American variety show: The Godfather, the Peace Ambassador, what the heck?

Chapter 48 The Family Needs You!

After half an hour.

Inside the club bar, Jimmy looked at the young man in front of him and asked in surprise, "You also have a commercial driver's license?"

Brian said confidently, "I have a Class A commercial driver's license. I can drive any truck. I used to drive a school bus in Los Angeles."

School bus? Jimmy nodded thoughtfully. He seemed like a talented person; there weren't many people in the family who could drive trucks.

Moreover, this guy has a clean background and no criminal record. He looks like a young man who has just entered the workforce and is in a hurry to get money.

Perfect for being a beast of burden!
Jimmy was increasingly satisfied with the job. After discussing the salary and specific job details, he immediately decided to give Brian a job.

Of course, this has to be done according to the collective bargaining agreement signed by the union at the time, such as specific terms regarding salary, working hours, and benefits.

after an hour.

An FBI outpost in New York.

Brian arrived at the location and met with the officer in charge of the undercover operation. The two sides had an initial discussion about the progress of the current operation.

"I have been successfully hired."

Brian shrugged, looking relaxed and confident. "It wasn't difficult. Jimmy looked at my driver's license, asked a few simple questions, and decided to hire me. However, he hasn't said what specific job he'll assign me yet. I guess it will be related to freight trucks."

"Well done."

The superior nodded in support: "But this is only the first step. Next, you need to make good use of this identity, infiltrate their organization, gain their trust, and participate in their criminal activities!"

Infiltrating the club is easy. The club has so many employees from all walks of life, but these employees only serve the club's daily operations and are not involved in the Mafia's criminal activities.

"You need to gain Luca the Pigeon's trust! It would be best to get his guarantor and become a partner in the Lucches family. That way, you'll have the opportunity to participate in their criminal activities and collect evidence of their crimes."

"Partner"

Brian knew what that word meant—to demonstrate his value, prove he could bring benefits to the family, and then build good relationships, which would give him the opportunity to become a partner in the Mafia family.

There are no blood ties required to become partners.

FBI New York office.

Denham discovers that he has become unclean since meeting Luca.

To others, he was still the upright and incorruptible FBI agent; but to Luca, he was just a good buddy who took bribes, worked for the Mafia, and let Jordan live a carefree life.

Denham, who had just returned from visiting his mother in the hospital, went back to his office. He hadn't even settled in when a colleague came looking for him.

“Denham, I have some information here that might be useful to you.”

"what?"

"Useful to me? Aren't you investigating the Mafia?" Denham asked curiously, reaching out to take it—he saw that it was written in French.

But her colleague withdrew her hand.

"Have you been getting close to Luca the Pigeon lately?" his colleague said with a smile. "Jordan has hooked up with the Lucchese family, and now he has the Mafia backing him up. It won't be easy to take him down. But I didn't expect you to be getting so close to Luca the Pigeon."

Denham was even more puzzled. What exactly was this guy trying to do?

He has indeed been in frequent contact with Luka recently. Firstly, he owes Luka a favor because he received money from him, and secondly, he wants to try to get through to Luka and see if he can obtain evidence of Jordan's crimes.

To his surprise, Luca not only did not reject his approach, but also acted very enthusiastically, even taking Matilda to his home as a guest, where she became familiar with his wife.

This gave Denham a bad feeling, like he'd let a wolf into his house.
As for Jordan, he now hangs out in the Bronx frequently. Once, Denham "bumped into" Jordan, and the guy became even more arrogant, boasting: "This is Lucchese family territory. You dare touch me? Watch out, the Mafia will chop up your whole family."

Denham was so angry he wanted to punch Jordan.

You can suck up to Luca, so why can't I get along with him?
I'm a VIP guest in Italy now! Who's afraid of who?

With a group of mafia members as witnesses, the battlefield of this cat-and-mouse game shifts to the Bronx, and pigeons seem to become the behind-the-scenes referees of this game.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Denham asked, puzzled.

His colleagues were filled with admiration, thinking, "You're an FBI agent who can make direct contact with the Mafia without even going undercover."

He knew this contact was superficial, and Denham wouldn't be involved in the Mafia's criminal activities, but even so, it was still impressive. Or was Luca the Pigeon just a bit different?

"What's your relationship with Pigeon like? How much intelligence do you have?" a colleague asked curiously. "Tell me about his SSR club. I have some intelligence about money laundering by drug cartels, and it's related to a banker in Switzerland."

Only then did his colleague hand it to Denham.

The intelligence was written in French—in Switzerland, German is the most common language, but French is also quite prevalent.

The content is about a Japanese restaurant called "Red Flower," which sells teppanyaki, and the owner is Japanese.

Privately, this is a drug trafficking organization, and it also launders money in conjunction with Swiss bankers through various sports clubs and sporting events—such as rowing races, rugby, baseball, and motorsports.

Denham wasn't interested in drug trafficking investigations, but he was interested in money laundering.

And that Swiss banker was named Sorel.

Denham recalled that some of the intelligence he had gathered during his investigation of Jordan was related to Sorel, but he currently had no evidence to prove that Sorel helped Jordan launder money.

If we can capture Sorel
A colleague added, "There was a serious gang killing here before, related to drug trafficking. A lot of DEA officers died, and it took a lot of effort from above to suppress it!"

