CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE SHADOWS GET DARKER... Where It's At THE BUSINESS OF CRIME The Markets Computer Crime Controlled Substances Counterfeiting and Forgery Fencing Faxing, Gambling, Hijacking, Kidnapping, Loansharking, Pornography Prostitution Protection Robbery Shadow Services ‘Smuggling White-Collar Crime Money Laundries Organlegsing Tamanous ‘THE MAFIA History Organization and Operations The Code The Commissione ‘The Families ‘The Family Tree cas. cas California Free State Denver Native American Nations Caribbean League ‘THE YAKUZA History Organization Yakuza Traditions Yabitsume ezumi Major Rackets Prostitution Gambling. Sokaiya Recruiting Practices The New Way Nina Yakuza-Comporate Relations. THE TRIADS History Organlzation and Operations By the Numbers The Markets Personnel Iniation THE SEOULPA RINGS Mistory The Japanese Connection The Schism The Rings Organization and Operations Personnel Ination OTHER OPERATORS Gangs Third Tie: Local Bullies Second Tier: Neary a Payer Fist Tee: Almost on Top Gang Culture Go-Gangs ‘Wizzer Gangs Matix Gangs Ene Racll “Matias” Vory V Zakone History The Code Organization and Operations Chimera The Ghost Cartels UNDERGROUND GROUPS Policlubs “The Coureil to Rebuilt America The Magia Reform Society ‘Mothers of Metahumans People forthe Ethical Treatment ‘ofthe Awakened utes Children of the Dragon eo-Terrorsts Rebel Groups Kaights ofthe Red Branch La Venta Quebec Linke GAME INFORMATION The Mafla Running the Maa Using the Maha The Yakuza Running the Yakuza unDERWORLD souRcEBOOnUsing the Yakuza The Trlads Running the Triads Using the Triads Seoulpa Rings Running the Seoulpa Rings Using the Seoulpa Rings Rating the Syndicates The Markets Operations Effects of Shadowruns Running the Numbers Gangs Underworld Players Tamanous Chimera Ninjas Underworld Magle Tattoo Magic Triad Magic ‘Alternate Campalgns For the Family Show Your Honor Chaos Is Good More than a Gang Cops vs. Robbers GANG PROFILES First-Tler Gangs The Ancients The Cutters Second-Tler Gangs Third-Tler Gangs The Voodoo Posse The Scatterbrains The Steppen’ Wuls {sis-9 Razor Heads New World Soldiers, UNDERWORLD SOURCEBOOK CREDITS Author Stephen Kenson ‘based on concepts by Nigel D. Findley [Additional Wetiog, ‘The only Uitimate-Rating gang in existance, the FASA Posse: Randall Bilis, Joho Biegroom, jm Nelson, Mike Nilson, Dane Fvon-Gelman Product Development ‘Michael Malti Diane Pron-Gelman ob Cruz Sharon Turner Muviill Shadowrun Line Developer Michael Mull oral Ector Director Donna ippotto Managing Editor ‘Sharon Turner Muli Associate Editors Diane Pron-Gelman Rob Cruz Production Statt ‘Art Director Fin “stany” Nelson Assistant Art Decor Joa! Bishe cover Art Fred Fes Cover Design Joe Biske 8 fm Nelson Black & Write Musration ‘Tom Bana John Bridegroom Mike Jackson let Laubenstein Mike “geen skin’ Niesen Kast walter Layout on Bridegroom ‘SHADOWRUNS és Resters! Trademark of FASA Comporation UNDERWORLD SOURCEBOOK" isa Trademark of ASA Corporation, Copyright © 1997 FASA Corporat AIT Rights Reserved. Pisted in the U.S.A, Published by FASA Corporation +1100 W, Cermak Road «Suite B05 ‘Chicago,IL 5008 EASA Corporation cae reached on Amica OnLine (E. Mail—FASALou (Earthdawn, FASAlnio(BatleTech, Shadowrun, General Information or FASA Ar (Ar Comments) nthe Online Gaming aen (Keyword "Gatnng”) Vis InterNet owe «AOL Account [email protected], but please, not of server subsenptions. Tanks! ‘Visit FASA onthe World Wide Web at tp/www.FASA.com UNDERWORLD SouRcEBOOKSLO OMPA SRL g ce Cea Sta) “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”—T. S. Eliot Ae em sar: ‘emt Sea fy ere wy eRe) tg ht rg ot ae fo Maas. hi ea ny Sam tin Scam W's et ri West yo os a ta i rryig sae ye BBG wer Bt ow met, as mone ae at cases ses ect i Yge?Tn wa e e ed s”p oms eam. N (err oe tra oer con 78 THE BACK STOCK Californie Free State (From the Tir © Aztlan and everything In between) Threats (Paranoia, conspiracies ane! secret stuf) Election 2057 (ts it ever really over? Time to prepare for 2060)) The Big D's Will (Did you win the lottery? Check here!) GOTO COMPLETE LIBRARY ARCHIVES ‘THE DAILY SPECIAL ‘The Criminal Underbelly Always on the cutting edge, Shaclowiand uses up all ts favors and markers to get inside Information from the made men and initiates of the secret world ofthe Brotherhood and the Family and the Tongs. We got ‘em to. spl thelr guts (figuratively. of course} about all the criminal syndicates—esnecally how they make their money In the cracks between the megacons and the law. They've been around forever, but now they're gearing up for ‘war. So strap on the big guns and powerful mojo and let's go play with the big dogs. (GOTO COMPLETE LIBRARY ARCHIVES. ‘COMING SOON Target: UCAS (A year in Hell. let's see what survived) ‘Rigger Book Il (Hey—you wanna keep up with the SOTA?) a Cyberpirates (The swashbuckling smuggler’s handbook) (GO TO COMPLETE LIBRARY ARCHIVESFINAL ELECTION TALLY Here are the official election results, finalized by the LUCAS gummint its own self Dunkelzahn: 47,827,746 votes, or 37%, Brackhaven: 38,754,731 votes, or 30% Vogel: 23,200,993 votes, oF 18%. Yeats/Penchyk: 12,831,834 votes, or 10% Hernandez: 5,054,964, or 4%, Booth: 1,165,530, or 19%, Other freaks and wel. does got 777,687 votes. ‘Click here for more useless breakdowns. MORE FROM THE GUMMINT According t0 the UCAS, bigwigs, the election was dean. Hip Hip Hooray! We won't have another Prez Election for 4 years! An Incredible 75.35% of UCAS ‘ltizens voted—that’s near ly evenybody who had a SIN. The rest of the popula tlon (us SIN-ess types) couldn't vote, No word on how many dragons voted. Click here for yet more useless breakcowns ABSENTEEISM. Here are the numbers from those of you who voted from the (relative) safety of your own home. Dunkelzahn, 72% Brackhaven, 2%; Voge! 11%; Yeats/Penchyk, 10% Hernandez, 55 Booth, o%. Congrats, chummer! You made a difference! (Did that sound convinaing?) Click here for even more ‘useless breakdowns PEACE IN FDC Haefiner has moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Daviar into the \VP mansion. This is the quietest January in years In the Capitol, what with ‘Congress, the Scott Com: mission and the Draco Foundation all on vaca: tion. Ife wasn't for the big glowing astral ot, ife would be great. Click here to see what's on the win: ter agenda for DeeCee's vars. It’s 08:49:17. Do You Know Where Your Meat Body Is?INTRODUCTION FT SS Ley i he Linderworld Sourcebook isa supplement for the Shadowrun game system. It describes in detail the “Big Four” organized crime syndlicates—the Mafia. the Yakuza. the Tiads and the Seoulpa Rings—fom their origins to thelr status in 2088. It also includes in-depth information about smaller criminal players. from street gangs to terrorists to assassins to an organlegger cartel. The recent death of a major Mob player in Seattle has shattered the uneasy peace between the large crime syndicates, turning the entire underworld into 4 war zone where everyone, from the powerful Yakuza to the smallest neighborhood street gang, Is a target Player characters find themselves caught