Organized Crime

Disclaimer: All information below is, at the very least, factually inaccurate. This wiki is intended to forward a work of fiction, and not to defame any nationality, country, or ethnic group. All names of organizations used herein refer not to the actual organization, but a fictional conceptualization of them in 2072.

Organized Crime in San Francisco
Sicilian Mafia: The Sicilian Mafia has maintained a steady but low-profile presence in the greater Bay area, in accordance with the truce between the Mafia and the Yakuza. Within the city are only two families of the Cosa Nostra – the Lanza family and the Abati family. The total membership of ‘made men’ in the city itself is between 20 and 25, though Oakland and the surrounding areas are home to another 15-20 active members of the Family.

Typical activities of the Sicilian Mafia in San Fran at this juncture are extortion and protection rackets, drug dealing, and prostitution. For the most part these charges have not stuck to the members of the Family, as the crimes tend to be low-key and the members of the Mafia avoid property damage and attention at all costs. The active area of the Sicilians is very small, with most of their turf in Bay View and Hunter’s Park (the southeastern portion of the docks).

Russian Mafya [Solntsevskaya bratva] (Bratvas): With the recent activity in Siberia (a magical-rights insurgent group has recently taken the area by force), there has been a lot of political shuffling in the motherland. A young politician in Moscow took advantage of this to pursue harsher punishments for organized crime in Russia, and became a rallying point for the long-oppressed, law-abiding citizens. The pressure was put on the organized crime in Russia, leading to a mass exodus of Mafya families. While many gang members were able to arrange a deal with the government (or simply subvert the government), the Solntsevskaya brotherhood was forced out nearly to a man.

They relocated across the west coast, particularly in Seattle, Vancouver, and Kitimat – three of the largest cities on the northwest coast. While the brotherhood remains based in Seattle, there are regular “visits” to the San Francisco bay area. The Solntsevskaya are one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most aggressive groups of gun runners and smugglers. Their areas of operation tend to see more bloodshed than most areas of organized crime, and their shops are often avoided by those not on friendly terms.

In the San Francisco area, the Solntsevskaya have marked out the Bernal Hights area of the city, and run several “pawn shops” in the area. These pawn shops are surprisingly often frequented by gangsters, thugs, go-gangers, whores and, of course, shadowrunners, and offer a wide variety of hard-to-find weaponry, armor, repurposed military ordnance (straight from the Russian lowlands, guaranteed to work!), and chemical toxins. While the Solntsevskaya presence in San Francisco is moderate, there are often 4 or 5 members in their pawn shops, along with some 20 ‘Reds’ (hired guns hoping to gain entry to the gang) around town.

Russian Mafya [Dolgoprudnenskaya] (Dolgos): The Dolgoprudenskaya brotherhood of the Mafya was one of the few gangs able to secure a hardy foothold in Moscow during the cleansing. Not only that, but the organization flourished, managing to place many of their members into the political world, and then using these operatives to protect the rest of the crime syndicate.

The Dolgoprudenskaya have a long history of this manner of political finagling, with many of the eldest members being ex-KGB agents, and others still active in service of the FSB (the new iteration of the KGB). With high governmental positions, and access to government training and resources, it’s no wonder that the Dolgoprudenskaya have done so well. Indeed, these things coupled with the brutal efficiency of Vladmir Nikitin, the current head of the organization, have made the Dolgoprudenskaya one of the most feared criminal organizations in the world.

As such a powerful organization, the Dolgoprudenskaya have a presence in almost every major city in the world, including San Francisco. The numbers are hard to gather, as those who poke into the business of the Ruskies tend to go missing, but there are anywhere from 20 to 50 members of the Dolgoprudenskaya in San Francisco at the moment. All of them are highly trained, and it’s rumored that they are looking into “buying” whole teams of Shadowrunners for something big planned in Vancouver.

Russian Mafya [Izmaylovskaya gang] [Netanyi mafia]: The Izmaylovskaya gang is more often called by their Israeli name, the Netanyi. This group of Mafya members is unique in that they are Russian in descent, but Israeli in nationality – during the cleansing of the USSR, many Jews were frightened, and left the Union. Many of these Jews were members of the Russian Mafya, and stuck together during the move to Israel, forming a new gang in the town of Netanya.

