The Cheda Family
| |
|---|---|
| Motto (in Latin) - in English |
Frateris manus in mano Brothers, hand in hand. |
| Formed | 5th July 1947 |
| Declared illegal organisation by the Pacitalian government | 11th August 1956 (Organised Crime and Illicit Activities Act - 0879 K70 R93 8/1956) |
| Declared illegal organisation by the Canadian government | 20th November 1987 (Organized Crime Act of 1986) |
| Don | Giovanni Aldo Samantino Bracchano Cheda |
| Consigliere | Fenicio Toranzo Cheda |
| Base of operations | Sambuca, Pacitalia |
| Extent of operations | |
| Estimated worth Total (NSD) Percent of: - legitimate GDP - Of black-market GDP |
$1,179,585,000,000 0.049% 42.814% |
| Major known activities |
|
| Political ties | None known |
| Languages of operation | Pacitalian, English, Spanish |
The Cheda family (Pacitalian: Confraternano Famigliati di Mafiosi Cheda), pronounced kay-duh, is the most influential mafia organisation originating in the Democratic Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia. The Chedas have an estimated GDP worth greater than that of most small countries. The family, once religiously restricting membership to bloodline and the male sex, has grown to include so-called statt'observati (observer status) members that may be of either sex, in addition to any race, religion and creed, so long as they are proven to fully share the goals, aims and principles of the family. Currently, the family operates in Pacitalia and the Federal Republic of Canada, and to a lesser extent in favourable environments such as those provided in Roach-Busters and MassPwnage.
Contents
History
Humble beginnings
First established in 1947 as an organisation to defend native Pacitalians against the throes of mass immigration of Greek, Romanian and Spanish ethnicities, among others, the Cheda family had humble beginnings, reportedly operating out of the backrooms of the shops of sympathetic or like-minded business owners in Sambuca and Fomanunta, the two largest cities in Sambuca province, Pacitalia. The government of Rabastano Pietro Grazzo was completely unaware because of this crafty, unofficial and compartmentalised form of existence, but a "mysterious organisation" soon found its way onto the front page of national newspapers after numerous suspicious killings of top Spanish Catholic figures, such as the influential and popular Sambuca bishop Luis Reynardo Balca in March 1949.
After Balca's killing there was enormous outrage among the Spanish community in Sambuca, and to a lesser extent, the entire country. The community urged the Pacitalian government to do something about it, and with Grazzo's Pacifist government being supported by a grand portion of the Spanish community, the prime minister had no choice but to act. He publicly announced, in September 1949, the creation of a Government Committee to Investigate Racially Motivated Criminal Acts, which would work in coordination with the newly-created Pacitalian Central Intelligence Commission to investigate hate crimes against minority groups in Pacitalia. By 1951 the agency and committee's joint studies found it was clear there was an element of organised crime responsible for the acts, especially the killing of Balca. The PCIC was able to corroborate evidence from the over 150 killings of prominent Spanish- and Greek-Pacitalians, with secondary evidence about organised crime families and that which they had learned about the Cheda family. On 1st April 1952, the PCIC formally notified Prime Minister Grazzo they would be seeking legal channels to implicate the Cheda family as responsible. However, they made clear they would do so only after they finalised their evidence, a process that took about six months to complete.
Meanwhile, after just five years of existence, the Cheda family was finding their bloodline policy difficult to maintain. The first don, Luciano Ruggiero Cheda, was showing signs of failing health in mid-1952 and there were no apparent capable successors to the proverbial throne. Cheda died at home of cancer in late August, and was temporarily replaced by his son, Abranzo. By this point the Cheda family was already worth an estimated NS$25 billion (in 2006 dollars), their wealth cleverly distributed over a series of private, Swiss-style banking accounts across the country and in a secret subterranean vault (the builders of the vault were killed immediately after to ensure the secrecy of its location). The Cheda family soon abandoned their "blood is the best insurance" policy and began scoping out cross-country for talents that shared their goals and beliefs. However, that was not the only policy that metamorphosised. Soon, the Cheda family saw an opportunity in other areas of business that provided more funds than just being petty hitmen for hate crimes, and it was that move that opened up their existence, first to the government, and then to the world.
