I'm wondering if it's plausible to have a crime syndicate / mafia mob that does not deal in drugs. The crime syndicate in my novel deals in illegal gambling (street fighting & casinos) and importing illegal weapons into Australia. I don't want the boys to deal drugs. The novel is predominately a romance and I just don't want to go down the drug lord road. However, of course I'm reading every true crime book on Australian mafia and underworld figures and they're all drug dealers. I'm not surprised by any means but it's got me doubting if my hero can be second in line to the king pin and.. well... sober. My hero is an ex drug and alcohol user/abuser. Because he's a psycho when he drinks and he likes being in control. Reformed alcoholic and drug addict, the next head of a dangerous crime syndicate? Is this possible or do you thing all dangerous, shady characters should carry whiskey flasks and import drugs. I'm trying to thing outside the cliche but believable too. Thanks in advance.
You could absolutely have a mafia mob that doesn't deal in drugs. Drugs can cause problems when guys lower down the chain start skimming them off, and getting hooked themselves. Ends up with a lot of lost product and wasted profits.
The mafia (at least where I grew up -- Italian mafia in Rhode Island, USA - not me personally, but wiseguys were everywhere) doesn't typically "deal" drugs in the way we traditionally perceive it. They don't organize street corners or traffic in weight or anything like that. However, they do take a shit load of money from drug dealers. This could be a protection racket or any other sort of tribute. There's too much money in it to ignore, so while they try to keep their hands clean of the actual trafficking and distribution, many made guys will take a kick up from street level organizations. i have no idea about Australia, but you can go either way with your story and be okay I think.
But that's even more immoral? I understand the whole drugs thing is boring - for a reader it is boring, boring people writing about their boring drugs, but mobsters peeling a slice of the racket without getting their hands dirty? That gets you thirty years. Get writing
Are you saying that even though this character is in organized crime, you want hm to be a good guy? Because I'd have a real plausibility problem with that. I'm not saying that it's impossible, it just feels like a stretch.
Thanks Matwoolf... you're right writing and reading about drugs is boring and its been done and frankly I have absolutely no interest in researching them either. Chickenfreak, no they are not 'goodies'.. in fact quite the opposite I'm trying to make them monsters / mobsters without the drugs. That's my question. Can it be done? Is it believable? My husband tells me in Australia without drugs and prostitution they wouldn't have the money they have... it all leads back to drugs eventually.
I think it would be unique to have a mafia associated with dealing or smuggling exotic animals instead of drugs. Something I would imagine happening in Australia for whatever reason. This however could take the story down a whole new road.
Personally I would have no problem with a crime syndicate not being involved in drugs. My understanding is that there are organisations don't and that creates an intresting angle for some sort of twisted moral code and logic. There are plenty of other activities they could be involved in but I would be wary about choosing something really different just for the sake of it. I find that when I read something like that it can feel as though it was chosen just because it is different. A familiar story told in a unique voice is better than something trying to stand out for being different. But thats just me and I know plenty of people who would much rather something new.
Saying all that...in the pantheon of 'drugs' literatuwre - One of my favourite accounts comes from an Englishman. He landed/lived in Arizona, and began distribution of ecstacy pills during those 'clubbing years' 1990/91. Mobsters, hearing of his success, invited him to a thug meeting down the local velvet crush nightclub - all tuxedos, dickie-bows and ladies in the tiny dresses gathered round a table. Somehow the English guy thought it would be a good idea to take a pill before the confrontation. The result was that when he finally confronted these mafioso down the club he reached across, hugged Fat Tony and tickled Harry the Slash under his chin - 'who's a clever boy then,' I think is the quote. They were going to take him out and kill him, but put behaviour down to English eccentricity..