in the midéle—will they survive and even profit ftom the chaos in the streets, or become part of the grim statistics? The Underworld Sourcebook provides gamemasters with enough information to create any number of adventures and campaigns using the various adventure hooks and “story starters" incor- porated throughout the text, Players will find a wealth of facts, tumors, advice and warnings that they ‘can use to arm their characters with the knowledge needed to survive runs involving criminal sync ccates—those In the background pulling the strings and those who take direct action in events. Like previous Shadowrun sourcebooks, the Underworld Sourcebook is formatted as an elec: tronic document from that fictional world, Scattered throughout the document are comments and additions from readers who seek to correct, expand, corroborate or contradict the information it pre sents. Because this “black” Information comes from characters within the game universe. players or characters cannot safely assume that these comments are truthful. accurate, considereet or clearly tought out (though they may be all those things). The material in the Underworld Sourcebook comes from a variety of sources, most unofficial and all with their own biases builtin. These different points of view give gamemasters greater scope to decide how much ofthe information presented Is accurate, misleading or false in their own games. This sourcebook descibes the major syndicates and various smaller Factions, cartels and gangs that work outside corporate interests and outside the law. It offers detailed information on why these {SfoUpS exist, and now they make money, use their infuence and control their various teritores Important personalities and secret rituals are revealed, along with each group's business practices and the markets each controls. Gamemasters can use the rules fo customize the local branches of various syndicates in the atea where a campaign takes place, and to fun campaigns in which player charac ters are members of the various organized crime syndicates The Underworld Sourcebook Is intended for use with Shadowrun, Second Edition, and the Shadowrun Companion: Beyond the Shadows. und@awnauoSduaceanon - +fTHE SHADOWS GET DARKER . elcome to my word, chummers! Sradewiand has been a abuzz since the Fist Wyrm kicked # lost sum- ‘mee and things show no gn of slowing down ony time s00n, The new UCAS government has managed ‘orestore order to the steels arid honor to the hails of {government (os), but the shadows continue to ree! ftom the aftershocks of Dunketeahn's death and ol of ‘the aceorpanying falout The underworid took a big hit tom the dragon's demise, ond not becouse they were expecting great things from his admins- ‘tation. No, ihe underbelly of ihe business world now finds set n @ tzy becouse of all the treasures, Infuerce ond cred Dunkelzann’s wil cumped into the open market. In the “shadowy ‘cracks batween the megacorporate gant.” as NewsNet & fond of saying. unexpected distibution of wealth and power alwors uptets the status quo—and the resus are usualy traggin’ messy When everything you know chenges, then i's time to hit the of Shodowlans postings to learn the latest news, secrets, rumors, eaths and promotions. You know thot i's the only way to stay cone step chead of the gome. ‘AS usucl, we delver the goods. Right now, Sradowland is feng the icles! and greatest dit ond dato on orgontzed cme Inorder to keep you alve one more day on the mean streets. Hel you may evan leain enough fo score some of that nuyen that's floating oround and manage fo avoid catching any fying lecd. And there's plenty of lead and other fatal substances tying rounds, Just ask Jomes O'Malley. For ose of you who aren't tom Seatte or who haven't been keeping @ search bot trained on our newsfeed—which is why you'te now standing there scratching your meton—Mt. James “The Hemmer" © Malley isthe now late Matia capo ot Seattle and for mer don of the Finnigan Famty of La Cosa Nostta (better known (0s the Mob to you slackers out there), He eontialied the Seattle Mafia for an unprecedented number of year anc ruled nis ‘Gomain with an iron ft. His main goalond it was largely suc Ccessul-wos to reclaim @ lot of ground lest to the Yokuze and newcomer upstors Ike the Seoulpa Rings. Old Jimmy was a meb- ster’s mebster ond, rumer hast, was lacking to occupy the top sot Cf the Matio’s Commésione. What he got instecd was © bulletin the brainpan a few days ago. a New Yeor’s Day present delvered Via some estos’ fe The “New Year's Hil” os its ateody known, tocked the Seattie mob pretty seriousy. and the unity and cooperation that (O'Motey worked so hard to foster among the Familes stated 10 break down almost immediately He was grooming his 28-year-old oughtet Rowene as hs helt but few Family members are betting In fovor of her chances of making the rarely successful leap to the estion of capa (female Mafia bots)—there’s aven odds that he could be the next one taken out by the ossassin’s but. in the meantime, O'Malley's close friends and rivals ake have thelr eyes Con the top spot in Seattie, and are taking advantage of the tem porary power vacuum fo i some of the own personal ditfer- fences on the streets and back aleys of the mettoplex. Plan on see Ing @ lot of “packages being delivered by the Seattle mob over the next tew weeks. Naturally, whatever affects the Mob eventually fows 10 the cother criminal organizationsin the plox. At the moment ollsides re celtner shaking hands or stabbing each other in the back. and mast ‘re doing both at the same time. Won't be long before ropes ‘tom the struggle ht elzewnere in North Ametica and maybe even touch off other smal power struggles in other cities: dd those ten sions to the etects of Dunketzahn’s election and assassination, ‘and you've got the recipe for a kller shakeup, We love the domino effect! Or maybe in ts cose we shoud be talking cbout the buttery effect—you know. the theory that sc: entsts tak about in wich the mavernents of a outtertv’s wings propagate in the atmosphere for yeors unt the bul-up leads to the development of a huricane. What I'm tying fo say here & that there right be a storm bulding in the underworld, churamers. We ‘need to starting looking into some weather forecests and ways to batten down the hatches, os wel!os how fore out the stow ond come away with something to show fort. Toword thal end, we've pBuled in some people n the know fo tel us what they con about the dorker side of the shadows. The fist two bits ore most by a chummer going by the han- dle X Star As the name implies, ths man was with Lone Stor—spent number of years in the organized cre division. And if you know ‘anything about the Star's orgcrime division. you know the cops working nat beat seep, eat cnd tink their work. They don't waste { spore thought on internal poles or requsitioning equipment or (etting « rase: they focus on organized ciime 247-365, $0, tokeit 1 read that XStar knows hi stuff. Hi parting of the ways with the Stor s defiritely their loss ond our gan, because ne wos quite wil Ing to shore some pertinent facts and figutes with