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The Shadow Cartel was founded on the back of the collapse of The Chairmen. After losing access to the warehouse in which we used to make the majority of our income (due to the chairmen no long existing) the cartel had to figure out what they were going to stand for, what methods of income were most suitable for them and how to develop their ‘stamp’ on the city.
Many members split off and went their separate ways, heading into other gangs such as the Narcos and The Vikings to name a few. After a few days of unrest, Tommy Vangore collected members from the factions, after recommendation from a few old members. Everyone wanted the people back together, but not the old crew ethos.
There were a few issues that the majority of members did not agree with in the chairmen; constant neutrality with every gang was the main rule that frustrated most people. This was never beneficial, because not picking sides created a lot of enemies in the long run. People wouldn’t depend on the chairmen to turn up because of the lack of faith in them taking actions against anyone. The cartel formed making a lot of allies along with their fair share of enemies, but this was ideal, because they knew who you could trust, and they knew who had their back. The Shadow Cartel forged early alliances with La Familia after a loyal and devoted relationship from back in the days of the chairmen.
When the cartel was set up in the early days, a lot of time was spent at the farms outside of the city, gathering small amounts of capital to allow for investment in small time guns and more vehicles. This allowed the progression and development of drug production. After the discovery of multiple drug labs popping up in the city, the cartel capitalised on this, being one of the first organisations to figure out the chemical recipes to common street drugs. Batch productions of drugs were put into place immediately. Due to the great organisation of its members, the cartel started to pull in a comfortable income from drug production. This was done with multiple contacts on the black market to sell the product to.
Members of the cartel were able to easily smuggle drugs around the city by disguising their activities as farming based. Large green vans made the perfect disguise. It was easy to stash bags of cocaine behind all the wheat from the farms. Every member of the cartel was able to benefit from this, pulling in enough money to afford decent cars and houses for themselves. As new members were recruited, the production increased, but so did rival competition. Using it’s new-found income, the cartel realised it was highly important to arm themselves better and sought out a supply for heavier weaponry. This came in the form of an alliance with The Syndicate, who were able to provide the cartel with SMGs, Shotguns, AK’s and anything else they needed. These newfound guns also allowed the cartel to run a protection racket at all the chopshop locations - Extorting a small cut of chopped cars for the “safety” of the chopshop customers.
During the time the cartel was making good money at the drug labs, they started to grow in reputation. Known for their brown attire, fair business-like attitude and respectable organisation and prowess, other city gangs had meetings with the cartel to discuss alliances. One reputable gang by the name of Bratva came into the fold and formed alliances with the cartel. At the time of the alliance, they were ran by Boris Putrin, a reputable Russian drug lord. As time progressed with bratva and Boris took flight out of the city for a while, one of his members, Jemal Brown (AKA Tbag) assumed control of bratva. Collectively, we had forged one of the largest and most unstoppable alliances the city had ever seen. 4 huge factions, allied together, effectively untouchable. Unfortunately, this didn’t end as a fairy tale with everyone getting rich and retiring in Vinewood. Since Bratva owned a warehouse and had access to gun shipments, they were able to bring in money, but with the majority of the city allied, income was slow.
Due to either boredom or greed, events transpired in the city directly affecting our day to day life as the result of Jemal’s actions. Harassment from other smaller gangs on a daily basis became a regular occurrence. It didn’t take long for one of Jemal’s closest friend and ironically our closest ally to provide us with the information that Jemal had requested these gangs attack us to increase gun sales and shake things up in the city. When the cartel found out about this, multiple meetings were held as a next plan of action. Since the cartel doesn’t take lightly to betrayal, they organised a kidnapping. Executed to perfection, the kidnapping of Jemal and his killing were done over a 4 hour interrogation process as information was slowly extracted from him under gunpoint. (video of kidnapping will be attached further down in this post). Unfortunately, during the kidnapping process a couple of old members of the chairmen caught wind of what was going on and being good friends of Jemal, tracked down his location and wound up in the middle of everything. After the kidnapping and killing wrapped up, the witnesses were foolishly let go alive. This is where the next chapter of the cartels troubles began.
