Organized Crime

Three institutions run organized crime everywhere in the world, Los Angeles included, and none of them grew up here the way the utility cartels did. They're older than the megacorps, they don't answer to any one of them, and they trade with each other across borders the corps still pretend matter.

• The Triads: the oldest and the biggest, out of China, over eight centuries old.
• The Yakuza: out of Japan, roughly four centuries old, tied to its homeland's megacorporations tighter than either of the others manages.
• The Mafia: the youngest by a wide margin, out of Sicily, and fading everywhere it doesn't hold Europe.

In Los Angeles#

Locally, it runs Yakuza first, Triads second, Mafia a distant third. The Yakuza's reach here rides on the same Japanese corporate presence that gives it strength anywhere the Japanacorps do business. The Triads hold what every Chinatown gives them, which in this city is real but secondary. The Mafia lost its grip on the California drug trade generations before any of this started, and nothing since has given it back.

What the crew knows#

• These three are not the neighborhood. The utility cartels are who actually fight over a block; the Triads, Yakuza and Mafia deal in things that cross borders.
• Whichever one a job touches, the local footprint is thin and the organization behind it is not.

Standing with the crew#

Neutral. Nobody has done business with any of the three yet, on either side of the law.