us. Looks tke & lot of the people working with Lone Star aren't quite os cim as some of us waud Ike to bebeve, unless all of the other smart ones have token X:Star's cue ond oitched, © Coptain Choos Transmitted: 5 Jonvary 2058 ot 16:20:44 (EST) UNDERWORLD souRcEBOOK‘WHERE IT’S AT |S long as there have been laws to break, people have been breaking them. Hel, some shadowrunners break them so enthus astically that they actually use the old saying, “rules are made to be broken” as their personal motto. Crime is everywhere in tis day and age and, despite what the hype of Lone Sta's press releases tells you, shows no sign of slowing down or going away. Anyone ho says different, be it Knight-Erant or any ofthe North American _govesnments or anyone else. is just trying to take you for a ride Now, | know I don't have to tell a bunch of shadownunners. about rime. Ifyou'te 2 shadowrunner, then you're criminal by def: inition. But there's crime and then there's Crime. Shadowrunners ‘may break the law all ofthe time, sometimes in pretty spectacu- lar ways, but the activities of a few specialized mercenaries and biack-ops agents are only a drop in the bucket compared to the ‘kind of crimes that take place in the metroplex on a dally bass A filend of mine in the Star used to joke that the only differ- fence between shadowrunners and organized crime was the “organized” part. Well, all the runners except the real newbies ‘who go shooting off without a clue have some tort of organiza tion, but the fact of the matter Is that the combined operations of all of the shadowrunners in an entire metroplex equal only the smallest percentage of the illegal drek handled by organized ‘ime, In most civic Jurisdictions—as opposed to limited “neigh borhood” levels of operation—Lone Star dedicates the majority of Its resources to fighting organized crime, because organized aime is responsible forthe majority of ciminal activity. For exam ple, in the Seattle metroplex, 60 percent of all eimes are com> ‘mitted by criminal organizations or directly related to their opera tions. That percentage is based on a simple count: when you look at the percentage of organized crime-related activities based on ruyen volume, organized crime is responsible for more than 80 percent of criminal activity. © Hun? Explain your statistics © Dials © An, the wonder of numbers. Alt means, Digs that 6 cut of 0 felonies are peipetiated by organized crime, bul those crimes repeesent 80 percent of al monetary losses due fo crime. In other words, organized crime has an 80 percent ‘market shore" of etm: Inal octvty. When organized crime pulls some operation, It has @ higher-tnon-average retuin. For example, on independent go- ‘gang knocks ever a Stutfer Shack and fences its haul for 2.500, uyen. A Seoulpa Ring decker subverts the stutter Shack chain's ‘computer system, and divers 25 milion nuyen. Each event repre: sents one “erine.” Get If? © The Chromed Accountant “W's All About Dollars and Sense” ‘Obviously, organized crime is big business. The larger crim ral syndicates rake in enough cred t0 equal the annual income of some of the smaller megacorporations—nothing like the AAA megas, of course, but easily in the billions of nuyen. Lucky forthe rest ofthe world that even the biggest criminal syndicates lack the almost imivess resources ofa typical corporation, an that there ae 4 lot of them competing fr slices ofthe same pie. The bottom line Is that organized crime resembles the megacorps in lot of ways, Which i one ofthe reasons lft Lone Star avid went fo the shadows, ‘See, | realized that security outfits like Lone Star and all of the cother cop shops in the world were only treating the symptoms of the syndlicates rather than the underyying disease. Most organized crime is simple economics, pure supply and demand, As long as legal products and services exist, Including everything from recreational drugs and BTLs to murder for hire, from sex forsale to food and medical supplies in a war zone, people wil ind some way to meet those needs—for a price. The more dangerous and illegal the desire, the more valuable the commodity that wil satisfy it becomes. The only way to eliminate crime i to eliminate the rar ket it serves, And Ifyou can co that, you may as wel eliminate cap- Itaism and economics and establish world peace while you'te at It The twenty-first century fs nothing short of an economic fre: forall. All the conditions that allow the corporations (© prosper are also jacking up the profits for organized crime. Weak govern ‘ments and law enforcement contracted out to the lowest bidder Create just the kind of free-trade environment that lets the corps. and the syndicates sell their products any way they want. | even know people who think that organizations lke the Yakuza and the ‘Mafla are pretty romantic because they work f0 help out the Uunderciog and sell necessary supplies through the black market to People in places like Oakland-Berkeley, Redmond, Newark and Fulton County. Whatever their motives, the bottom line is that as long as you have desperate people willing to pay, you will have smart people willing to supply. And the vast majority of those smart people are in organized crime. | don't have the solution. Maybe it's world peace and pros: pperty—but IF | had those kinds of answers / would have run for fraggin’ president of the UCAS. What I do know is that outits ike Lone Star aren't all that much better than the criminals they're working, against. The syndicates shake down citizens for their ruyen, and the Star takes those same citizens’ tax money for pro tection, Both sides are squeezing the litle guy between them for allof the cred they can, selling their services to the highest bidder and following the bottom line. Lone Star just dresses their extor: tion up in the holy cloak of “serve and protect” to make it go down a little easier, \Wnen | was working for Lone Star, I spent all my time chas: Ing after a single group of criminals. f| did my job well, t meant my company would win bigger contracts, allowing It to up its fees ‘even more and thus ripoff the people | was supposed to be pro tecting. There wasn't anything there to feel good about. In the shadows, we may all be pawns of the big players like the corps and the organized crime bosses, but we get a chance to take their ‘red and fag them over. The shadows are the only place alot of honest people can turn for help. Shadowrunners serve asthe only remaining truly neutral party. needed and used by all sides but loyal to none. Runners represent the ultimate wild cat! in today's mixed-up world and I gotta tell ya. I'd rather be something gum- ming up the works than a small gear helping to keep it all going (© Lust keep on eye out forthe cleaning brush, X-Star ole © Bitter Lemon UNDERWORLD SouRcEBOORTHE BUSINESS OF CRIME ‘esson One for students of the criminal underworld: organized crime Is a business. Big busi ness. It always has been, and it always will be. And like any business in this conglomeration that we like t0 call civilization, crime has its lightweight and heavyweight players. In Seatle and most other