With an influx of well-trained, hardened criminals, Netanya became a hotspot of criminal activity in Israel, which is true even today. However, during the Euro Wars, in which a pan-Islamic push forced a majority of Jews out of Israel, the Netanyi chose to relocate all of the citizens of the town of Netanya to San Jose, in FreeCal.

Ever since, the Netanyi have ruled the northern half of San Jose in all but name, rechristening large portions of the town as New Jerusalem, and allowing only those of Jewish or Russian heritage to reside there. The members of the Netanyi itself who live in San Jose remain uncounted, but their numbers are estimated to be at least 400, as well as over a thousand Israeli immigrants and two thousand additional Jewish or Russian people who have emigrated there in the past years.

The Ancients: The Ancients are a nation-wide, world-active, elven-only gang. They believe themselves to be superior to all other metatypes, and encourage a propaganda of repression; that they, as a people, have been repressed by the other metatypes, and it is time for them to take what is rightfully theirs.

The Ancients of San Francisco have a powerful, charismatic leader in the gay duo of Albert Brumley and Erich von Singer. As of the coming January, they will be celebrating their five-year anniversary, and the fourth-year anniversary of the night they burnt down seventeen buildings throughout the city – all of which were deeded to Orkish or Trolloc families. This was the first public act of the San Fran Ancients since the early 2060s, and renewed elven interest in the gang – membership has never been higher, with over 120 registered Ancients.

In the city itself the Ancients tend to operate in higher-end neighborhoods, including along Haight-Ashbury, the Strip, the Wharf and the Golden Gate Park area. These sections of the city form the base of their operations, from which the gang manages extortion, racketeering, prostitution, propaganda, thievery and a very lucrative drug trade in illegal hallucinogens and narcotics.

The Halloweeners: The Halloweeners aren’t so much a criminal organization as a well-known national go-gang. Their usual mode of operations is to rush into an area, throw some Molotov cocktails, fire a few shots, and then rush back out. Almost every member of the Halloweeners treats it more as a potentially lethal practical joke than any sort of money-making endeavor.

As such a disorganized group, their numbers are unknown (but low), their aims are unknowable, and they have no activities that they’re known for (aside from general mayhem and disorderly conduct). Part of the appeal of the Halloweeners is a sense of freedom; every member dresses in an outrageous costume, complete with mask (often featuring a jack-o-lantern theme), and rides some small, maneuverable vehicle.

Hell’s Angels: The now ancient and venerable organization of the Hell’s Angels has been for many years more of a fraternal organization of like-minded individuals than a gang. However, with the rise of area gang activity, this trend has reversed. The San Francisco chapter of the Hell’s Angels is now an active criminal organization, though not quite what anyone expected.

Upon the event of Goblinization, there was a rush of membership into old-school biker gangs and tough looking clubs like the Hell’s Angels. Having horns or tusks was, for many years, a badge of honor in the Angels. Presently, orks and trolls comprise 50% of the Hell’s Angels’ 312 person membership. And as far as ork and troll gangs go, the Hell’s Angels were as tame as it got – until the recent Ancient and Humanis Policlub activity.

On January 14th, of 2068, the Ancients burned down some seventeen ork and troll homes, and forever earned the enmity of the Hell’s Angels of San Francisco; they immediately went to war. While the Hell’s Angels as a major organization cannot officially condone any counteraction, the SF chapter gets a surprising amount of money to be used for ‘charitable activity’, but is more often turned into pipe bombs and body armor. To this day, the Hell’s Angels and Ancients are in open conflict, and the Humanis Policlub isn’t helping out either of them.

Humanis Policlub [Klu Klux Klan]: The Humanis Policlub is, on the surface, a national organization for the betterment of human conditions in the workplace and at home, dedicated to restoring the wholesome, family centered values of yesteryear. Everyone knows, though, that the Policlub is most often supporting or concealing some anti-meta racist organization.

