Chapter 178 The Connolly Family

Vinny took over the conversation, "I know this secondary distributor. He's an Irish guy named Richie O'Leary, forty-five years old, operating out of an abandoned auto repair shop in Hamilton as a front."

"On the surface, he does car dismantling and parts refurbishment, but in reality, the backyard of that repair shop is the transit hub for the fentanyl he controls in Hamilton and the four surrounding towns."

"Every Friday night, a gray van from Cincinnati pulls up to the back door of his repair shop, unloads about twenty to thirty thousand fentanyl pressed pills, and then his underlings drive them to various sales points."

"Back when I was hanging around the Cincinnati riverfront, I helped him make a few connections—not for contraband, but helping him sell a few batches of salvaged car parts."

"At that time, I knew he was in the gray market, but I didn't know exactly what he was doing. This time, when I went to investigate, I staked out across from his repair shop for a week before I figured out the whole logistics chain."

Vinny's voice carried a hint of exhaustion. Someone who had already washed their hands of the gray market, upon stepping back into that world to conduct counter-reconnaissance, found that things were far more complicated than he had imagined.

John turned to the second page, which contained Richie O'Leary's personal information and a blurry photo taken from a distance.

A burly man was standing at the back door of the repair shop, talking to two people.

"Richie O'Leary isn't a big shot. He's just a link in the downstream distribution chain, managing about forty or fifty street-level retailers in Hamilton and the four surrounding towns, handing over about two to three million dollars in cash to his superiors every month."

"He doesn't have his own armed forces, at least not an organized one, but he keeps a few hired thugs specifically for debt collection and dealing with retailers who try to bypass him and get goods directly from Cincinnati."

"Tom checked the internal records of the Hamilton Police Department. Richie's name has appeared on five suspicious transaction reports over the past three years, but every investigation was shut down less than a month after it started."

"I'm not sure who shut them down, but it's highly likely related to certain people inside the Hamilton Police Department."

Mu Xin pondered for a moment and continued to ask, "What does this have to do with him?"

"Because Richie's upstream is the core of the entire fentanyl distribution network in southwest Ohio."

John flipped to the next page, his finger stopping above a name: "The Connolly Family."

Mu Xin had never heard the name, but he could tell from John's expression that what this name represented was far more complex than Derek.

"The Connolly Family, Irish descent, has been running contraband operations in Cincinnati for over thirty years."

"Their organizational structure isn't a traditional Mafia pyramid; it's more like a highly decentralized franchise network."

"The family itself only does two things: control the contraband supply chain from the Mexican cartels through Texas to Cincinnati, and provide inventory to downstream distributors."

"Everything from the pricing of each batch of goods, the repayment cycle for every retailer, to the protection fee percentage for every distributor is standardized."

"At least half of the profits from contraband distribution around the Cincinnati riverfront eventually flow back into their hands."

"What about their armed forces?" This was something Mu Xin was very concerned about.

"Conservatively estimated, there are at least a hundred people working directly or indirectly for them across Cincinnati and the surrounding areas."

"The core armed force is about sixty to eighty people, mostly veterans and former police officers, with a few professional thugs brought over directly from Ireland."

John flipped to the next page, pointing to a screenshot pulled from the Ohio business registration system.

"The core members of the Connolly Family have dozens of legally registered companies under their names: transportation, catering, real estate, used car trading, and waste recycling."

"Unlike Derek—Derek is the local tyrant type, relying on violence and information asymmetry to monopolize a market—the Connolly Family spent decades turning their contraband business into a quasi-modern enterprise."

"They never go out of their way to provoke anyone. Anyone doing business on their turf will be fine as long as they follow their rules."

"But if someone breaks the rules…" He didn't finish the second half of the sentence.

Vinny took over again, "I know a distributor for the Connolly Family. I asked him if he knew about Richie O'Leary pushing product in Oxford Town."

"He said Richie's cooperation with the Connolly Family started at least five years ago. Although he doesn't belong to the core tier, he already meets the Connolly Family's assessment standards for secondary distributors."

"He has to deposit a fixed commission into an account designated by the Connolly Family every month. If the money doesn't arrive in any given month," he looked up at Mu Xin, "then the person is gone."

Jessica spoke up from the side, "So if we move against Richie, it's equivalent to moving against the Connolly Family's money. And moving against the Connolly Family's money is equivalent to breaking their standards."

"It's not just about the money." Vinny shook his head, "The Connolly Family has their own people in the Cincinnati Police Department. In a thirty-year contraband business, infiltrating the law enforcement system is the most cost-effective form of self-protection."

"In other words, any police operation targeting Richie is likely to be leaked in advance."

"The security cameras in the backyard of Richie's repair shop are networked. They aren't connected to a regular security company; there are people specifically monitoring them."

Mu Xin leaned back in his chair, staring at the organizational chart for a long time.

The chart had four levels: the seven Oxford Town retailers at the bottom, Richie in Hamilton above them, and then the Connolly Family in Cincinnati above him.

The very top level was marked with a question mark in red ink, with a line of text written: "Unknown, possibly involves connections at the federal level."

This question mark meant that there was some person or organization he didn't know of, in a way he couldn't currently confirm, extracting a certain percentage of profit from this supply chain.

And the existence of this person might be the real reason why the Connolly Family had been able to operate safely in Cincinnati for thirty years.

But both Vinny and John had confessed a fact to him in their own ways: digging any deeper was beyond the scope of their current reach.

"The fact that the Connolly Family hasn't fallen in thirty years shows they have deep enough roots in the judicial system of southwest Ohio."

"This doesn't necessarily mean connections at the Washington level; the state level is enough."

"As long as there are a few people in key law enforcement positions willing to tip them off in advance, their entire logistics network can complete a transfer before any surprise inspection."

"This isn't the problem of a single police officer; it's that the entire judicial system of southwest Ohio has been slowly infiltrated by them in their own way over thirty years."

"The police regularly seize a batch of low-purity goods to satisfy the media, and the Connolly Family continues their business—everyone gets what they need." Mu Xin said with a bitter smile.

"About Richie pushing product in Oxford Town, does he know whose turf this is?" Mu Xin suddenly asked.