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| The Crime Families of Denver Part One Dragons, Chips, And Turning Tricks Who? What? When? Where? Why? |
| The FTZ, being what it is, is a fantastic place to make money. Smuggling is the first thing that comes to mind. So many borders, so much to traffic across them. Oh so many juridstictions to skip through. But, its not the only thing the bad guys are interested in when it comes to Treaty City... The Major League Oddly enough its the two usual big guys, the Italians and the Yakuza, who are in town. Oh, sorry, thats not the odd bit. The odd bit is that they dont actually touch the smuggling market at all, really. They leave it to the little guys. Infact, the amazing thing is these two sworn enemies dont even cross swords that often...they've come to some unspoken agreement where each organisation stays out of the other's biz...well...most of the time, anyway. The Innocentis Despite their name, the Innocenti's arent exactly Innocent. Far from it, infact. Aspanu Innocenti started out like any other rich son of a crime boss, just like you or me (yeah right). And like any youth, he aspired to make it to the top of whatever mountain he wanted to climb. Unfortunately for the guys who he used as stepping stones on the way up, he got to the top of that mountain. The Innocenti Clan shifted from the East Coast to Denver when the whole place got turned upside down during the good old Pre-Treaty days. Aspanu spotted a hole, with a little help from his government friends, and he was one step ahead of the competition. Muscling his way in, he packed up shop, left the Tea Party Town, and set his sights on Denver, then Denver, Colorado. Of course, a bunch of others followed him, least of which was all the other mafioso clans who also sniffed some cash to be made. But Aspanu was first in line, and certainly was best dressed. He wears the nicest suit in town, worthy of the title GodFather. There was a fair amount of bloodshed, not only Italians against the Rest, but East Coast Italians vs the now dispossed (thanks to NAN succeeding and kicking everyone out) Las Vegas families, and some West Coasters who couldnt take the heat from the invading Zaibatsu hordes. Once the dust settled and the last brass casing rolled to a stop, the italian mafia in Denver was all under one family, and one man - Don Aspanu Innocenti. With his faithful Doberman by his side, Consigliere Antony Ratto, the infighting was put to a stop and the Mafia became (unfortunately for most) much more unified and stronger for it. Now when some people think of Mafia, they think moonshine stills, speakeasies, and guys stealing parking meters for dimes. Get with the program. You're not even in the right millenia, let alone the right century. No no. The Mafia has evolved my friend, and so should you if you're planning on dealing with them. The Mafia of Denver is first and foremost a conglomerate of people who run businesses, each using their business to complement another's, while thumbing their nose at the laws, paying off some cops to look the other way, wrecking a few families and breaking some poor schmuck's kneecaps in the process. Generally, they're in the game for a good time. A very comfortable, good time. The majority of illegal operations that the Innocenti's do themselves or oversee are the profitable and less publically horrifying markets of gambling, prostitution and pornography. This kind of stuff is deemed 'semilegal' by most citizens, so they're much less likely to get upset over an illegal casino and betting ring than, say, a designer narcotics factory that produces the same chips their 12 year old son melted his frontal lobes on. They're not totally nice guys, of course...they deal with assassination plots, computer fraud, information trading, and widescale corruption (but dont we all, fellow edgerunners?), but thats the syrup thats on the butter which is on their bread. No, the bread and butter is definately gambling, prostitution and pornographic rings (including the tasteful, the not-so-tasteful, the downright disturbing, and then there's even the occasional Hunt&Snuff, but after a major expose by NBS in 2059, they dont do this so much). They dont deal with chips and recreational drugs. This might seem odd, but being businessmen at heart (not to mention the cops in Denver are retired Recon Marines), an all out turf war was deemed rather unneccesary by Aspanu and the Osaka Twins. The Innocenti's have a nearly total hold on their main industries, though, and keep an steel-fisted grip on them. |
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