Dmitry's Closet by Nelson, S. (read people like a book .txt) 📕

the streets and in the police department. That’s why Agosto and Brookswere named leads on the mayor’s war on drugs. Agosto is Italian, and he’s an implant to Memphis straight from Miami. Brooks was a native black with ties directly to the mayor, since both he and his father worked for him.

“This union created by Mayor Henderson was to begin to develop a peace between Italians and blacks in the community. But people were pissed because Agosto and Brooks never once busted any large black or Italian drug dealers. They hit up a middle weight Hispanic drug dealer by the name of Caesar. Agosto ended up killing him in his own bedroom after Brooks was assassinated. When Brooks died, the city went insane on their drug witch hunt. And all sides went scrambling to take over Caesar’s territory that was eventually divided by the black and Italians after a truce was called, but it’s still mostly run by a Mexican cartel out of Mexico City,because there was big transition from crack cocaine to meth. You know, the economy is bad…”

“So why didn’t Vory use that opportunity to move in?”

“Opportunity costs were too high. We had credible Intel from the feds that all parties were being watched carefully. However the ATF did not have a strong presence in the area. Now the fucking DEA was hopping all over this city. They had stake out on every corner. So, we opted to stay in guns, because it was safer. Plus the Hispanics, Blacks and Italians were shooting each other left and right, and we were the ones making a killing. Sure we have drug cartels and money laundering across the US, but we only handle guns here. A lot of Vory have gotten to the point that they don’teven do business in their home cities. They just run things from a central base. It’s safer that way. It never comes back on you.”

“Yeah. I heard you talking to the men about it. So with guns,you had neutrality?” Anatoly was much more interested in what market share they already controlled.

“Exactly. Everyone came to us. And we had an understanding with all sides that we would sell to anyonewith cash or goods to barter. Since that time because of our supply chain nationwide, we have amassed so much wealth it is…ungodly.”

“Selling to everyone didn’t create a problem for you? I can’t see how it wouldn’t.”

“At first, it was hard to persuadethem. And my old boss taught us to think through things with our minds before we resulted to guns. But when I saw that we couldn’t reason with some of the groups, we brought in enforcers from Israel and Georgia and introducedthem to what the Vory v Zakone was all about. Then people started to respect our territory. We showed up at people’s jobs, at their homes, at their businesses. Then the extortion began and after that, it was almost total submission. They saw that no place was safe or sacred. Hell, once a man was cut from ear to ear outside of the police department. Unfortunately, they never got his cooperation.”

“So violence does work.” It was one of Anatoly’s most effective techniques.

“Sometimes it works, but you will find my old boss’ advise very helpful. Only young men like you roll heads. As you get older, the way that people can tell that you are leader is not by what you have to do but what you don’t have to do. Anyway, we moved in quickly and knocked the small fish out of pond.

“Most of the Vory that came down here had been to war and back. So, they lived and breathed the takeover. It took us seven months to kill the competition, set up our headquarters and start taking large orders for guns. The death toll was astronomical. But it eventually leveled off once people saw that we weren’t after their drugs or whores or their cars or anything else. We just wanted to sell them some quality guns.”

“Just like that? Huh?”

“Just like that,” Dmitry said, quickly. “Now the impor-tance of our legitimate businesses, which as you know go completely against our original code, is to launder money efficiently. All of us bought real estate, started business, and purchased stock, bonds and CDs. We washed the money clean through our intricate web of family businesses. In less than five years, we made millions on top of millions. Plus, every time the crime rate goes up in Memphis, not only home owners get guns, bad guys do too. So, we sell to everyone. Between the heads of the Memphis Vory, we have four guns shops here, two pawns shops, a shooting range, three restaurants, a tire shop, a beauty salon, a grocery store, six check cashing stores, four liquor stores, over 20 residential properties, an upscale boutique, seven commercial properties, and a fucking partridge in a pear tree. That, my son, keeps our shipments safe and legitimate. We ship guns, but not all of them are illegal. And when some young agent or hard-up cop wants to get hot on our trail, a friendly brother-in-blue gives us the heads up…for a fee, of course.”

“So, you’ve always owned a few cops to give you the inside scoop?”

“They are sometimes hard to find. But yes. A cop was the lead that let me know that Memphis was an untapped oyster for my business eleven years ago. He helped me get started here in exchange for us supplying his own little war against some very unwilling citizens that didn’t want to sell their land to a major corporation that needed the land to expand.”

“How did you meet him?”

“I was introduced to him while he was on trip to New York looking to acquire some hired help after he made the deal with corporation.”

“What happened to the cop? Is he still around?”

“He retired once the land was acquired. Evidently, he got big, big cut from sale of the property because his wife was the land broker.”

“Does everyone retire?”

“If