In the case of San Fran, it’s the KKK – the infamous Klu Klux Klan. While the KKK faded into obscurity in the middle 2030s, there was a major resurgence of the historical organization in 2054 in FreeCal, the C.A.S., and the Pueblo Corporate Council. In FreeCal, the majority of their activity has been centered in the outskirts of Oakland, with the Humanis Policlub supporting their anti-meta propaganda campaigns. While the KKK isn’t strictly a criminal organization (and neither is the Policlub), it is listed here for its murky engagements of several less-than-legal incidents of larceny, arson, drug trafficking and aggravated assault.

Crips: Yep, it’s those old blue-bandana’d Crips, right in L.A. The Crips are still one of the most violent, prevalent and racially oriented gangs in North America, and their base of operations is Los Angeles, just south of San Fran. While most of L.A. was wrecked by the flooding following the San Andreas quakes, enough remained to support a vibrant gang war between the Crips and the Bloods to determine who would gain what little territory was left – they are still fighting.

Bloods: Established by a separatist member of the Crips in the 1970s, the Bloods have always had a bitter rivalry, and this is still true. Despite having fewer members than the Crips, they hold territory in L.A. by virtue of being more violent and more aggressive. The Bloods are more active in San Fran than the Crips, having spread to San Jose, Oakland, and South San Francisco. In San Francisco, the Bloods are mainly in the market of drug production and trade, running numerous labs for cocaine, methamphetamines, novaCoke, Jazz, and even a small amount of K-10.

Latin Kings: The Latin Kings were a group of Latino and orkish minority members based out of the Baja and southern California. With the sinking of the land connecting the Baja peninsula and FreeCal, their influence became split. A large number of Latin Kings still live in Oakland, but their presence in San Fran is rarely felt. Much of their resources is taken up in fighting the Netanyi of northern San Jose (New Jerusalem).

Clyve’s Vikings: Once, there was a man named Elton Bernstein. Bernstein had a dream; a dream of a new Viking empire come again, riding and raiding in longships to support their clans from the fat of the land, and other nations. However, in order to do this, Bernstein needed men – willing warriors to fuel his crusade of blood and death across the West Coast.

Living in Seattle, Vikings were hard to find, but thugs and street toughs weren’t. Bernstein began recruiting for what he called ‘a paramilitary naval security force’. It was only in 2069, when he had garnered some 30 recruits that he changed his name to Clyve “The Cleaver” “The Burninator” “Bone-breaker” Bernstein, and quickly hustled them onto a longboat (which promptly sank), and handed them weapons (many of them home-made), and told them that they’d be raiding the West coast for supplies, weapons and women.

Clyve died in a brutal mutiny that same day. But! One of his Vikings, a man named Gerhardt Strauss, took up his helmet and spear, and told his fellows that they could still pursue this dream – but competently. How Gerhardt actually managed to convince 30 men that this was a good idea is still a subject of much debate, but nonetheless Clyve’s Vikings were up and raiding in small inflatable rafts and outboard dinghies by the end of the week, and have been active ever since.

Clyve’s Vikings operate out of a hijacked floating Arkoblock off the coast of Tir Tairngire, and have 4 small ships (all modified to appear similar to historical longboats), and at least 25 small boats and dinghies that they raid from. Membership ranges from 60 to 300 (many are literal weekend warriors), and raids occur every 2 to 3 weeks. The Vikings have hit Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and other coastal cities. Normally a city’s defenses would have decimated the Vikings, but they number a dozen or two magicians, and as many adepts and mystic adepts in their ranks – Gerhardt Strauss himself is a powerful mystic adept, and has earned himself the epithet “Ironskin”, as he’s proved to be nearly unkillable.

Organ traffickers: The organ traffickers of the city of San Francisco are not so much an organized crime as a loose affiliation of horrible people. In the gritty, grim, high-tech world of Shadowrun, there are many new markets that have grown in the past few years, including illegal organ trade. The market for high quality organs, limbs, tissues and fluids is higher than ever, and dovetails nicely with black market sales of Bioware and Cyberware.

While no one wants to point to those responsible for organ trafficking, it still happens, and is most often not under the umbrella of the local organized crime: the Sicilians have issued a ban of organ trade in their territory on general principal, and the Netanyi don’t deal in that stuff. Indeed, the only gangs that do are the Russians. Any repurposed flesh that goes through the city tends to pass through the hands of one of the Russian gangs at one point or another.