Denham nodded to indicate that he understood. "Thank you, this information is very useful to me."

He thanked him and then shared some of the conclusions he had drawn from his interactions with Luca.

"On the surface, Luca is a very friendly guy. Compared to other Mafia members, he is not very averse to contacting the authorities, but this is limited to personal friendships. He never talks to me about his family, not even a single word."

So, if you want to get to know him, simply befriend him, setting aside your respective identities and professions, and treat him like a friendly neighbor. He will reciprocate with goodwill. In Little Italy, he is a respected figure! Therefore, the prerequisite for befriending him is to first set aside any prejudices based on his Mafia affiliation and show him respect, understand?

My colleague's mouth dropped open slightly.

The feedback I heard from my colleagues and from Downey's side was pretty much the same.

So you really are a peace ambassador? You like making friends, huh?
I'd like to see if you can tell who's a friend and who's an undercover agent.

The club's top-floor office.

The empty room was empty except for Luca, so quiet that only the scratching sound of a pen nib across paper could be heard.

Luca is considering his next business move.

The war on drugs is nearing its end, and the police don't need his help anymore. He has time to think about his next business plans.

As Marígio said, you can't make much money by opening a club, and adding a casino won't make much either. The important thing is to use the club as a platform to build connections and resources, and bring in a group of business-savvy partners to make money together.

The family's big businesses, such as smuggling and various unions, or Dominic's drug trade, are already well-established. Luca doesn't touch drugs, and he's not qualified to participate in other businesses; he'd just be an assistant.

It would be better to explore new avenues from other perspectives.

Luca wrote down the words Wall Street and the dot-com bubble.

Currently, the Mafia has relatively little control over Wall Street. Investment banking and exploiting investors are not Mafia's forte; the Mafia prefers to engage in real businesses.

Luca was also a mediocre player, but fortunately he had a quasi-friend on Wall Street with whom he had leverage, and he also knew some of the future trends in the internet industry. He could use Jordan's connections to start investing in some emerging internet industries.

In addition, Jordan's help is needed to operate a number of offshore companies.

Luca then wrote the words "gasoline tax" on the paper—to embezzle huge profits by reselling gasoline and concealing taxes.

In the original storyline, this business was first "developed" by the Colombo family and carried out in cooperation with Russian gangs.

The core tactic is to have the company declare bankruptcy before the government collects the gasoline tax, transfer its assets to another company, and then shift the blame to the former owner when tax authorities investigate. Meanwhile, the former company's owner has already packed up and left the US, effectively making it impossible to trace their existence.

The new company will repeat the same tactics, endlessly leeching off the company.

Earn millions in a week with ease!
Currently, Luca has discovered that no one is currently involved in this business, so he wants to take the initiative. If the Colombo family can do it, why can't he?

However, to make this scam happen, they need to collaborate with foreign gangs.

Maybe we can even drag Night Demon into this mess?

Next, Luca wrote down information related to Hollywood, real estate, sports clubs, etc. on the paper: 1. Investment; 2. Money laundering.

Make good use of your family background and connections with various unions and individuals, and make more friends to earn money together.

Luka will rise to the top!
As he finished writing, Luca organized his thoughts, tore the paper to shreds, set it on fire, and it vanished into thin air.

Downstairs, Luca found Jimmy. "Help me make an appointment with Jordan Balfour. Also, I need a bunch of tanker truck drivers from the Russian gang; can you contact them for me too?"

Luca told Jimmy some things, but the latter was completely confused and didn't understand what Luca was trying to get at by rambling on.

He nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll take care of it right away. Oh, by the way, I hired a driver today; he can drive tanker trucks."

"I need brothers I can trust."

“You’re asking for too many people. Our family can’t gather that many. We’ll have to look for them from the trucking union,” Jimmy said helplessly.

Luca frowned slightly. The guild's workers weren't considered members of the mafia; it was just that the guild's higher-ups had dealings with the mafia.

However, it's not impossible; it's just transporting gasoline. The workers don't know what their boss is planning. The workers should just honestly transport the goods and not steal gasoline on the side.

"Show me the resume of that driver from today," Luca said, reaching out his hand.

Jimmy slapped the resume into Luca's hand. "This kid has good driving skills and a lot of driving experience. According to him, he once won first place in a Los Angeles race."

Luca stared at the name, paused for a moment, and then looked at the handsome photo, his expression becoming even more astonished.

Brian O'Connor?

Damn it, Brian, instead of chasing Dom's sister in Los Angeles, you've come to my turf to mess with me?
"Call him and have him come over here!"

"I want to see just how fast he can drive."

Half an hour later, at the club bar.

Looking at Brian's striking blond hair, Luca couldn't help but think of the melody:

It's been a long day~~ without you my friend~~
[Character Card Discovered: Brian O'Connor]

[Brian: SSR]

[Source: The Fast and Furious series]

Skills: Man and vehicle as one; charismatic; abandoning darkness for light; family-oriented; see you again.

[Bond: Strangers]

Looking at Brian's five skills, Luca couldn't help but sigh, "Brian, look at all these skills of yours! No wonder you're the family hero who betrayed the FBI to protect your family."

The Mafia needs you!

You like making friends with family, right?

A family, a mafia family, isn't that a family?
This is also a big family!

(End of this chapter)