Where would you operate?As said earlier by a member, Houston, Texas. I've lived here all my life and I have to say, if anyone wanted to make a new Crime Family (assuming their isn't one), Houston is the place to do it. Only downside I see in Houston is the FBI Sub-Branch located in Downtown Houston.
As for my personal operations I'd have three crews directly in Houston, and two crews located on the outskirts of Houston.
Inner City Crew #1The location of this crew would be in North Houston, around Bush Intercontinental Airport. Obviously, this crew would be heavily involved in theft of goods located in airport hangars, truck hijackings, a chop shop due to the vast option of vehicles in the parking lots (use of the airport could come in handy when it came to shipping parts off), and day-to-day rackets (i.e. numbers, illegal gambling, extortion),
Inner City Crew #2This crew would be located in the Galleria, how I see it where the middle class can comfortable move and become the upper class and expand from there in life. With the Galleria (Houston's most infamous mall) extortion would be a must for this crew. Not to mention the fact that millions of individuals visit this mall annually (especially teenagers), so pushing drugs would be permitted for Outsiders and newly Connected Associates (however only selling to their outsider(s)). Located in the Galleria's parking lots are everything you could dream of, Fords, Mercedes, Cadillac, etc. So a chop-shop would be a superb racket for this crew as the vehicle selection would be in great abundance.
Inner City Crew #3My third Crew for inner Houston would have to be the Houston Ship Channel despite it being more towards the outer edge of the city. This crew would steal cargo from ships, boat hangers, warehouses, etc. Extortion of local shrimping/crabbing companies would be a fantastic option for the crew, along with the day to day rackets as mentioned above.
Outer City CrewThe following two crews come from my personal experience growing up here. Katy, Texas is completely and utterly untouched by any criminal groups despite the recent and large influx of Motorcycle Clubs (Most of them are family clubs, how ever some wear 30%'er patches, and I've seen a Hells Angel a time or two). As far as I know, all we have are mass amounts of street gangs, meth labs, and small time crack downs. My first Crew would be located in Downtown Katy. The main street is covered by small time family owned businesses that could use a good shake down, not to mention Katy's mall "Katy Mills Mall", is a prime location for pushing drugs, car theft, and extortion. Katy is a Agricultural based town, it would be a hard task, but to begin a Agricultural Union, or perhaps influencing one already made (not too sure), would be a big priority of mine personally for my Captain to look into.
Outer City Crew #2My final crew would be located in La Centerra, just south of Katy in Cinco Ranch. Here the homes sell for anywhere from $10,000,000 to $150,000,000. This is /the/ place to find any high rollers worth pushing around. With a large shopping center extortion, drugs, and once again car theft are prime rackets. You'd be more likely to find Exotic Sports Cars in Cinco Ranch that the Galleria as funny as it sounds.
What would your hierarchy be?My hierarchy would be the following
- Boss
- Consigliere
- Underboss
- Street Boss
- Captain
- Lieutenant (At least one per Captain)
- Soldier
- Associate
- Outsider
Now why would I use Street Boss? Well when I picture the mob, I picture the lower guys doing the dirty work, being the ones in the spot light, they're typically young and naive. Myself (as Boss), my Consigliere, and my Underboss would go around acting like an exclusive group of close friends. We'd talk business in random spots. While we're looking innocent, my Street Boss would be out in the field, collecting, enforcing, and making decisions to make the family better over all.
I'd have a soldier that I trusted do my things for me. Call people, talk to people, drive me places, be my own personal gunman basically. Although this seems like a personal position, for doing what I'd consider a highly valiant job, the individual would always be considered when the books open for being moved to Captain if a applicable replacement is at my disposal.
High Profile or Low?Low Profile would be my style, but I know for a fact it would never go that way, so I'll have to swing for the middle. Depending on what I did as a legal cover would depend on what I would own, in due time of course, the last thing I want to do is be arrogant and by a expensive home, car etc. I'd make sure anyone who drove anything that looked suspicious got the message verbally and given a month to fix it, after that time I would see to that they'd be forced to get a new vehicle after finding their vehicle in a tragic accident... Everything would depend on rank in the end, your time, your annual income from your legal cover etc. As for me personally since Houston is a large Corporate based Oil Town, I'd probably swing my way in a Managerial Position at a Corporate Oil Office.
Policy on Drugs?
Drugs would be allowed as the City of Houston runs on narcotics in all honesty. However, I wouldn't want anyone to sell drugs once they've become connected for more than six months after meeting their Captain. If they keep it going after six months, they're gone. Associates can supply their outsiders to sell for them, but they cannot sell directly to civilians or even gang members.
Meetings?Meetings would be held randomly every week at completely random times with nothing being uniform. However all meetings would contain my Faction Administration (Boss, Consig, UB, Street Boss). From there the Street Boss would round up my Captains, then my Captains my soldiers if need be. At these meetings, anyone could be ordered to strip for a wire at any point in time, this is not however exclusive to meetings, and will be made highly apparent the day the individual is introduced and becomes a connected man.
Bringing guys inMy kick ups wouldn't be set in stone, you send up what you think you should send up, but if you try to jerk me over with a silly kick up, I'll jerk your leg out of its socket. As long as you're Caucasian you'd be allowed to become Connected, however blacks and hispanics would be allowed to become Outsiders.
Finding out if guys are ratsSimple, I'll run the DeCavalcante way, if someone seems suspicious they go. I have no time to waste when it comes to a criminal organization as large scale as the one I have described here for you. Depending on who the individual will depend on the precautions taken. If my top earner has been gone for a couple of days, he'll be randomly stripped every week or so. However, all my members will be wire stripped weekly for a two month period before it slowly dying down to every two to three months.
Indictments coming downWhen indictments come I stay. I begin to slowly start spending more time at my "legal job" and conduct private meetings in my office via messengers having it swept every four days to keep an irregular schedule possibly making it three then five to throw off anyone bugging my office. During times of indictments, earning will become focus #2 with focus #1 being clean your act up so they don't kick your door down while you're sorting out firearms.
This is how I would run my family, I understand there's probably more than a dozen or so major issues/loop holes, but I consider myself fairly new to the LCN world.
One last little edit real quick.
I'd have a wife, with the mindset similar to Mrs. Underwood in House of Cards. Very charismatic, smart, amazing with words, and sexy. I'd back her and assist in major projects she's interested in running to allow for even further legal coverage of myself, i.e. starting a real estate company and becoming one of the CFO's of the entire organization allowing for numerous offices to meet at.
