Kolson Cartel
The Kolson cartel is the leading smuggling cartel from Wounded Knee, a lawless CNCS protectorate in the Westridge Range of the Badlands. Although Wounded Knee is far from the borders of the NLC, the Kolson cartel wields enormous power in the league through an extensive underworld network. The cartel built its power base on the huge Norlight market for illegal, contraband, and controlled materials and has long maintained a stranglehold on the supply of these products. Items smuggled by the cartel include drugs, banned media (including pornography and anti-Revisionist hate-literature), weapons and slaves. Much of their profit comes from more mundane contraband, such as immoral Southern trideos that are not available through sanctioned distribution networks. The Kolson rose to power at the end of the last century during a bloody conflict with three other cartels and many independent smugglers. The cartel banded together many of the small-time smugglers and rovers from the north Karaq and Eastern savannahs into a coherent network of smugglers and enforcers. In exchange for their cooperation, these bands received monetary compensation and supplies of arms and other goods. By the beginning of this century, Kolson established itself as the most reliable supplier of illicit materials to the region. Jeremiah Dupree, then a high ranking lieutenant in the cartel, arranged for Kolson to deal with pre-existing criminal and black market organizations in the NLC, and became suppliers rather than crime lords. This allowed them to avoid a costly underworld war and to keep their profile much lower.
In the years after the War of the Alliance, profits soared for the cartel as the Norlight border regions became wilder and wilder. Their control began to slip, however, as many Badlanders traveled north to profit from the frontier opportunities, and millions of marks worth of reconstruction moneys flowing to the region fueled a boom in the underworld economy. This allowed other cartels to gain small footholds in the region, which would come back to haunt the Kolson. In the last cycles, Dupree, now leader of the cartel, has been looking to assume control of the New Coalition economic alliance in the Badlands, and the Forzi cartel has taken advantage of this to move into the NLC. The Forzi have been highly aggressive, using their power-bases in the UMF to displace local crime families in the Tershaw Range and Red Hills. Dupree has had to respond, sending Sundra Turai, a trusted lieutenant, to oversee Norlight operations.
Turai has used a well-established network of connections in Valeria and several other key city-states to respond to the threat of the other cartel. Although the Kolson cartel is reputed to be less violent than the Forzi, Turai recognizes the power of fear and has had no qualms about spilling blood in her quest to eliminate the threat posed by Roman Forzi. She is also busy building special relationships with several local authorities. Her greatest success is in Kossuth;where local law enforcement officials have recognized their interest in avoiding a gang war and are working to target Forzi supporters.
Structure
Public Agenda
The ongoing war with the Forzi cartel is Sundra Turai’s prime concern. In the Irrian region, her organization remains in relatively firm control, but the rest of the league has become an open battleground between the smugglers and their respective groups. The city-states of Kenema, Innsbruck, and Livingstone are dealing with spiraling crime rates related to the gang war. The Badlands frontier, especially along the Nolthern Plain, also remains under contention with Forzi, Kolson and independent rovers who are fighting over every inch of territory. Norlight crime bosses caught between the two cartels have begun to fight back, increasing the bloodshed in the inner-cities. NorPol‘s anti-cartel task force is an increasingly pressing problem because certain valuable Kolson criminal enterprises have been shut down and the task force is galvanizing Norlight efforts against the cartels.
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