Expanding the business
The Cheda family broke deals with criminal organisations in MassPwnage and pre-J.L. Roach-Busters and created two arms smuggling treaties, in 1953 and 1954, worth over NS$100 billion. Within five years, the wealth of the Chedas skyrocketed to around NS$175 billion as they entered the realms of migrant smuggling and prostitution. They also began smuggling large quantities of opiates and anabolic steroids from MassPwnage to Pacitalia in February 1955. It was that move that brought the Chedas under the radar of the Pacitalian government via the Pacitalian Substance Transportation and Surveillance Division, an entity of the Ministry of Customs and Immigration.
Disgusted and outraged by the Chedas' activities, public protest grew to the point where one MPP introduced a bill into the Constazione Ampoliticato Federali to curtail the illicit activities of the family. The bill, titled "Legislation Regarding Organised Crime and Illicit Activities" was tabled in late 1955 in the last legislative session before the Christmas break. By August 1956 it found its way to the desk of the prime minister, and became an act when it was signed into law by Grazzo. The act gave the PCIC the authority to detain and interrogate "by any means necessary" subjects they, with evidence, found to be associated with the activities of the family. The effectiveness of the act was far reaching in quantity (a July 1957 count of Cheda-related detainees at the maximum security Vidora Holding Centre near Sambuca totalled 1,118) but very poor in quality (only 144 such detainees had any ties to the Cheda family, with 75 of them proven by polygraph to be "unaware of the implications of their actions").
The Cheda family, which was widely known in Pacitalia by this point, came out publicly, paying the Pacitalian Broadcasting Corporation ten million doura in September 1957 to broadcast a rebuttal, calling the detaining of so many Pacitalians "unpatriotic, authoritarian and illegal". The don of the time, Luciano Donatello Cheda (the nephew of Luciano Ruggiero), threatened that he would engender violent riots, and deliberate life-threatening acts against police and PCIC agents. The war of words that ensued culminated in one of the most brutal gun battles in Pacitalian history.
'Blood in the streets, blood everywhere'
Don Luciano Donatello organised what were called The Seven Rebuttals in November 1957 to protest the incarceration of over one thousand Pacitalians. For a period of one week, 40,000 ultra-conservative protesters marched in downtown Sambuca calling for the release of all protesters. The first six marches ran and ended relatively peacefully with only minor injuries. However, the PCIC picked up phone chatter on 9th November 1957 (the day of the sixth protest) that suggested the Don would be encouraging massive amounts of violence and anarchy in the last protest to take place the next day, in order to counter the federal government's unresponsiveness to the protests.
The protest on 10th November 1957 started out peacefully, and the PCIC had sent about 5,200 riot-trained police officers as a precaution. However, within twenty minutes, whistles were blowing frantically - and they weren't police whistles. At the sound of the whistling, hundreds of protesters charged the riot police, throwing grenades and rocks, and breaking store windows. Some members of the Cheda family pulled handguns and began shooting at the riot police above and below their shields, while Cheda snipers emerged on rooftops and began picking off the police from above. An official count reported that 396 police officers died from grenade attacks alone, while another 45 were shot in the head by the snipers. The mafiosi on the ground killed a further 17, and injured 48. 31 protesters were injured in the chaos but only three died.
Later that day, radio-controlled bombs were detonated at the Sambuca Central Police Station and the Pacitalian National Supreme Court, killing three police officers, two judges, nine security guards and 11 innocent bystanders, and injuring 38 more. A bomb squad established just two months earlier managed to defuse a third bomb set to go off at the Sambucan Provincial Legislature. And as a finale to the death spectacular that had occurred that day, the Cheda family flew a biplane over Sambuca the evening of 10th November 1957 with a message flying behind it, written in Pacitalian: "Don't -expletive- with us, you bastards." After all the chaos, the police only managed to arrest 17 people. Only one of them had direct links to the Chedas. The day became known as Bloody Sunday in Pacitalia, and three days of mourning for the fallen officers followed the tragedy.
