This crime gang is so named due to its leader’s habit of investing his ill-gotten gains on the finer things in life. For evert pretty ceramic of antique picture there is a victim somewhere else.
CLEA ORGANISATION DATA FILE
Organisation Classification:
- Organised Crime Operation
Organisation Leader(s):
Organisation Activities:
- Extortion
- Bribery
- Sex Trafficking/Sex slavery
- Money Laundering
- Smuggling, Distribution and sale of controlled substances
Organisation Weakness(s):
- Brooks is overly focused on keeping territorial power. He will thus expend great amounts of resources when in reality he cannot “win” a particular turf war.
- Obsessed with the Road Warriors and Wheels of Fury
- Carnage – Brooks “created” them and they turned against him.
Known Assets:
- Adam “Atlas” Lynn – Second In Command/Enforcer
- Anvil – Assassin
- Behemoth
- Rook – Dark Magic Specialist
- Seth
- Velvet
Notes/History
For many years the Renaissance Mob, a long standing crime family had fought for power in America. When Big Ron inherited the family business and realised the competition in the Pacifica region was too competitive great he took the bold step of moving it. Prime income for the business was arms, drugs and sex trafficking the four megacities around the world were the most attractive areas to operate from.
However Atlantica was already oversubscribed with gangs and Europa was fast going the same way, so Ron looked across the ocean and decided to move his business to New Tokyo where the competition was somewhat limited, apart from the notorious Green Dragon gang.
Always a careful planner, Ron began small, establishing several genuine businesses in and around the Megacity. From there he went the more “usual” route of establishing bars and gambling dens and around that time the Green Dragons paid him a visit. They informed him he had to pay protection money to operate such establishments and Big Ron responded by killing the messenger.
That soon led to an all-out turf war. Green Dragons had years of experience in “running” New Tokyo, whilst Ron had contacts in the right places as well as enforcers loyal to him. The ensuing conflict was bitter and ended in a stalemate when both sides agreed to a truce.
As part of their agreement Big Ron handed over control of the shore front areas and in return the Green Dragons gave Ron was permitted to use some territory they controlled outside of the city. Though the deal looked distinctly in the Green Dragon’s favour, they were clearly very business minded. They knew Big Ron had problems shipping in drugs so the suggestion was he set up his own “crop growing operation”
After touring several regions, Big Ron decided he liked the look of the area around a small town known as Irwin’s Crossing. This was remote enough to be free from the prying eyes of city police and close enough not to make a transportation difficult so was an ideal location as the land was relatively fertile. However it was also quite desirable to the Green Dragons. Despite their agreement the Green Dragons refused Big Ron the usage of ‘their ‘ land and suggested he use other land they had chosen for him.
Big Ron, agreed but he played the long game. Though the Green Dragons said he could not harvest drug crops in the area they had no objections to him setting up his headquarters in the town. In fact they welcomed it, mainly because they could keep a close eye on him.
Big Ron set about purchasing a ranch to serve as his base of operations. This attracted the attention of the local police sheriff. The sheriff hated the fact that the Green Dragons controlled the town, his town and saw Big Ron as the means to remove them. Being corrupt the sheriff and the police soon started working for Big Ron by helping him build the sex trafficking part of the business.
Having local knowledge it was easy for the police to identify strangers in town, passing through, and in the case of lone women they would detain them on trumped up charges and before the individual had a clue of what was happening they would be the ‘property’ of the Renaissance Mob. The police took a cut of the money and everyone was happy, even the Green Dragons as they were unaware of the side operation Big Ron had going in ‘their’ town.
Outside of the area, Big Ron did as asked by the Green Dragons and planted crops well away from their ‘prime’ growing regions. The crops were then harvested, processed with labour coerced into working for the cartel. The finished ‘product’ was then sold in New Tokyo.
Eventually several powerful business magnates in New Tokyo grew tired of the ‘damage’ Big Ron’s drugs were doing to the city. Having links to the assassin group known as ‘The Twelve’ they demanded action. An assassin was dispatched to kill the head of the snake. Big Ron first knew of the hit when he was warned by a traitor within the Twelve and after he turned the tables on his would be killer he was able to neutralise the threat.
The assassin ‘Rose’ was then kept as a play thing for his people who could do anything to her apart from kill her. Big Ron wanted to make an example of her and send a message to the Twelve. However one of his own, Dave Lynn betrayed him and set the woman free. Big Ron was furious and wanted Dave killed but his brother, Adam, was his right hand man. Since loyalty in cartels was difficult to find, in order to keep Adam on his side, Big Ron relented and let Dave live in Irwin’s Crossing.
Just as Big Ron had planned, eventually the Green Dragon’s stretched their resources too thin due to having a vast territory and no enough man power. This led Big Ron to form a new deal and he leased the land outside Irwin’s Crossing from the Green Dragons. They may have lost control of the area but could still take a cut of Big Ron’s business so the deal was regarded as a fair compromise.