metroplexes in North America, organized crime belongs to the “Big Three”— the Mafia, the Yakuza and the Seoulpa Rings. Between thein they've pretty much cornered the market. though a few of the smaller players lke the Triads would love to think otherwise, Wang © aly. B00, In terms of the business of crime, the similarities between the big outfits are much greater than their differences. Each syndicate exists to grab as much money andl influence as possible, within and Dutside the law, and each runs its operations accordingly. Think of them as megacorporations whose primary business is legal actvity—ftom bootlegging to extortion to prostitution and just about any ‘other profitable crime you can think of—and you'll have it about right. IF you know how one works, you pretty much know how they all work unverworto souncesoon fnLike any other business, organized crime syndicates have their own markets: specific customer bases to which they offer products and services all dictated by supply and demand. I know plenty of eriminal big-boys who spent time learning how to run a business and then applied that know-how to thei illicit opera- tions. You'll ind mote MBAS in the Mafia and Yakuza than you will just about anywhere outside Harvard Business School—and why ‘ot? The smart ones go where the money is, after all. And it's no coincidence that a lot of big-time crime bosses turn out to be humble businessmen” on the side. Like the megscororations we all know and love to hate, ‘each criminal organization has a different focus. with varying lev ls of resources dedicated to different “business segments.” Of course, there are only so many illicit markets out there, and 50 teach outfit has at least one finger in each illegal pie THE MARKETS Lesson Two: organized crime has at least 4 toehol in just bout any criminal enterprize that ean possibly make money. You'll find most of hose enterprises —"market segments,” to keep ‘our business analogy going—in the following post. | spent years, Jn the Star busting these people, oF trying to, 30 | know what they’te involved in and can make pretty fair guesses as to just how far their criminal webs extend. I've kept this file to an overview. however—Snadowiand doesn't have the space fora long, hard look into every nook and cranny of the organized crime business. Lone Star's expers—of whom | used to be one—break down each of these areas into dozens of different specializations, and the legal odes for any one of them take up gigapulses. You want more infor- mation, look up a good entine law library or break into the Star's system and get the skinny (and tll them I sent you) ‘COMPUTER CRIME Used to be if you wanted (© hold up & bank, you needed a stocking mask, a gun and maybe a few chummers to back you up and drive the getaway car, Nowadays if you want fo hold up a bank (or a liquor store or just about any other money making. establishment) all you need Is a computer, some know-how and the right programs. Old-fashioned! robbery is a whole different ball game—I'l get to that later on. But if you're looking to steal pute cred in the twenty-first century, you need a decker. ‘Most people think all deckers are shadowrunners, mavericks who'd rather have their brains slagged down than take orders from anyone (except maybe their best buddy Joe Street Sammy, who leads the ragiag team they usually run with). A lot of dec save like that, bt plenty of bitheads out there sell their services permanently to the highest bidder—including organized crime ‘outfits. The synclicate decker usually gets to call the shots on tac tics, while his bosses in the organization decide strategy—speci- really, who gets hit and where the booty ends up. The syndicate decker gets expensive support from his orga: nization (ust ike corporate deckers do). The organization supplies the decker with the best harcware and software ill-gotten gains can buy. and sometimes even top-line ¢yberware to go with It In exchange, the decker follows orders and does what he or she does best. Not a bad arrangement for deckers who don't see much difference beeween sleazing numbers forthe synelcate and sleazing numbers for Renaku (and frankly, 'm not so sure they're wrong). There's na lack of e-slippers perfectly happy (0 take a ‘syndicate up on that kind of offer. © Why woud any decker worthy of the nome sol her soul to any ‘orgonization? Anybody who'd do that has 10 be @ hack © Pentecost © Some are hacks, Pente, but not that many. Why would the yoks ay good nuyen for o hack? AA chummet of rine did some contract work for the Yakuza ‘whe back. They gave her a fragging Excofbur, let her|ulce it ten ways to Sunday, and outfitted her with the hohest copicks I've fever s9en, Sure. she had to pay back the cost—withinterest—but it came out of her cut of the ops she ran for them. Atter]@ couple of weeks” work, she walked away with the Excolbur, close to SOK ruven in cold cred, and some Useful experience in sicing govern ment databases. The way she sow i, the yaks lot her buy that Excallour cn cred when nobody on the legitimate side of the street would nave floated her aloan. © Seige © I con see the attraction. but you're wrong on one thing. Serge. Your chummer didn't wok away. Nobody “walks eway’” from the yaks. They've got their hooks into her now. and one doy they're ‘g0ing fo decide to reel her in, Groups Ike the Yoluza don't do {ek tke that out of the kindness of ther hears, I's @ business Investment, pure ond smote, © sotto © Sometimes it con be © good bushes: investment on both sides it you understand! what you're gating nto, For same, cecking for the syncicate sno diferent than decking teelance or working for diferent Johnson every week. Cred is cred and a ob'sajob. t's runing the Matrix thet counts © Uncie Enzo CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES Remember what | said about supply and demand? Well, con trolled substances are the purest example of that principle at ‘work. When something people want is declared illegal, demand fort almost always increases—and even In those few cases where the demand remains the same, the potential profit from supply Ing that demand shoots right through the roof. We all find forbi ‘den fruit sweeter than any other kind, so slapping the “illegal label on something automatically gives It cachet. That means those who supply IC can charge what they want and people will pay. For organizes crime outs, “forbidden fruit” means big cred. ‘The huge returns on the investment make dealing in controlled substances a mainstay for plenty of syndicates. © IF he government was realy as dead set on creping organized time of they claim, they'd legalie mos ilicit drugs ond BILs. The lost revenue would cripple the Mafia, ond prcbabiy the yaks oo. eka uNDERWORLO Souncesoon© Maybe. More Ikely we'd end uo with a society filed with even, axe buned oul addicis than we hove now. ond the cops and the syndicates would really trag us bind, Most organized crime outfits have their hooks into legitimate corps that produce pharmaceutical and entertainment products. (Any enterprise with high cash flow offers terfic potential for laundering legal