Ruiz: "Fxxk, it's Andre."

Jimmy: "His name is Andre?"

Ruiz: "Yes, Andre. His father is Nicola, the boss of the Crow Gang." Ruiz took out his phone and dialed a number.

Once the call connected, Ruiz said, "Abram, this is Ruiz from the FBI."

"Can you get in touch with Nicola of the Crow Gang?"

"Yes, good to know. Let me know once you have contacted him."

Ruiz hung up the phone and sighed as he looked at the corpse in front of him.

Jimmy turned his head and glanced around, noticing that no one else had entered the bedroom. He then asked, "Do we need to figure out who the killer is? Six people are dead; that's a major case, right?"

Ruiz: "That depends on how things unfold. If it turns out to be a gang war, it won't make the news. They fear exposure more than we do."

Jimmy: "But the TV reporters won't let go of a case with so many deaths, right?"

Ruiz turned to look at Jimmy: "If this were a typical case, or it happened in another residential area, it would have already been broadcast on TV. But this is a gang stronghold; they know the rules."

Jimmy nodded, realizing that even the media in New York followed certain rules. If the gangs were exposed, the TV stations or paparazzi might not be able to handle their retaliation.

Ruiz turned and left the bedroom with Jimmy following him. "By the way, don't we need to notify the families of the deceased?"

Ruiz continued down the stairs, "I've already had someone else try to contact Nicola. We don't have direct contact information for the leaders of these smaller gangs."

Jimmy: "You had someone from another gang make contact? Why not find other members of the Crow Gang?"

Ruiz: "It's been over two hours since the bodies were discovered here. If their people could get through, Nicola would have shown up by now."

Jimmy: "The person you contacted, is he also from another gang?"

Ruiz: "Yes, from the Trasov Family, the biggest gang around here. They should have some information."

Jimmy: "But can they be trusted?"

Ruiz did not reply but led Jimmy to the street. "Of course, they're unreliable, but they're fine for passing a message. I'm not expecting him to find Nicola. What I need is for him to relay the message to their boss."

Ruiz and Jimmy reached the police line. Both men took out cigarettes and waited while smoking. After a while, Ruiz's phone rang.

Ruiz answered the call: "Vigo, you're aware of the situation now, right? Give me some information."

"Yes, I'll wait for your information. Also, keep your people under control. You wouldn't want me to start raiding places, would you?"

Ruiz hung up the phone, tossed his cigarette butt on the ground, and drove Jimmy away from the scene.

Jimmy: "Ruiz, tell me about the gang relationships here. What's the deal with this Trasov Family you mentioned? I haven't seen this information; you guys have too many files."

Ruiz: "Alright, the Trasovs are the biggest Russian Mafia here right now. They swallowed up two gangs of similar size previously. Vigo, who I just called, is their boss, and Abram, whom I contacted earlier, is the second in command.

Their main operations are just like other gangs: underground casinos, nightclubs and bars, smuggling, drug trafficking, and they also control a significant number of taxi medallions in New York. The exact number isn't clear."

The Trasov family's influence has even extended to legitimate businesses like security companies, laundromats, and auto repair shops, and they're involved in large-scale money laundering, though there's no solid evidence yet."

Jimmy: "Shouldn't such a large gang be taken down?"

Ruiz sighed: "Things aren't that simple. Any gang that has grown large has a lot of backing. If we try to take them down, we might just crash and burn ourselves. Jimmy, remember, society isn't black and white. You never know who might be playing games behind your back."

Jimmy: "I understand."

Back at Federal Square, Ruiz entered his office and Jimmy returned to his desk. The investigative logic here at the FBI is quite simple: most of the repetitive work, including on-site investigation, is handled by the staff below, while the agents are more involved in gathering information from various sources, deducing the direction of cases based on available clues, without the need to be hands-on.

After looking at some files for a while, Jimmy put them down and went to Ruiz's office door: "Ruiz, any leads on Reina from Dixie yet?"

"Not yet, just keep waiting." Ruiz looked up as Jimmy left the entrance of the office, feeling something was off. Why was Jimmy so concerned about this Reina? What exactly happened?

Ruiz searched the computer, found the number for the Little Rock office, and made a call.

Jimmy returned to his desk, not reviewing the files he had looked at before, but instead pulling out the files on the Crow Gang and the Trasov Family.

There's nothing particularly notable about the Crow Gang, a small gang of twenty to thirty members with only three core members. Boss Nicola came to the United States in 1994, started a small group through connections, and after a few years, controlled two blocks and opened a small underground casino serving local thugs and the lower class. Along with using his connections with the War Axe from Russia and Europe for minor smuggling trades, its small scale discouraged competition, and the Crow Gang often switched allegiances based on who the dominant force was in the area.

The Trasov are a different story, which starts with the rise of the American Russian Mafia.

In the later stages of the Cold War, there were many Jewish people within the Soviet Union. To ease the emigration of these Jewish people from the Soviet Union, the United States provided a green light for immigration, not rigorously reviewing applicants. Consequently, the Soviet side conducted special reviews for those applying for emigration, allowing not just official Jewish people but many hooligans and criminals to reach the United States as well.

Settling in Brighton Beach, New York, they gradually formed a massive gang structure, though not under one unified organization but rather in small groups that slowly grew. By the 1990s, numerous gangs had formed, though none had more than two hundred members. For comparison, each of the five main Italian Mafia families in New York controlled no less than 2,000 members.

These immigrants from before the dissolution of the Soviet Union gradually established what are now the native Russian American gangs. Their main operations included contract killings, acting as enforcers, robbing, and collecting protection money from shops. After building up initial funds through these violent means, they started to move out of Brighton Beach into other areas of New York, competing with other gangs and threatening the interests of other Americans.

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