industrialist who used the ecconomic reforms that allowed foreign investments in the USSR to start phiantrophic charities that helped the 'average' soviet citizen to establish the 'cottage industries' that sprung up to provide luxury items (such as toliet paper, fashionable clothing, ect) for the Soviet market.

But i degress...

There are different levels of blackmarketeers... You have the small scale 'fixers' who have lots of contacts who are able to to get different kinds of items and services. This is the kind of blackmarketeers that i am the most knowledgeable about.

There is a Nick Cage movie, the "Lord of War" that showed how an ethnic Russian became a major arms dealer thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union... And it works great for creating either a protagonist or antagonist for Merc 2000 campaigns...

does anyone have ideas of criminal underground organizations forming up actual post-war empires?

[Targan]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

There is a Nick Cage movie, the "Lord of War" that showed how an ethnic Russian became a major arms dealer thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union... And it works great for creating either a protagonist or antagonist for Merc 2000 campaigns...

I thought his family were Ukrainians.

[headquarters]

In times of war and crisis ,the goverment will try to restrict commerce to preserve some materials and goods and to control distribution.

Inevitably this will lead to a "black" economy -meaning that its of the books and outside control.

It exists todaywith guns,drugs,women,underpaid labour etc in all countries- and also on some scale by moving goods off the books to evade taxes .

But if foodstuff,fuel,clothing and raw materials that are common commodities today were moved to the list ,organized crime would expand enormously .

Any farmer with a connected friend in the city could funnel part of the produce outside the ration system and recieve payment off the books.As money would have loosing value , an exchange could evolve where script from a trusted broker or stockist could be the new currency after the markets expand and evolve beyond barter.

For some it would be a more honourable way to get out from under goverment control - say if medication and food was restricted to the obidient/tolerated population.
( " I see your son has been dodging the draft - I am sorry but that means that all of you are on 1/2 rations until he turns up..")

For some it would be a golden opportunity to create themselves as a magnate .

Many organized crime factions have origins that lay in militias and self defense groups - that market could open up again in T2K -and the groups that dont have those origins could evolve into getting a piece of the pai here as well .

I see huge expansion for some organizations - those who can adapt to creating services or obtaiing goods of value -others that rely on international imports of drugs and prostitutes or have operations that rely on a functioning curency system etc will dissolve.

[natehale1971]

Originally Posted by Targan

I thought his family were Ukrainians.

That could be... it's been a while since i saw the movie, and was shooting form the hip at it where for my post.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

That could be... it's been a while since i saw the movie, and was shooting form the hip at it where for my post.

Indeed they are. Actually, most of what we call Russian mafia is in fact Ukrainian.

[Canadian Army]

He is a gangbanger PC that have laying around!

[jester]

Oragnized crime would bloom and die at the same time.

Organized crime is by its nature an underground organization, they have all the infrastructure in place for their operation to flourish as they are already used to running under the surface of regular society. With that being said.....


They would flourish in the following ways:

The demand from the population at large for goods that are now unattainable. Well the underground crime networks that is what they do. So the netorks would have grow exponentialy.

The demand for vice outside most military instillations since most cities or major bases would become armed camps.

Government need for goods that the enemy has. <Refer to the Lord of War reference> It is not good for the government to deal with the enemy directly. So someone of the lowly sort well it is expected of them to deal with the hated enemy.

I would also say that intel operators would make alot of connections with the underworld crime organizations again because they have the connections to smuggle goods and people or INFORMATION. And of course they also deal with vice which is a good tool for blackmail in which to gain information.

The dying part of organizad crime:

Well, favors will need to be made. The network who is working for you will be supplied with arms, ammo and assets, so they will be stronger. And, the government and law enforcement will turn a blind eye to their operations since they after all are working for the good guys. And law enforcement will also crack down on the networks competition. Further counter intel assets will further be dedicated to dealing the other crime networks a savage blow to ensure they do not deal with the enemys intel assets. So crime networks not working for the gov will be eliminated when they are not useful.

Keep in mind, rules of engagement will be more lax so deadly force will be much more common. And of course in many situations they will be under martial law where criminals will end up in a a long drop with a short rope or a near wall and a squad of riflemen.

[kcdusk]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

Indeed they are. Actually, most of what we call Russian mafia is in fact Ukrainian.

Details, smeatails.

They're all Red arent they?

[General Pain]

Calling "Organized Crime" for "Organized Crime" in post-acolpalyptic scenario would be wrong in my mopinion. They are basically just another faction of survivors. But as a GM I'd have any faction I could come up with controlling a small village,town,area,valley,hill etc, while other places would be in anarchy.

The power of said groups is probably determined on how long time they had in planing a proper fallout shelter(s) storage,fuel,ammo,food etc (spareparts)

If on the other hand the apocalypse (ww3) happened very quickly said groups would mostly be wiped out or find themselves as refugees....

I'd guess a mixup would be a good way to go. Like the Italians (Cosa Nostra) some of the families have been obliterated or asimilated into other more powerfull groups and some have gotten more powerfull than ever before..

Other groups that might appear would be extreme-religious groups,right or left wing fanatics,extreme PETA groups,militant greenpeace groups and the like..+ bands of various military,government,police,national guards,mercs,,,the list goes on

I guess with the fall of central government "the human condition" will truly present itself hehe