Taking over the land, Big Ron began forcing the farmers to work for him. He owned the land so he had the option to make them homeless. Since he also controlled the police there was nothing they could do. Kicking farmers off the land though was not a viable tactic since he needed workers to plant and harvest his crops. His ploy was something he had done in the city, use his enforcers to spread fear and intimidation and Big Ron did that be sending them to the homesteads and throw their weight around. This seemed to work very well, and his hold on the area became even greater when the Green Dragon’s allowed him to take over the town, in exchange for some of the territory he still owned in New Tokyo.
Things though eventually started to go bad for Big Ron when a masked vigilante appeared in Irwin’s Crossing and started to take out his men. That gave the local people hope, and Big Ron feared if he lost control of the town then there was every chance his “farming” enterprise could blow up in his face. He therefore chose to punish the town’s folk with random acts of violence and burning properties. The odd person that was seen to be resisting him would inexplicably disappear. For a brief while his ploys worked until the mercenary known as Emerald appeared in the town.
She had once visited the town and when the corrupt police officials discovered she was single tourist and alone they had arrested her and handed her over to Ron who was looking for girls to “entertain” his guests. She though had managed to escape after a year of incarceration and after that had trained to become a mercenary. Once trained she had come back to Big Ron’s land to seek revenge.
Ron’s people recognised her straight away but instead of the frail little woman she once was Elsa was a formidable warrior and dispatched several enforcers sending a clear message to their boss. Angry, Big Ron sent his number one enforcer, Atlas, to the town to deal with the new threat. Atlas recognised Elsa and he also recognised the woman she was with, Rose, because she was the same one that had once tried to assassinate Big Ron.
Putting two and two together Atlas surmised Rose was the “masked vigilante” because the locals all seemed to know her, which indicated she had been in the town for some time. Atlas knew he could not deal with the pair alone but then received worse news when he realised the two women were staying at a local mechanic’s garage which belonged to his brother. Suddenly everything made sense, since Dave had been kicked out of the organisation after letting Rose escape. The two argued but Atlas was unable to kill his brother. With the two women’s secret finally out they announced themselves as the Road Warriors and made it clear the intended to eliminate the vermin from the town (see Road Warriors).
Atlas reported what he had learned to Big Ron and promised to take care of the business his way. A month later Spectre and Mackie appeared in the town after hearing there had been “problems” in some outback communities. Atlas saw his opportunity to get rid the both trouble causers and invited Mackie to his (but in reality Big Ron’s) farming retreat. Having realised Spectre was not a “real” person he was able to get close to Mackie and convinced her that the ‘real’ trouble causers were the Road Warriors.
The next day Spectre and Mackie left, but instead of destroying Elsa and Rose something unforeseen happened, the new arrivals discovered the truth and allied themselves with the Road Warriors. In only a short space of time every person belonging to the mob was chased out of the town.
Big Ron was furious at Atlas for allowing it to happen and wanted to send in a team with lots of guns but Atlas suggested it would amount to nothing other than adding further to the demise of the cartel. The one bit of luck on Ron’s side was the fact the town’s folk chose not to talk to any law enforcement agencies outside of the area. If that happened and the corrupt local police were discovered then he would have nothing. Instead the locals preferred to avoid trouble and carry on with life.
Big Ron, though could not allow the town to remain uncontrolled and became obsessed with the Road Warriors. This led him to try and eliminate Spectre with an EM cannon but that only produced “Spirit” and with a new Road Warrior the chances of taking back the town became a distant dream.
Still Big Ron would not back down as the thoughts of failure niggled at the back of his mind. He felt that having the Road Warriors running loose on his patch made him look weak. Eighteen months later he made another attempt to rid himself of the “problem”. Calling in every favour he broke a team of mercenaries out of jail and then had his people capture Spirit. Using her with the EM generator, his people were able to recreate how Spirit had been created and “convert” the mercenaries to vehicular lifeforms and Carnage was born.
Informing his new team that he would restore them to their human bodies if they complied to his orders, Carnage succeeded in ousting the Road Warriors from Irwin’s Crossing for the first time in over two years. However when Carnage realised that Big Ron had no idea how to restore them to their original bodies. They attempted to kill him and destroy his people before they left the outback and decided to work for themselves.
With his criminal empire weakened Big Ron had no choice but to abandon Irwin’s Crossing and soon after that his “farming” enterprise became noticed by the drugs enforcement agencies. The corrupt police were put on trial. Big Ron though escaped justice. He was clever enough to leave evidence that stated one of his men had told the farmers to plant crops. This was backed up by the name on the leases. The new police sheriff suspected the man was being made a scapegoat but the man refused to defend himself.
Most suspected the man had accepted jail time for a hefty reward and without evidence the law could not prosecute Ron, so he slipped through their fingers again. Since then CLEA believes Big Ron has returned to New Tokyo and just runs his criminal activities through bars and gambling houses. Since the Green Dragons mysteriously vanished without a trace the criminal aspect of the city seemed to be entirely under his domain. Currently it is not known if the Twelve still have a contract on him.
