The Uzbek Mafia - AKA The Gardeners

Being an umbrella term, the Uzbek Mafia means a lot of different things in different parts of India and the world; but in Sopahn, it is the name for the conglomerate of semi-legal operations centered around Muhammad Babur, the Uzbekistani businessman. For this context, the name is actually a misnomer, considering that few people in the Uzbek Mafia are actually Uzbeks, and that it's not much of an ethnic gang, but the name has stuck, and for Muhammad Babur's outfit the generalization is somewhat of a blessing, considering how it makes crimes harder to pin down and hides the outfit underneath the stream of generic ethnic crime.

Structure, Outlook and Resources

While its main source of income is being a blackmarket source for prescription drugs, hormones and augmentations, the core of the organization is mostly hidden behind an unrelated front of a somewhat famous restaurant, the Bagh-e Babur (the Garden of Babur). Handy enforcers of the outfit are often also its employees. Muhammad Babur himself is not only just the owner of the restaurant, but also its manager. Occasionally, he also acts as a cook when he's bored and not busy with work, but given how illegal operations are, this is somewhat of a rare occurence.

What defines and separates the Uzbek Mafia from other criminal organizations is its heavy reliance on blackmail and its secrecy. The organization's head seems to have a good understanding of politics and tries to couple profiting from crime with being a 'preferable alternative' to constant gang violence - as a result, the Mafia has close ties with many government officials and has plenty of insiders and cooperators in law enforcement. In return, the Uzbek Mafia makes its operations covert and discreet whenever possible, and tries to stay as a monopoly, absorbing and dismantling gangs as to prevent obvious crimes that could attract negative public attention, and feeds the police with information whenever it is mutually beneficial.

This is not to say that the Uzbek Mafia does not have its troubles, however. Its early expansive and aggressive policy has actually caused other, smarter mafia outfits to ally themselves with political and/or ideological fronts as to get empathy from parts of the populace and thus turn themselves into less acceptable targets. Also, it is composed of mostly foreign, if not Muslim enforcers, and thus has earned the ire of Hindu extremists, while its strictly business-oriented approach and lack of funding for Muslim organizations has caused it to attract their negative attention as well. Things have since been calmer and even more covert, but the sentiment is there regardless.

Associations and Partnerships

Aside from the restaurant, Muhammad Babur is also the owner of a high-end floralist chain named the Charbagh (the Four-Gardens), where genetically modified mutant flowers and designer fruits are common sales items. It is thought amongst some criminal circles that this floralist chain is no more than a front to get close with the pharmaceutical and possibly the genetics industry, although no criminal activity has been able to be traced to this company, and thus is considered by most to be not much more than an extra source of legal income.

The Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Sopahn works closely with the Charbagh, as well as the and part of the Charbagh's income goes to make colorful parks and vibrant gardens for the poorer districts of the city such as Dhaar. It is unknown if these gardens have any other purpose, with some conspiracy theorists claiming that the flowers in the gardens are actually latent chemical weapons. More political and reasonable opponents cite the company's tendency to thematize its products and gardens after Mughal aesthetics and figures, and 'internalization of foreign oppression' is a common crticism by Hindu and Sikh extremists.

The company has since made it an objective to gain the favor of these ethnic groups to better its image, and has answered these criticisms by claiming that they seek to embrace 'all of the history of the Indian Nation to create a firmly rooted understanding of culture'. To this aim, the company has named its latest park in Bholi after Akbar, and is working on a 'Guru Nanak Complex' on Langar Island.