Organized Crime

Organized crime in Chicago is dominated by two groups, the American Club and the Triads. Several smaller groups also exist.

Major Players

The American Club

Campaign Years: 2100; 2117

Leaders

Ricardo "Lil Richy" Casalesi (Casalesi Family)
Tony "Volcano" Vollaro (D'Elia Family)
Frank "The Tank" Tronolone (Tronolone Family; 2100)
Alphonse "Alfie" Tronolone (Tronolone Family; 2117)

Territory

Northside (Casalesi Family)
Naperora Sprawl (D'Elia Family)
New South Joliet (Tronolone Family)

The “American Club” is a traditional mafia-style crime organization with roots going back to pre-war crime syndicates in the old USA. Despite the dissolution of the USA in the chaos after the Third World War, the American Club remains a significant presence in all of the post-American nations, including its home country, the American Federal Republic. In general, the American Club maintains a much lower profile than many crime organizations. They are not as heavily invested in street-level action, preferring to leave that to minor-league players, and the gangs. Instead they extract a cut from nearly everyone for the “privilege” of operating in the city that they own. The American Club expends its local energies on the corporations, the government, and industry. As a result, the American Club has subtle tentacles involved in much of the city. It also expends a great deal of effort and energy remaining invisible, a stark contrast to several of the flashier ethnic-based gangs. The Loop, Daley Plaza, O'hare, the Chicago Science Corridor, and other focuses of money and power are all American Club-dominated, often without anyone being aware of it. The American Club occasionally pays lip service to the cause of North American reunification.

Structurally, the American Club is split between the national core organization and the local families. The core organization is made up of a “board of directors” composed of the heads of all of the affiliated largest crime organizations, with a chairman elected from within. It handles major decisions affecting the entire continent, but leaves local politics to the locals. The “Chairman” resides in an exclusive part of Chicago with his staff and bodyguards, and wields tremendous influence with both the local and national government. Despite this, he rarely if ever intervenes in local affairs. Chicago’s “American Club” local enterprises are divided between three “families”, each of which is responsible for illegal activities within some portion of town. Each one has its own boss and separate structures, and competition between these three “families” is occasionally fierce if well concealed from the public. It should be noted that unlike the pre-war Mafia, these families are generally ethnically heterogenous non-kinship based organizations, though the majority of members are of European ancestry.

The Triads

Campaign Years: 2100; 2117

Leaders

Cao Jing (Red Dragon Society)
Xiang Xuefeng (Golden Lion Brotherhood)
Kong Zedong (Setting Suns)
Alfred Du Jie (Hip Sing Tong)

Territory

Southside (Red Dragon Society)
R-Kay Sprawl (Red Dragon Society)
Milwaukee (Golden Lion Brotherhood)
Westlake (Setting Suns)
Western Sprawl (Setting Suns)
The Bracket (Hip Sing Tong)

The Triads are collectively the second most important crime organization in the Chicago Sprawl. Fortunately for their rivals, the Triads are factionalized and internally divided. Triad gangs generally operate all prostitution, gambling, and extortion in their regions. Freelance criminal operations are often allowed, but the Triad will demand a usurious cut of any freelance operations in their turf. They frequently dominate legitimate businesses as well, especially entertainment, construction, labor pools, and equipment rental. Street gangs in Triad turf generally must turn over a share of their booty to avoid interference. Triad soldiers, called 49’ers, are usually well equipped and can be distinguished by their frequently black overcoats and sunglasses. The Triads are split among several "societies", who have a hierarchy of status among them. Each one controls a discrete portion of commerce in their turf, but none rival even the smallest of the three American Club families in power.

The largest Triad society is the "Red Dragon Society", which controls Chinatown, most of the Southside Commercial District. It also has extensive holdings in the R-Kay Sprawlzone, as in most major cities in North America. The Red Dragon “Shan Chu” (leader) is generally accepted as the senior leader by other Triads, as they are strong enough to maintain distance and relative peace with the American Club due to their global affiliation. They are able to call upon assets from SACPA, thanks to family ties to the Triad gangs of Hong Kong, a group of ethnic-Chinese dominated syndicate loosely connected to the vast criminal empires of SACPA.

The "Golden Lion Brotherhood" controls most of Milwaukee, which is home to a great many East Asian immigrant workers. They are the most belligerent society, having come into conflict with SDI in recent years. The leaders and members of the Golden Lions are connected to the Singapore Triads, traditional rivals of Hong Kong. They are expected to push for the top seat within a few years.

The "Setting Sun Business Fraternal Protection Guild" is composed of a surprisingly large number of small Chinese gangs and criminals who dominate neighborhoods along the western edge of the Chicago Sprawl. This group has no direct overseas ties, being a strictly local organization. They are generally considered less homicidal than the other gangs, but they have large enough numbers to maintain healthy respect from the other societies.

The "Hip Sing Tong" is a faction that operate as a subsidiary of the main Hip Sing Tong in New York and formed as a reaction to hostilities towards chinese immigrants in the Bracket. They mostly limit themselves to business protection against the violent gangs of the Bracket, although they have recently started to expand this protection to those who are not of Chinese descent.

Minor Players

Yakuza

Campaign Years: 2100; 2117

Leaders

Toda Hayato (Chicago Goto-gumi)
Okura Kawaguchi (Shusui-kai)

Territory

The Bracket (Chicago Goto-gumi)
Western Sprawl (Chicago Goto-gumi)
R-Kay Sprawl (Shusui-kai)
Westlake (Shusui-kai)

The Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) is a network of ethnic Japanese gangs that operate throughout the Chicago area. They cooperate when faced with external threats, and can be found mostly in the Northwestern parts of the sprawl. The Yakuza are known for savagery in battle, preferring melee weapons and martial arts to firearms when possible. Most Yakuza members claim turf that overlaps somewhat with Triad turf, leading to fierce competition. In other parts of the world the Yakuza are major players, but in Chicago they remain bit characters due to simple demographics. Nevertheless, the ferocity and tenacity of the Yakuza cannot be underestimated.

BC Mafiya

Campaign Years: 2100; 2117

Leaders

Maksim Konstaninovich Aslanov

Territory

Gary Industrial Zone
New South Joliet
New South Calumet

A large number of “True Russians” emigrated from Russkaya Amerika in the last few decades, drawn by construction jobs. The criminal gangs that came with them have established themselves as minor players on the northern side of town; nevertheless most of the newer developments on the south end of the sprawl all host small BC Mafiya groups. They mainly specialize in catering to, and exploiting, the large number of laborers in these communities, and will happily work with other organizations.

Southside Cartel

Campaign Years: 2117

Leaders

Andre South
The Fisher Queen
Vamanbir Dutta

Territory

Southside
The Bracket

The Southside Cartel is a fixer clearinghouse formed in the early 2110s by Andre South and several other independent fixers in the wake of the Arcology War. Any up and coming fixers in Southside or the Bracket who want to work without the Cartel getting it's taste will have to contend with the numerous smaller gangs and shadow groups who garner intel from the Cartel.

Banda e Lika

Campaign Years: 2100; 2117

Leaders

Kapplan Lika

Territory

New South Joliet
The Bracket

The Banda e Lika (Lika Gang) has shot to the top of the violent organized crime organizations, not because of their size and reach, but because of their ruthlessness. According to GCPD, the Banda e Lika, and it's leader Kapplan Lika are known in the international underworld as fearless heavy hitters, able to take shots at anybody regardless of their protection level. Kapplan hates the American Club and the Yakuza, and they know it and give him a wide berth. It is rumored that he was responsible for the hit that took out "Frankie Fingers" Tronolone.

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