𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 ⚔︎

5

almost a month after jesse's funeral — in those strange, apocalyptic days between christmas and new year's day — edward lavigne was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to ten years in maximum security prison for crimes committed against the RICO act.

the charges went as followed: arson (the blowing-up of marc costello's jewellery store in yonkers); bribery and bribery of a federal officer (as accused by agent rye upon his visit to le diamant all those years ago); distribution of a controlled substance (the cocaine operation that hugo ran behind his back in and out of colombia); extortion, money laundering, embezzlement, gambling, kidnapping, theft — many, many counts of theft — and, to put the cherry on top of the cake, murder in both the first and second degree. as a result of his dealings, he was fined a whopping $11,000,000, with the bail for his release set at an even more extortionate amount.

in the january of 1992, sal disappeared from new york — gone without a trace, his brooklyn townhouse found utterly ransacked and turned upside down. the weaponised police officers that had been ordered to carry out his arrest were left dumbfounded and childishly embarrassed upon their eventual realisation. mike was pinched too, pulled in to the FBI headquarters for an exhausting week-long interrogation and still giving nothing away, keeping his oath of silence. nevertheless, he was strapped with an ankle monitor and put on house arrest, having all forms of communication confiscated from him — phones, computers, even his damn fax machine was ripped out of his apartment.

it wasn't just the lavigne family, either. almost everyone in the whole city from all five syndicates may as well have been pulled in for questioning. associates, soldiers, captains, underbosses, the dons themselves, even their goddamn wives and the eldest children: not a soul was safe from justice's wrath. she had unveiled her blindfold and was out for blood. still, they all tried to cover themselves: some fled from new york to duck the indictments and arrests just like sal had, while others stayed and got rid of any evidence that they had to support their involvement with edward lavigne and his tacky regime.

upon news of eddie's lengthy and ruthlessly-imposed charges, the other bosses were quick to cease all business operations until the FBI stopped sniffing their tails. the government officials and police that were being paid off had turned their backs and began prosecuting, which meant more bloodbaths would ensue due to such a hideous betrayal. nevertheless, they were still shocked — nobody thought eddie would have went down the way he did. everybody presumed he would have put up a fight with all guns blazing, but ever since jesse's death, it seemed that he had stopped being so resilient against things. what surprised the other dons the most was the information leak regarding the cocaine exports which his once trusted captain, hugo maçon, had had a hand in organising — everybody knew the lavignes were against drugs, so to find out that he had been dealing with the infamous sanchez brothers in colombia was a huge shock. it had been a rather well kept secret until now.

without eddie's control, almost all of the lavigne businesses went bust. bars and restaurants closed, the casino closed, hell, even le diamant was on its last legs — only the royale seemed to be surviving through all of the casualty. as a result, many of the dons lost money, since their shared territories in the city meant they'd be raking in shared profits. tony romano got it the worst, having to close down the lexington club.

with mike on house arrest for the foreseeable future and sal nowhere to be found, a few of the costellos who still had a vendetta took advantage of the lavignes being without authority. it was relatively easy to do so, considering the FBI had made it harder for the captains to go to mike's house and question him about their next order of command. in turn, they elected arnie sauvage as a temporary boss over the family to oversee all activity — whether it be related to their schemes or not — as he was the longest reigning captain out of all of them, and by far the most trustworthy.