revenue—another subject Ill discuss later on in this post.) These connections let the syndicates use legit develop- fess and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and entertainment chips to produce illegal goods, Plenty of runt-sized but perfectly legal simshow corps in California (urn out BTLs and CalHots for ‘organized crime on the side. Why not? They need the money, ane cred i cred, right? Inplaces where It doesn't control the production of chips and drugs, organized crime goes out of its way to co-opt and take ‘over the dlstributton chain somewhere along the line, Your neigh bborhood chip-pusher might be a smaltime ganger, but a step or two up the ladder you can bet thatthe Malla or some other major player has a big slice of the ple. Drugs and chips rake in mote ‘money than just about any other criminal enterprise, so you've ‘got to bea big player to get involved at the top ofthe food chain You need lots of up-front money and lots of connections. A corp ‘ould handle it—and some of them play in the market when they need quick and untraceable capital—but the only other players ‘with enough resources to stay on top of the production chain are the syndicates. Gangs get involved closer (0 the street, where they can buy into a smaller piece ofthe action. © Lot's tok fqures. A typical five-minute, singke-play beetle costs ‘bout 600 nuyen on the ste. Typical preduction cost—tokng into account talent tees, gear, pre-and postprocessing, ete. ate plus chip-bianks and burning—tuns about a milion nuyen, of lose to. Call your average production run 10 milion units, puting the petunit cost at 0.10 nuyen apiece. The producer wil ell he bee- ties fo the nearest Gistibutor for maybe 100 nuyen a pop—thot's 100000 percent markup. By the tee they get to the frontne Cshibuior—Ine thiteen-year-old entrepreneur who lves across ‘the hall om you—they cost 360 to 400 nuyen. So where do you ‘think guttertash ond lowifes ore going to buy into the distribution Channef? Pretty damn near the steet and the end-user. The prot it margne are better naar the source, Dut to play 9 Mat league you've got fo be able fo Invest @ milion @ shot and then watt © ‘couple of months for ony retumn, @ the Keynesian kia “Greed Good" Though BTL tend to be the controlled substance of choice on the streets nowadays, some synicates are still active inthe ile {gal drugs market. For years the Malia and the Yakuza claimed they dido’t deal in deugs because drugs were “ality.” but that’s jet- ‘wash. PR jerwash at that—another lesson they took from the megacorps. Looking bad to your customer base cuts into the bot- tom line, afterall. But drugs mean money, and money always UNDERWORLD SouRcEsoon lncerests the Mala and the yaks. I's true both syncicates run move BILs than smack, novacoke, ce, bllss or any of the other design er street drugs that've turned up in the past few decades, but the shift comes from market demand. Meanwhile, they've kept their Singers in the drug trade because it stil pulls ina ty litle prof. © Ine thos a .e0VIy invested in crug smugging-—not much in North America, except fo speciaty markets in the Chnatowns they contol. But pion in Asia and the Goidon Triangle. The Tiods have 0 multbilion-nuyen opium market going in those parts. That pat of the workd isn't ike Seattie or Los Angeles, where every kid (on the stloot has a portabe s- player. But you don't need a ploy lef ora chipjack to get on opium high. Also, alt of the people in those countries don't rut BTl—but oplum's been around since forever. Better the devil you know. | guess. © Ennegon © That. ong the Thads want to make sure that i BTL catches on, people are soting ihelr beetles, not drek orn one of ther com- petitos. © Rico ‘COUNTERFEITING AND FORGERY Back in the Dark Ages—before the advent of the Matih— ‘organized crime cleared a tidy profi from printing bogus curren ‘G, share certificates, bearer bonds and such. It took elaborate, ‘expensive technology to print passable bank notes, and so the big. boys didn't have much competition. The tech curve changed all that—temporarily. For a while, anyone with a computer scanner and 2 good printer could turn out forgeries good enough to foo! casual inspection. Then the arms race kickedt in between counter: feiters and those with an interest in stopping them (pretty much ‘everyone but the counterfeiters). For every innovation, the street corner counterfeiter needed a new tech foy to stay In business— and after a while, the tech toys got to be beyond the little guy's means. With the changeover to computerized credit and the demise of “hard” currency and other financial instruments, major fraud once again became the province of those few who could afford the highly sophisticated technology requited to pull tof Full circle—organized crime came back into Its own, andl today i ‘dominates the counterfelting Industry, You can still find smaltime cred spoofers, of course. Anyone with a good computer, a chip-blower and some other peripher- als—probably under 100K nuyen worth of gear if you shop smart—can tur outa standard-grade certed credstick authentic enough fo fool a Level | checker. A really good spoofer can fool 1 Rating 2 or even a Rating 3 checker—'ve seen it happen. The spoofer can also hook you up with a credstick iclent that looks clean on fist inspection—all the bits in the ight place, all the data Fields filled out inthe right syntax, all the appropriate checksums nicely balanced. However, the art of forgery today doesn't have much to do with the credstick (yes, here comes Lesson Three) ‘The “back story"—the corroborating data—is the hard part, and that drek’s nor on the stick. Think abour It. What happens when you slot a stick to 1D yourself? The credchecker hooks up (o the government databanksoF some corporate datacore, using the SIN on your stick as the search parameter, and pulls up your records. Then it compares the data on your stick with the data in whatever record it needs. If you're buying something, the credchecker links with your bank to ‘make sure you've got enough money in your account to cover the transaction you're making. Ifyou'e slotting your stick at a Lone Star precinct because you've been picked up fo jaywalking, the check- ‘er makes sur there are no outstanding warrants for your arest. So ifyou've bought your stick from a second-rate spoofer, the data onthe stick looks kosher .. but it doesn't match up with any- thing in the target computer. The system says "No Records Matched,” and suddenly youve got a lot of explaining to do. To forge a stick that's worth something, you've got to blow the bits into the stick itself and then insert the matching data—the ctizenship record, bank account, employment file, whatever— into the target hosts throughout the Matrix. And that is tough. It takes talent and serous gear—lots more than your friendly neigh: borhood data-phreak can possibly lay hands on (or afford, even if he finds it). Only a big-time organization ean get this stult—ike & corporation, a government or (watch the flashing neon sign!) an organized crime syndicate. And since the kind of people who a) want to pul