Crime in the Federation
As long as there has been civilisation, there has been crime. It existed in the first villages of Mesopotamia, it exists now and it will always exist. No matter what else happens in the social evolution of humanity, crime remains a fact of life. Someone will always want what his neighbour has and be unwilling to expend the effort to achieve it honestly. Someone will always see an opportunity to exploit the weakness of others for his own profit. Someone will always be willing to betray all he should hold dear for a short term and ultimately meaningless reward. Someone will always be motivated by gnawing jealousies or other unseen demons to commit an act of terrible and sudden violence upon someone else. The Federation knows and accepts this. Even though it is the pinnacle of human social evolution, the Federation is hardly free of crime and harbours no illusions that it will come to a sudden end any time soon. Thus, the only means of dealing with crime in a society like the Federation is through a system of fair laws, stringently enforced by a capable and motivated police force.
Although the Federation sees all crime and all criminals as unacceptable elements in society and strives to do all it can to control them, some criminals are of much greater importance than others. When speaking of criminals as enemies of the Federation, all of them technically qualify. However, this section is not concerned with the odd fool who manages to acquire (or build) a weapon and attempts to rob a corner store in full view of a surveillance system. Such people are easily and quickly caught and pose no particular danger to the Federation as a whole. Rather, this section is concerned with those criminals whose activities truly do constitute a threat to the Federation, those people who have put personal profi t above the good of society as a whole. It should come as no great surprise that the vast majority of such persons (like the vast majority of all criminals) are civilians. These are not garden variety burglars and muggers; not even the worst serial killers in the history of the Federation qualify for this dubious distinction. Instead, it is reserved for those people who head up or are a part of a large criminal network, whose interests directly oppose those of the Federation. Two such networks are discussed below.
Arms Trafficking
Since the earliest days of its existence, the Federation has kept a tight control on weaponry in its populace. In response, the first arms trafficking rings sprang up almost immediately.
As noted, civilians are forbidden to own or carry weapons anywhere in the Federation except the colony world of Rhohan, the site of the Morita Arms Company along with other defence contractors. Though the Federation still considers this a wise course of action, it has created a demand that only criminals can fulfill.
Most arms trafficking rings are relatively small affairs, supplying non-military-grade weapons to the colonists of unofficial worlds, would-be hunters on Earth and small bands of non-violent dissidents such as the Frontiermen.
However, not all arms trafficking rings are so small in scale. Just 12 years ago, an arms dealer organisation was identified and dismantled in Sydney, Australia. This organisation, run by a successful civilian businessman, employed more than 50 people throughout the Federation and was negotiating sales of military-grade weapons to a group of three unofficial colonies just anti-spinward of Federation space. Another was discovered operating out of Moscow only five years ago, even larger in size, that was about to close a deal with the Civilian Militia for a number of Stryker suits, heavy weapons like the Yinimia Bugbroom and even a few military vehicles. Though the smuggling ring was quickly dismantled, the ringleaders managed to escape.
In the current climate of war with the Arachnids, arms trafficking is taken more seriously than ever.
Of course, arms are not the only thing such groups deal in. Within the criminal world, there are brisk businesses in such products as false Unicards, counterfeit money and narcotics, including the new and deadly addition of dust.
Dust & Other Drugs
The narcotic drug known as ‘dust’ is just another in a long line of dangerous and addictive drugs criminals use to build empires of wealth and power. These organisations can be larger and more profi table than even the largest arms dealers, as they tend to have a much larger customer base that ranges from the poorest sections of Federation housing outside Earth cities like Manila and Caracas to the gleaming sands and shining mansions of Zegama Beach.
The effect of these drugs on the fabric of society is profound. Not only do they seriously impair a person’s ability to be an effective and contributive member of society, they are also the root cause of a great deal of crime, as some addicts are willing to do anything necessary (including stealing) to pay for their next batch of their drug of choice.
As for dust itself, it is the highly processed pollen of a large flowering bush that is native to a planet orbiting Epsilon Indi. Unfortunately, it is impossible to cut off the supply by interdicting the planet itself. Long before the narcotic possibilities of its pollen were known, the bush (which is very attractive, with bluish-green leaves and a riot of large red flowers) was transplanted to multiple planets throughout the Federation for the utterly innocuous purpose of landscaping. It flourishes in any environment habitable to humans, meaning it now grows wild on more than a dozen worlds.
There are several dust trafficking rings active in the Federation today but without a doubt the largest and most powerful of them all is the one known popularly as the Zegama Cartel. Though FedNet usually elects not to trouble the population of the Federation with salacious stories about bands of criminals, the Zegama Cartel is large enough and strong enough that word of its existence spread through the Federation even without a single mention on FedNet. Of course, as it became common knowledge, FedNet did indeed begin to cover the Cartel and now its operations are routinely disrupted by the three main characters on Zegama Nights. Unfortunately, the Cartel is not so easily dealt with in real life as it is in fiction.
Precious little is known of the Zegama Cartel and, of what is known, none of it is reported on FedNet aside from the occasional story of a triumph against the Cartel’s operations. Acting invisibly within the society of Zegama Beach and several other far-flung colony worlds as well, the Cartel accounts for an estimated 42% of all narcotics trafficking within the Federation. It employs a criminal network numbering into the thousands, with estimated annual revenues counted in the billions of dollars and operations on at least seven different worlds including not just narcotics traffi cking, but also illegal weapons trade and commerce in forged documentation like false Unicards.
The Federal Justice Division has devoted an entire task force to disrupting the Zegama Cartel’s operations and hunting down its leaders but has had very little success. Even drawing upon the Special Services psychics of SICON’s Military Intelligence has produced little other than frustration and dead ends. This seemingly magical ability of the Cartel to slip away from the tightest nets and closest scrutiny the Federation can manage has been taken as proof that the Cartel has somehow acquired the services of not merely one, but a small group of powerful psychics whose identities are unknown to the Federation but whose strength in resisting the best efforts of Special Services is unquestionable.
Criminals in the Federation
Criminals in the Federation face a life full of opportunity and danger. The vast expansion of human-held territory, made up of dozens of official and unofficial colonies, gives criminal enterprises room to breathe and thrive. On the other hand, the advanced technology available to the Federation (not to mention the existence of psychic abilities) make it difficult for criminals to operate successfully for any length of time – unless they are extremely lucky, extremely well equipped or both.
The vast majority of criminals inside the Federation are part of a larger criminal organisation. There are an unknown number of such organisations of varying sizes throughout the UCF, each with its own area or areas of interest. The most famous of these is the Zegama Cartel, and massive, fantastically rich criminal empire concerned primarily with smuggling the powerful narcotic known as dust, but not at all adverse to dipping its beak in other profitable enterprises as well.
Despite the preponderance of large criminal organisations, it is entirely possible for a single individual with the right amount of luck, intelligence and audacity to secure a comfortable life for himself through a career in crime. He may never become as wealthy as the princes of the Zegama Cartel, but at the very least he is in command of his own destiny.
