Despite having been destroyed several times, like a phoenix from the flames Doug Claremont's crime empire keeps coming back and each time it does it seems to get stronger. CLEA ORGANISATION DATA FILE Organisation Classification: Organised Crime Operation Organisation Activities: Extortion Illegal Gambling Money Laundering Prostitution Smuggling/Distribution and sale of controlled substances Organisation Weakness(s): Doug Claremont is highly irrational and when angry prone to make tactical errors. Known Assets: None Known - uses hired help ORGANISATION KEY PERSONNEL DATA FILE Key Members: Doug Claremont - Silver Snake CLEA Classification: Crime Boss Special Skills and/or Abilities: As well as being handy with a pair of pistols, Doug will tackle any dissension directly rather than have another perform handing out punishment makes him a person few people want to get on the right side of. So intimidating is Doug that he "rules" through psychological fear. Doug has the resolve to rebuild when his cartel has been reduced to nothing. Limitation(s)/Weakness(s): Nathan Clark aka "The Leveller" has made it his mission to stop the Cartel Rap Sheet/Criminal Traits: Same as organisation activities as well as, Homicide, Assault, Aggravated Assault Notes/History Like most criminals Doug Claremont never started out as one and was instead for a time a very respectable business man. His father owned a series of night clubs established in the mega city of Europa and business was extremely profitable. As the eldest of two brothers he inherited the family business when his father passed away and so he moved from his home to Europa in order to manage the clubs very amicably. However Roger Claremont, the youngest brother who was already living in Europa had severe problems with drug addiction. Originally their father sorted Roger’s problems out with loans that were never repaid but since the elder Claremont had died, Roger turned to his brother for help. Doug though was not like his father and was not a soft touch. He soon grew tired of "bailing out the garbage" and that did not please his brother’s debt collectors from the South Europa Cartel. They responded by taking their frustrations out on other Claremont family members in order to “encourage” Doug to pay up. Eventually this led to a number of the night clubs being firebombed, disrupting business. After several clubs had been put out of commission and Roger’s debt still had not been cleared, the cartel offered Doug a compromise and that was allow them to supply drugs in the Claremont owned clubs and they would right off his brother’s debts. Doug of course suspected that this was what the South Europa Cartel had been after all along and refused so the cartel decided to use some persuasion tactics on him by raping and murdering his wife and daughter. This last act was to have serious repercussions for the Doug and the SEC. Already under enough stress from running the business, his fragile mental state finally cracked. Taking a gun he first of all went round to Roger’s house and demanded that his brother pay off all the debts owed to the Cartel even if it meant selling his house. Roger though was not at all moved by his brother’s plea despite the fact he knew what had happened to Doug’s wife and child. In an almost flippant attitude he argued that when their father had passed away he had asked Doug to look after him and so suggested that he pay off the debt for him. This was too much for Doug who countered by saying he had a solution to end everyone’s problems and taking out his prized silver hand gun shot his brother in the head, and then disposed his body. Having eliminated one part of the problem Doug then went back to one of his clubs, the “Eagles Den”, and made a few phone calls informing members of the SEC to meet him at the club as he was ready to strike a deal with them but making it clear he would only talk to those in charge and not the go-betweens. Later that day the leaders of the SEC showed up with several well-armed thugs. In the middle of the dance floor stood Doug Claremont with a stack of money, enough to pay off what his brother owed them. Of course money was not the issue for the cartel owners as they really wanted a distribution centre for their drugs, so they told Doug that the debt had risen. Doug though had foreseen this and waved his hand and several armed mercenaries belonging to Nathan Clarke burst into the room and laid waste to the cartel’s bodyguards. At this point the three cartel leaders realised that they had finally met their match and decided to accept his offer. Doug responded by telling them the deal was off and promptly killed two of them with his own hand gun and without warning. By now the third was panicking and pleading for his life, so Doug had him provide details of the SEC’s activities and in return he would allow him to leave. The Cartel boss duly did that and then Doug took out his gun again. He then told the man that he had killed the other two partners for his wife and daughter and now as the last of the SEC bosses he was going to pay for making him kill his own brother. The man again pleaded and said they had made a deal but Doug simply told him, like them he was sure his wife and daughter would have pleaded with their lives so as they had shown no mercy, neither would he. Before pulling the trigger he sarcastically added that he had decided to renegotiate the deal. With the SEC now gone Nathan suggested that once they had cleaned up the night club to anonymously send details of the cartel to Europa police department and have them take care of the rest of the SEC. Though a mercenary and owning his own crew, Nathan had a strange code of honour in that he had no problem murdering the scum in society. Having been once part of the same police department and watching too many criminals escape he considered what he did was rightful “justice”. However after watching Doug kill three people in cold blood he was beginning to get a bad feeling. By taking down the details of the SEC operation, Nathan knew that Doug was considering taking over the Cartel’s operation and was at a crossroads in his life. Though Doug had murdered four people in his quest for revenge, Nathan