off major Faud, and b) can afford to do i ight usualy spare no expense when buying the tool they need, the synclicates, (once again) make a fair pile of cred off the counterfeiting busi- 1ness—even wien they're not pulling off the caper themselves. Art Forgery Because making counterfeit money in this day ancl age is so much more difficult than it used to be, smart forgers with fewer resources have branched out into copying easier things, lke art and collectibles. Art forgery Is stil ficult, but a talenced forger ‘an reproduce masterpieces and even create “undiscovered’ works good enough to fool art experts. f you can do that, you're in the money. ‘The big problem with producing forgeries isthe need to steal the original. which is usually hanging in a well-secured museurn or private collection somewhere. If you can't swipe the original you've got to do something almost as diffcult—convince your buyer that you have the genuine article. Its tough to slide a forgery past experts who are on the lookout for attempts to rip them off. A single misplaced brush stroke can clue in a real expert toa forgery, So smart con artists invent a plausible excuse for that misplaced brush stroke or whatever. One art-theft ring in Europe, back around the turn of the century, came up with a truly inge lous scheme. They'd forge a plece that was in a museum some- Where, for which they had @ potential buyer. The forgery was goed, but not good enough to slip past anyone who realy knew thelr stu So the crooks would break into the museum, swipe the piece they wanted. hang their forgery in its place, and then deface i, Slash it, spray-bomb i, burn it, whatever ... and leave behind ceviclence that some terrorist group had “struck a blow against the repressive plurocrats” (or whatever) by destroying, a work of art allegealy symbolic ofthat repression. or some other such drek. The experts would panic. of course: a major masterpiece had lust been trashed. They'd frantically tart Geaning it off and repair ing it. they found any flaws in the forgery. they attributed them to the desecration and repaired them. Meanwhile, the thieves happily sold the real thing to thelr mysterious collector fora small fortune ‘That kind of overhead can make forgery as expensive as straightforward robbery, and some art-theft rings use forgery on the side to make extra cred. They steal a work and then produce coples 50 they can sell It two or three or ten times over, then split with the cred and the original before their buyer finds out he's, been ripped off. Art thieves make serious money this way. but they also tend to spend a lot on good bodyguards (if they're smart, that Is). Hell hath no fury lke a wealthy art collector who's been stitfed. ‘Once upon a time. the art forgery market was too small and specialized. with too much risk and expense for too litle payoff to attract the syndicates’ attention, That all changed when a cer- tain dragon bought some agricultural real estate and opened up his toy box for everyone else to play in. With the publication of Dunkelzahn’s wil, the art-forgery market Is taking off like a rock et The payof s bigger, 50 (altogether now, class) the synclcates, are poking their laws into this pie, too, ‘Dunkelzahn’s will put some incredibly valuable art pieces some of them unknown works, out on the market. It also set off a Firestorm of speculation about other artworks and rare collectibles from the dragon's estate that are now in the hands of the Draco Foundation. Collectors and connolsseuts around the world started salivating, andthe market for art forgeries and ilict aft sales went ‘through the roof. A big market in stealing, duplicating, smuggling, and selling black-matket art and artifacts fem the dtagon’s cot lection has mushroomed almost overnight. So fyou'te one of the legions of shadowrunners recently hired to steal a painting or a statue, of to help to deliver some work of art to its alleged desti- nation according to Dunkelzahn’s bequests, keep in mind that you may well be working for organized crime. © Since tne wil came out, ihe uneergiound aft matket has been flooded witn forgeries that sellers claim ore “undiscovered ong: nas” from the ckagon’s collection. An even better con # people trying to poss off forgeries by using the old tick X-Star tos about ‘above, cleming the forgery 6 actualy ihe cxignal—stolen years 19g, don'tcha know—and that the one hanging on 2 wall some: place isthe forgery. Supposedly. some Gainsborough in the Bish Museum int a Goinstorough, and the origins for sole under the table as part of Dunkelzahn’s estat. © Objet a'art (© What about the “undiscovered da Vine!” Lucien Cross got from tho wi? © Cie-Cross © Not real Couldn't he. It has to be « take, © Objet oA © Another new market for forgeries is bogus talsmans and mag Col tems. You can really ack up the pice of an item if ou can tet customers that It hos “unknawn magica properties.” People are Interested in ony treasure from the cragon’shoard, but « magical unDeRWORLD souRCcEBOOKfrecsue .. ust name your price, ve heard of rempo) Itfooks “magicar’ trom ast rat t does. The than etfset & enchanting technique that lets @ magician put « kind o Cura on on object 0 th magicion to do thi ism ‘tom seling @ (ory magica! ra Cost of paying the fatter prot you get © Mage xx © | went on a tun recently fot © certain DeeCee-2ared mo: to net them ‘an trom Dunkie s estate. Tuins cut bes; the or FENCING Fencing Is the fine art of swordsmanship. Okay. Just checking to-see if you're paying attention. I's actually the fine art of taking What other people have stolen and turning it nto hard, spendable cred, You might know that the information on My. Suit's freshly heist pocket secretary is valuable, but without some way to contact an Interested buyer and arrange an exchange, the data isn't worth the chips i's stored on, As the saying goes. you can't cet paydata, and you usually can't pay your rent with it el if you want to make some money off your swag paydata thing else—you need a Fence ‘Most people who aren't Fences don't think much it takes to succeed ati. A good fence needs an eye fo ‘ofall kinds of merchandise and a massive collec not ust potential buyers, but other people who ks late and move hot goods to still more potential buyers. Building the value 1oW how to ev web of contacts that wide fakes resources, nancial as well as personal, So once again. the boys with the big mone)—organizec crime—have an edge over the indenenclent entrepreneut. By my personal estimate, at least half the successful, big-league fences have ties to one crime syndicate or another (© At leost hall”?