A few days after the kidnapping, a crew known as Fog City crew (a group previously on good terms with the cartel) started aggressively hunting down and attacking cartel members on a regular basis. Revenge for Jemals death, information passed on from those witnesses we foolishly let go. Times became tough for the cartel during this period and cashflow slowed down, however, during this process, the already tight-knit bond of the cartel grew ever closer, propelling the cartel forward into the position it is in today.
After the remnants of Fog City Crew were cleaned up from the city, the cartel looked fourth to new horizons and opportunities.
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Currently the cartel operates in a similar method to which it did before, only with more vigor and fortitude. Pulling in good cash from drug trafficking and enjoying daily trips to Tequila-la for a game of poker as well as back-street dice games for the more intense gamblers. Similarly, the cartel enjoy spending time at the pier, using fishing as a good bit of downtime between illegal activities. Usually fishing is accompanied by a beer or two as well. As avid car collectors, the cartel can seldom often be found at car meets within the city, showing off the rewards reaped from their hard work and endurance in the drug trade.
In addition to this, The Shadow Cartel currently retain alliances with La Familia and The Syndicate in addition to a few other gangs/organisations that will not be disclosed. These huge alliances pave the way for some great house parties filled with drugs, girls and alcohol.
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As a mid tier organisation in terms of wealth and methods of income, the cartel is looking to push into the gun trafficking market and further develop drug production and protection racket activities.
In the short term the cartel is looking to continue in its current methods, establish relationships with any new and up-coming gangs as well as solidify current relationships moving forwards.
In the long term, the cartel is looking to run shipments of guns to warehouses and start supplying some friends who live down in the Jamestown area with firearms. In turn, pulling in more money for the cartel to push into the property market. This would allow us to further disguise our illegal activities and justify our increase in wealth to the government.
In addition to this we are looking to slowly fill the remaining positions within the organisation with reliable, quality members who would contribute to the hard-working ethos that the cartel already has.
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o Continue successful drug trafficking
o Continue chopshop extortion racket
o Attain a warehouse
o Ship guns to low-class gangs
o Throw some big parties for networking purposes & of course FUN!
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The gang structure is an essential element in the success of the cartel. Bespoke in its design, the structure stems down from the Board of directors, whom are voted in by the rest of the cartel to help discuss crucial decisions within the organisation and to help guide everyone in the right direction. This allows even the newest members to feel that they can contribute to big group decisions. Without this dynamic, the bond and compatibility of the cartel would start to struggle, similarly to how so many other gangs in the city have risen and fallen.
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The cartel functions under an umbrella of primary pillars;
Respect
Everybody in the faction respects everybody else; regardless of rank, if you’re lucky enough to be invited in the Cartel, it’s because we respect you.
Trust
Due to the nature of the formation of this organisation, there’s a strong, unbreakable bond between the members, allowing a level of trust not seen in many organisations within the city.
Loyalty
All the members of the cartel realise that they represent the cartel, and in turn, make decisions based on how that reputation is affected by their choices.
Commitment
The cartel is like a family and every member would die for each other. This level of commitment is another great factor to their success.
Professionalism
Whether it’s business deals, kidnapping, murder, or relaxing and letting off steam, the Cartel maintain levels of professionalism at all times.
Without these ideals, the Cartel would not be the success that it is today.
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You can’t simply ask to join the cartel. It doesn’t work like that. Invitations are exclusively reserved for people we deem acceptable to represent the group. We’ll let you know if you make the cut.
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The cartel is composed of a group of like-minded caring individuals who treat each other like family IC and OOC. We look after everyone and do our best to develop a great sense of roleplayer understanding and provide everyone with an excellent RP experience.
We have no rules regarding activity, if you want to take a week away from ECRP to do IRL things, that’s more than ok, in fact we encourage people to look after their physical and mental wellbeing above everything else.
We prefer members to have a great understanding of GOOD vs BAD roleplay and how to conduct yourself ICLY in-accordance to the rules. Members are guided throughout their RP experience to encourage good RP behaviour and helped if they step out of line.
We don’t tolerate bullying in the cartel and have strict rules on how people are spoken to, regardless of rank, nobody should be made to feel sad/upset or feel their roleplay experience is damaged by others.
We do our best to keep a healthy environment for everybody, after all, at the end of the day, the whole experience is about having fun.
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More Pictures and videos coming soon!