knew that there was still some hope that Doug could be turned away from crime but to do that he needed to be stopped from making a mistake there and then. Filled with bitterness at what he had become and accepting the path that lay before him the club owner refused Nathan’s idea of handing over the details to the EPD and made his intentions clear. Doug even suggested that Nathan be part of his new “business enterprise” and requested he take the role of managing enforcers for the operation. Nathan though refused telling Doug he was making a mistake and stating that he would not have anything to do with supplying drugs. At this point Doug apologised about what he going to do next but if Nathan was not with him, he was against him and therefore a problem. Looking at the rest of Nathan’s crew he offered the same position to the first person that eliminated Nathan. At first Nathan thought his crew might be loyal to him but soon discovered that was not true and only just escaped in a hail of gunfire. After making it out of the club he dived into a drainage channel and lost his pursuers. Doug was not best pleased with the fact he had a “loose end” but knew he could not waste time hunting Nathan down as he had to get plans in motion before other drug cartels heard about the SEC and tried to move into the territory. It took several years before Doug managed to build up a drugs empire which became known as the feared Claremont Cartel. Built on the remains of the SEC, Doug used the night clubs to not only distribute the drugs but to launder the money. As his operation expanded he engaged in turf wars with other Europa gangs and eventually managed to control over a third of the city. CLEA became very aware of the Cartel but was told the matter was in hand with local law enforcement and so stood down. That however did not stop the agency putting Mr Claremont on the watch list. With a substantial area under his control, Doug began to realised that distributing drugs though proved to be something of a problem the bigger his empire grew. That was when he noticed the street orphans and came up with an idea of using them as couriers. Called sewer rats these children used the sewer system to move drugs and money to and from dealers. Doing this avoided the attentions of the police although city engineers did occasionally find bodies of children that had either been killed by automated systems, or simply from exposure to the sewage. The engineers though had no reason to suspect something foul was going on and assumed the children had just taken to hiding down there as opposed to sleeping on the streets above. The problem came for Doug as to what to do when the children became too large to physically move along the sewers. Killing them seemed rather too much of a waste, and unsure what to do he asked his people for suggestions. One of the club managers then came up with an idea that if they were boys they should help serve as cartel security and if they were girls they could be used for “special services” in the night clubs i.e. dancers and prostitutes which would create further income. Doug approved the idea but added a stipulation that none of the children could ever simply be allowed to walk free as they would be a security risk to the entire operation. For many years the Claremont cartel did this, and insured none of the ex-sewer rats ever caused a problem for if they escaped they were hunted down mercilessly before they had a chance to talk to the police. Despite being a big criminal organisation that could be seen as competition to Black Shadow as both organisations operated in different circles, the bigger crime syndicate allowed the Claremont Cartel to operate without interference. It was therefore ironic that the Claremont Cartel’s empire was nearly brought down by two people, Suchin Charoenpura and Nathan Clarke. Suchin had once been an ex sewer rat, dancer and prostitute for a cartel owned club “The Hole” and had managed to escape when her alpha Abilities activated. Wanting revenge for all the violations she had suffered she went for help in Europa’s criminal circles with the intention of destroying the Claremont Cartel, and found Nathan Clarke. It was pure coincidence he happened to be in the same city as his old nemesis Doug Claremont when Suchin found him. At first he thought she was crazy to even want to try and attack the Cartel until he discovered she was an Alpha Superior and then he realised they might stand a chance. He was carrying had a good deal of guilt for helping Doug take over the SEC because his assistance had inadvertently put a bigger monster on the streets. Nathan therefore saw Suchin as a chance to correct the mistake. Nathan also wanted revenge against Doug and his own people now in high position in the cartel. After all they had tried to kill him. Nathan therefore trained Suchin in various hand to hand and combat techniques and helped her get the best out of her Alpha Abilities. Then when this was done using Suchin’s inside knowledge of the cartel they began to attack the night clubs. Having crippled the way the cartel’s money could be laundered the pair of them next began attacking the dealers and thus disrupting the supply chain. Their intent was not to outright destroy the cartel but instead make it appear weak and when this happened, rival groups including Black Shadow moved into the cartel’s territory and gang wars erupted. It took just less than eighteen months for the cartel’s business to be taken over by rivals the police finished off. Assumed dead by the police CLEA took him Doug Claremont off the watch list unaware that the crime boss had somehow escaped the law and rival gangs. For a number of years there was nothing heard of him, until the original Black Shadow collapsed and another power vacuum occurred in Europa. With millions of dollars hidden in various accounts Doug took advantage of Black Shadow’s misfortune and started once more to build up his drugs empire and like an evil phoenix the Claremont Cartel once more rose from the ashes. Of particular interest to CLEA is the fact that Doug will often "sub-contract" his "muscle" requirements to a variety of known criminals CLEA is actively seeking.