The actual business of ‘organ repurposing’ tends to be done by freelancers called Crows or Buzzards, who then sell the flesh or ‘ware to a gang, who then send it to a ‘chop-shop’, where it’s reattached to someone for exorbitant fees – but no waiting period, unlike the hospitals or custom cybershops.

Yakuza [Sakahura]: Ever since the Nipponese invasion of San Francisco, the Yakuza have maintained a strong presence here, perhaps stronger than any other gang but the Dolgos. The Yakuza have two oyabuns in the city, and the Sakahura maintain the lower-income areas of the town.

Sakahura Jin is currently the most feared single person in the city: she has a large estate directly south of South San Francisco, from which she sends most of her orders. Rumors of Jin range from her being a powerful hermetic mage trained by the Disciple of Merlin in Cornwall to her being nearly a cyber-zombie from her implant addiction, to her being a lesser dragon who has assumed human form through eldritch rituals in order to bless the Sakahura family. All that’s known is that she’s bad news in the biggest way, and anyone who seriously crosses her path ends up dead. Another interesting rumor states that whoever brings her head to the leader of the Ito family will be handsomely rewarded – though that seems mostly like crap.

Sakahura is apparently immune from the law for some reason or another – corps and private citizens alike are forced to sign up for Lone Star protection if they want any kind of safety from the Yakuza at all, and most times the Lone Star operatives are simply ineffective. The Sakahura Yakuza keep a relatively low profile though, simply extorting a bit here and a bit there; the common perception is that it’s just easier to pay their very reasonable fees than to become an example. In the lower income areas of the city, the Yakuza are mainly concerned with racketeering, petty thefts, vandalism, drug and weapon smuggling, and black market trading and piracy.

Yakuza [Ito]: The wealthier residents of the city have to deal with the Ito branch of the Yakuza; a decidedly more friendly bunch, they deal solely in white collar crimes and net piracy. Ito Sima is the current oyabun, though his age and ill health require his eldest son, Ito Lee, to run most of his errands for him. Ito Sima has elected not to have surgery or magic performed in order to extend his life: he believes that “if all the old farts hang around too long, the young shits can’t move up”.

The arrangements of the Ito Yakuza have to do mainly with skimming off of corporate profits, and with net hijinks; they fund the majority of the false start-ups, internet piracy rings and other matrix-oriented money-making scams in the area. Due to this it’s tough to estimate a number of active members in the city. Guesses run from eighty upwards. Most of the companies around are alright with this arrangement – they get free protection from most shadowrunners and other crime syndicates (the Yakuza are jealous), and the Ito family has been quite kind and generous so far… almost like they were family.

Triads [Jewel Thieves]: The Jewel Thieves take their name from the first heist they ever pulled. More of a stick-up than a heist, they burst into the East End Banking Company, grabbed everything in every safe deposit box they could get to and ran. It was purely by luck that there were a few million nuyen worth of garnets, diamonds, rubies and sapphires in a pair of the boxes owned by some New Yorker.

Despite their success being accidental, they’ve taken that first job to heart, and now only do things ‘the right way’. The gang is known for wearing all black, having the most expensive new toys for breaking and entering, and doing numerous bank jobs and robberies, rather than the usual extortion or drug running.

Triads [Hornets]: The hornets are called so because of their gold and black jackets, which almost always conceal heavy weaponry. The Hornets are a gang-for-hire, and work for numerous other gangs as protectors, smugglers and the like. Occasionally, they even take legitimate work, functioning as a normal security firm to protect goods and persons on behalf of local businesses. The Hornets have 30 fully active members, and are able to call up another 15 when needed.

Triads [Black Hats]: The third group of Triads in the city is called by most the Black Hats, known so because they wear black felted fedoras in the classic manner of villains throughout American history. In keeping with this aesthetic, they act as American gangsters, functioning mainly above board at this point in history. They own a series of themed bars and hotels, and run a number of brothels (legal brothels, strangely). The only really illegal thing that the Black Hats do is protect their investments. What is meant by this is that they often attack, burn down or otherwise scare off competing bars and hotels in their area. As such, a large portion of western San Francisco is populated solely with Black Hat bars, clubs and hotels.