Hello all, In my current project, I have the following situation: three "bad guys" that all run some sort of criminal operation, each from different cities. They respect each other - perhaps even help each other - and make sure not to get in each other's way or cause problems. All of a sudden, a fourth person enters and wrecks havoc - getting people arrested, killing henchmen, stealing product or whatever without regard to how the original three feel about it. So, the original bad guys get together and decide to have this new person killed. Of course, I can think of all the standard operations that could be involved: guns, drugs, pay-for-protection schemes, etc. I even came up with some different ones like insurance fraud, medical fraud, corporate or industrial espionage that may or may not work. My questions are: 1) Being a minor story point, does it even matter what they do? When I first started writing this, I gravited toward them all being drug dealers but then thought "ugh, another story where the bad guys are drug dealers." As a reader, I feel like I'm sort of done with that. 2) Are there any criminal enterprises that work that I'm not thinking of? I tried thinking of some way that technology and/or hacking could play a role but nothing is coming to me.
No, they don't. Career criminals don't do things like that. They might decide it separately. After that they might operate together. But they don't do collective thinking. And if you want to kill, the problem is not "how to" but "how to not get caught". "I must/will plan this with my rivals" is not the answer to that question. You'll have two witnesses even before you did anything. And you don't even need to do anything and you can still get a long sentence. No way.
Things like the Commission--the Mafia's board of directors--prove such claims are false. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Commission_(mafia)
Labor: Get some guys to do something and then not pay them, at all. Most state legal systems are not geared to handle that so the local DOL just tells the defrauded workers to take it to small claims court. Perfect.
Mafias board of directors is not "four bad guys". And it is not "let's plan crimes" -group. Mafia groups do the crimes. Board takes care that groups - "families" - don't start wars agains other families.
Yes, it is, and yes, it does. The Commission has ordered hits before and centrally coordinates some operations.
Turning to the OP, since this fourth person comes in and hinders their operations, what those are is definitely going to matter. Could be a lot of things, as long as they make money. Some that you haven't mentioned: Human trafficking and prostitution Smuggling Rings of thieves + chop shops/pawn shops/fences Pirated entertainment Production and distribution of illegal forms of pornography Counterfeiting Illegal lotteries Illegal gambling dens Dog and cockfights Various criminal organizations have used these over the years, though protection rackets and drug dealing are very reliable standbys.
Crips, Bloods, MS 13, triads, god knows how many other gang based examples... a lot of criminals are not all that bright and frequently plan stuff together, and the bright ruthless ones don't fear creating witnesses because their associates would be too afraid to testify