—wwnere the frag doo rr © 'c) ke to know. 100. If you ask © Aigent In most cases, those ties are fatty loose; the fence uses th organization's resources fo fine buyers, and pays a cut ofthe prot: ighven up fast the syndicate needs something done, Like a Fixer. a fence depends (09 hs contacts to stay in business. If most of those cont pen to wore for a partic the Mah organization can apply a lot of pressure just by threacening to cut the fence loose. None of the big outfis pull the reins :00 herd unless some heavy drek is going down anc they're caling in al sto th the syndicates prefer to keep thelr underlings happy its for the privilege. But organized crime ries can lar organization—say’ hat their markers. Unhappy employees don ir best werk, 30 uno wontosouncesoon ff cases, they don't have to yank the fence’s chain hare enough to choke him, All they need to do is deliver a simple “suggestion” thatthe fence keep his ears open about a certain subject and pass ‘on any information that comes along, The fence gets the message. the synclcate gets what it wants, and everyone stays frends. years ago a chu @ Fran © What'd you co with ° eae. aan ke sh The syndicates get into the fencing business fortwo reasons: information and (you guessed it) profs. Fencing can be quite lucrative ... for everyone except the seller, that is. You might have your Not ite mitts on data worth a milion suyen, but that milion ‘show much the fence sels it For—or maybe what the fence’s cus comer sells for. Either way, the big profits are on the ater side from you. ame, A fence always tries to get as good « price as Betore the seller sees a plugged sible, but the cree gets cut up along the line yen, the Fence takes a cut and the organization backing him takes a cut. Every nuyen the fence gives the seller means one less nuyen for him. 30 most fences try fo negotiate as low as they can—especially when they know they're dealing with merchandise that only they can move. I ne fence in the world will rouch what you've got, your paydata or natever isn't worth a burned-out credstick. Even in best-case enarios, sellers usually get something like 20 to 30 percent of an item's real value from a fence. So that hypothetical milion: ght net you 300K but not as big ¢ score as you thought. OF the remain nuyyen chunk of payeata mi f you re lucky. Not 100 shabby ing 700K. some goes fo the fence. Most sides into the syndicate's actively aequite tems romers. Ifa fence knows ne has buyer fora particular iter, he might take it upon himself acquire it, and base the runners’ fee on the re talking about 20 to 30 fit he expects to make. Again, wi cked, it ake its cut a8 usual (Remember, crime Is a business— ancl the fist rule of business Isto profie as much as possible omFIXING Like fences, good fixers live or die on thelr network of con- tacts and connections. The more people they know, the more they can make happen and the more people will wan vices. Good independent fixers are out there, but most successful ‘ones need backing from somebody who matters. They usually get It from one of two sources: a corporate black ops division or an organized crime syndicate © Not entirely true, my dear felow. Certain fixers have their own corganzations or “patons” operating behind whe scenes, ot we have recently learned. The exposure of Dunkelzatn’s network of fixers attr his death suqgatts that mony allegedly “independent” fixers may n fact owe thet loyalty to a patron of whose backing they cre not fully aware If Ourkelzatn cou create and maintain such o lorge network of operalver. tis vitually certain that other facto ‘World nave done ikewise © Wotkon@BIG. 52895-2218 Fxers with connections to organized crime can stil work Independently, but they owe something to the organization that sponsors them. That means the organization can callin its mark: cers whenever it wants, So it pays to know where your fixers oy: aves le when you decicle whether or not to take a particular job from him, or go through him for inte! or equipment for a particu: lar run. That marker might get called in any time, and you'll get sucked Into the syndicate spider web right along with your fixer {you're not careful (© That's for taggin’ sure. | went on tun once where we were working against the Famiy’s side of the staet. | wos expecting to gat some gear we needed from a fet who I've worked wih for Yrs | st him about 0s for as you car tust anyone inthis bus ness, Wel, he fold me Up front that he couldn't help me out. The local syncieate had nelped him get stared inthe Oz, ana ne st owed them. He was honorable enough not fo sell me out, but he "wuld do business with me for that run. either. Things ended up costing © lot more than we planned becaute we had to ge through different connections that we dics’ know so wall. Ane! we got off lucky. ot that. If my churener had decided to rot me out tothe syndicate, me and my wnale team's be decorating the for of Puge! © acight und tant now. Fixing is the one area where information and control matter more to the syndicates than money. The number of fixers and fences that organized crime has in Its collective pocket gives the syndicates alot of pull n the shadows, even more than the mega: comps in lots of the ways that matter. Shadowrunners operate out side the law, outside so-called normal society. But to do that, SINiess slags lke us need things: gear. connections, information fd the day-to-day necessities that upright citizens so carefully reserve for themselves. We need a pipeline to get those things— and guess who controls the major pipelines? (One hint: this is not ‘multiple-choice question.) To avoid becoming connected in an umbilical fashion to one comp oF other powerful patron, a shadowrunner has to deal with fone oral ofthe syndicates sooner or later. Organized crime holds the lifeblood of the shadow community in is dirty hands. The syndicates know it, the corps know it, and you'd better learn it if ‘you want to survive on the streets. That's why the corps often go through one ofthe local syndi ‘cates when they're looking for shadow talent. I's a lot simpler than beefing up their own black ops dlvsion—padding the pay- roll just makes it more ofa target fo their rivals. Think ofthe syn- dlicates as keepers of the “game preserve" created by the corps: runners like Us live here, in our “native habitat,” until the corp needs afew of us for something. The corp sends some people to some syncicate-connected fixers. who turn around and rustle up some fresh runner meat. Expect this trend to increase as more of the litte microcorps start geting into the game. They're going to need shaciow talent on the cheap, which means lots of emp labor. ‘They'll turn to the syndicate specialists to provide It. © No way. churmer. I'm nobody's ttaggin’ puppet. | mun the shadows to stay out of al that crok. I take the corps’ money, but [rm laughing athe way to the bank Life inthe shadows i the only {ol freedom there is anymore © Chrome king © Realy. Chrome? Who helps sup the street doc who patches you up and maybe sips in © new piece of metal now and again? Who backs the fence who sels the swag you steal? Who arranges for the shiny new guns you want to buy and who finds you the froggin’ jobs you work? Mos! of hose support systems are tun by the syndiccte, cirectly or indrecty. The only way you become puppet i by denying that the stings are there. A smart runner recognizes them ond doesn’ tlet his tles fo any ane faction get too tight. I's a tightrope wok between all the fine folks that contot Copetations down on the street. you don't want f fll, you'd bet- ter knew which way the wind is blowing, © Finger