AT WHAT COST?: THE NEW CURRENCY

XXIV - VEX MONEY

Vex Money - (/vɛksˈmʌni/) - Defined as an indiscriminate amount of money a woman keeps stashed away in the event that she needs to get herself out of a precarious situation with a man.

When the cat was away, the rats came out to play.

A parable as old as time, so potent in its truth. Because when Andrea Alessandro was left unattended, he went right ahead and got himself into some good, old fashioned trouble.

The kind of trouble that hid behind a blue uniform and badge.

You see, when everything first happened, a blame game came into session almost immediately.

There were arguments. Many, many arguments, about who's fault it was that Miss Cruz and Miss Browne (formerly Alessandro) were able to disappear into thin air. Both men were seeking to place the blame anywhere but on themselves, where it truly belonged.

There were even more arguments about the fact that Vince had been sneaking with Ale's wife for almost half a year. But soon, the brothers put their issues aside to make the truly despicable man a target of their anger.

Vanessa's assessment of him was accurate. Ale was spinning out of control, fast. His abusive streak prevented him from letting things with Malia go. If he couldn't have her, no one would.

So he enlisted the help of Cartel de Cali, in his effort to find her.

What began as a splinter from the Escobar-led Cartel de Medellín, grew to be its successor, filling the vacuum that the fall of an empire left. Ale's relationships with them went deep, as his work with them was what put him into the line up for Capo Regime.

When he first joined the group, he knew he needed to stand out, so he tackled a part of the world that his colleagues hadn't ventured to.

Latin America.

After his boss took a severe loss in standing and reputation, following the fall out with the Toronto Gang Malia's family were tied to, he knew the time had come to seize the day and change the tide. So he turned his attentions in the opposite direction.

Drugs weren't really something that many of his peers dabbled in. The trade was incredible lucrative, but it wasn't part of the organisation's heritage. Drug trafficking carried risks as high as their rewards, and things could get messy easily.

Addicts were difficult customers to deal with and hard to predict. They could be swayed to talk, and talking was the last thing the Don wanted. He preferred for his guys to go high-level. He wanted upstanding, influential customers.

So most dealt in weapons, money laundering and racketeering. They sold guns to people the US government would really prefer not to have them. They built city infrastructure and cleaned their illegal proceeds through them. Cosa Nostra was so deeply embedded in the bedrock of the City, of the East Coast, that rooting them out was virtually impossible.