Man © Stor naied one thing bong on. The itis Mom-and-Pop shops that got cred from the Draco Foundation need some talent to keep them safe trom all the corporate wolves howing outkice tho oor. A company that can count ts employees in the ters instead of t ford @ “black ops dvsion,” but they can fake some of thot now cred and make arrangements wh the Mofic 0° the yaks er even the local gang fer “protection” and shadow talent os needed. The syndicate usualy cuts themselves in fora piece of the action along the woy. 00 GAMBLING In the past few decades, most counties in North America have loosened up laws against gambling, tothe point where there ‘might as well not be any. Certain types of gambling are verboten, depending on the jurisdiction—for example, it's Hlegal to bet on AAztlaner blood sports throughout the CAS and UCAS—but in ‘most places a citizen can place a bet on just about anything that strikes his or her fancy. UNDERWORLD souRCcEBOOK(Of course, the absence of prohibition doesn't mean that gam- biing i totally unregulated. Most juslctions have gigapulses of laws on maximum wagers, allowable odds, house percentages and all kinds of gambiing-related jetwash, And in a perfect exam: ple of the Law of Unintended Consequences. the regs have creat- ‘ed a market for people who want to play games that go against those laws. They want to bet on the Aztlan pit fights, or maybe the legally mandated maximum bet on the spin of a roulette wheel lust doesn’t get their hearts pumping hare! enough. Lesson Four: for every demand, an entre industry will spring up to satisfy it. ‘Syndicate controlled, of course. ‘Mast major organized cime outfits control any legal gam: biing operations in thelr teritory that make enough cred 10 be worth the trouble. These places are the ilegal easinos—clean, lux Uurious, safe watering-holes-slash-gambling,-dens, where high rollers with a taste forthe forbidden can feel comfortable hanging. Cut. People with too much money and no imagination can play for the thil of betting everything they own on asingle ral of the dice for hand of cards, while beautiful people serve them drinks and fawn over them Ten there are the establishments that cater t© mote exotic tastes—placing bets on live-eed gladiator Rights from Aztlan, oF ‘even on a pit ight on the premises Pit fights can be mano.a mano (meaning any metatype: before anyone jumps down my throat “man-to-man” Is a igure of speech), man against beast (the more exotic, the better, cfiter against critter, even man against machine of a couple of rigger-controlled drones slugging it out (hough that last one is usually t00 expensive and nowhere near bloody enough fo satisy most crowds). A lot of the fights are Figged (no surprise), and the houses often “recruit” fresh meat off the strets forthe latest pit-brawl—except in places ike Aztlan. where they get to use criminals. Hell, | guess thats sll recrulting off the stree's © Some place: cater to even more bacrre gombing haoits | know an ilegal club in Hong Keng tun by the Triads where cus Tamers actualy bet thelr ffoggin’ Wwes In the craves! games ‘round-—everything trom Russian roulette to vitual combats wih block IC:level neural feedback to eating mushrooms ot utr fh ‘ong honing they picked the norpokonous serving. Everyone ele ‘wagers on the outcome of these contests Ine people Who survive Corsderit the biggest hail here The clonteles about what you'd ‘expect of people jaded enough fo tsk death fora checp thi © chinodot Naturally. organized crime also grabs hold of a lot of legit gambling operations. Dig deep enough Into the background of ‘supposedly legal gambling concerns and you'll find links (0 orga nized crime, like rotting wood under a nice new coat of paint. (Expect to slice your way through a literal maze of shells and hold- Ing companies to manage it. though.) Cites and resort towns that live or ie on gambling, like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans {and Palm Springs, pretty much belong toa syncicate—sometimes ‘more than one. Apart ffom the syndicate’s cut of each legit house's winnings —which can be considerable—legal gambling, unDERWORLD SsouRcEBOOHn ‘operations make a great way to launder dirty money because so ‘much cash continually changes hands. (Got to clean the tainted cred somehow, afer all) © Palm Springs is one of the best examples of “neu! grounc! ‘between the Mafia and the yoks The Two syndicates run the place as 2 resort where the fal cols—themseivesincluded—con {get away from t al. Nobody starts eny trouble there becouse lick Ing off « gong war in Palm Springs would spol everybody's pris So far t's worked tke o © Cabone Boy © Attonlic City's the opposte. We've seen some pretty bloody cconficts between tha syndicates plckng over what litte meat left on the bones of our wom-out casnos and re2or Anyone visting the Jorsay shore s wel advised to know who's uo ‘ond who's down on any given dey. © Jersey Devil HYJACKING Hijacking is the art of diverting shipments of god-knows: what t© wherever the hijacker wants them. These days, god knows-what is likely to be something that'll fetch the hikicker— and his syndicate backers—a pretty nuyen or three. The number ‘of hiackings has decreased over the past several decades, but the total value of the diverted goods has grown because criminal ‘organizations have gotten much more choosy about what they steal. Not being fools, they go forthe really valuable cargo that ‘gives the blagest return for the risk they put into swiping It Obviously, valuable cargoes are surrounded by tight security—but the simple fact that such cargo must be mobile puts an upper limit fon the amount of security possible. And then there's the matter of diminishing rerurns—decent security costs money. AS soon as the «ost of securing the cargo becomes greater than the cargo's actual value, the company shipping the stuf is playing a losing game. That ‘means they'll only spend so much to keep thelr shipments safe. The Mafia has waditionally been the biggest player In this area, but rivals have recently begun {0 challenge jes dominance. The Seoulps Rings particularly are moving into the hijacking bust ness. seizing shipments and then quickly selling their booty on the black market. A lot of gangs, especially go-gangs like the ‘Ancients, also turn a pretty good profit from hijacking. OF course, 4 gang that makes (oo much cred this way will come to the atten tion of the local Seoulpa Ring or Mafia don or ayabun, it's a _go0d ber that most gang-‘elated hijackings are syndicate con: nected as well, We'll let you keep ripping off Corps X,Y and Z if you give us a cut of the profits—that's the way the game is played, and all the big syndicates excel at it ‘The favorite target for hijackers right now Is weapons. Over the past five year. hijackers have hit three shipments of ordnance Intended for the CAS military. That means they've acqulted—for their own use or for sale on the open market—muil-spec toys tke man-pack SAMs, pulse-laser units, and more AP cluster-bombs than any reasonable person would know what to do with. (Anyone feeling nervous yet? You should be.)