New Gods of North America.

Chapter 703 Profit
As dawn broke, the first floor of the temporary stronghold finally appeared somewhat "empty" today, with only a few gangsters arrested.

There are probably two reasons for this.

A secondary reason might be that the core members of the gangs are relatively few, and once the gang leaders realize that the detective agency is indeed ruthless and physically powerful, they may find themselves drawn to it.
As long as there is no direct conflict of interest, everyone is willing to restrain themselves a little. In any case, as long as innocent people are not harmed, the detective agency doesn't meddle in the affairs between gangs.

The main reason is estimated to be related to the current changes in the situation in the dock area.
The detective agency's recent operations in the dock area have been quite brazen. They're investigating the assets of gangsters, conducting nighttime patrols and arrests, and even bringing out controlled firearms.
The gangs' attitudes towards this are clearly different. The Rabbit Gang appears to be an open accomplice of the detective agency, while the Ellan Gang is currently the focus of attacks and retaliations from various gangs. Their leader, O'Sullivan, was previously taken in to cooperate with the police investigation, but has not yet been released.
The Sailors Gang initially seemed completely uninvolved, but in the past few days they have suffered a series of annihilations, with even their leader dying under mysterious circumstances. The remaining leaders are busy recruiting new members.

Although the people in the dock area may not be aware of the inside story, or that the detective agency is actually doing free work for the city hall and the church, they can see that the detective agency's current actions seem to be "unregulated."
If people start to fill in the blanks with their imagination, they can probably come up with all sorts of outrageous stories, which makes it easier for smart people to choose to confirm the situation first and plan carefully before taking action.

These conclusions were drawn from collective brainstorming and analysis during the breakfast meeting, and Wayne also found them reasonable.

After discussing the security situation, Seth began to report on his group's investigation of the gang's assets:

"Currently, we have preliminarily identified three gangs with comprehensive financial information: the Rabbit Gang, the Tuto Gang, and the Sailor Gang. Mr. Paul of the Rabbit Gang and Mr. 'Little Tuto' of the Tuto Gang have actively cooperated in this regard. Their income mainly comes from their businesses, and their accounts are quite comprehensive, making it easier to detect any problems."

"The Sailors Gang's main problem is that several of their secret hideouts have been exposed recently, with readily available hidden goods and significant personnel losses. After their original leader died, the remaining leaders preferred to use the name 'Sailors Gang' but actually formed a new gang, and their previous assets were relatively easy to verify."

Wayne looked at the preliminary statistics and analysis report in his hand, and at this moment he was also a little speechless.
While it's supposed to be cooperation, the Rabbit Gang's legally available accounts alone show that their annual revenue already exceeds the combined stable income of the detective agency's two offices. The Tuto Gang, on the other hand, has a master accountant who can keep the entire gang's profits below the salary of a regular detective.

If we add up all the real estate information they reported, the taxes that can be collected are probably less than $3000, and most of that was contributed by the Rabbit Gang.

The sailors' gang actually contributed more in this regard; the goods in those secret outposts remained unclaimed, the nominal owners had all gone bankrupt, and both the properties and the goods could be confiscated directly.
The properties in the dock area aren't very valuable, and the furniture inside might be even more expensive. Only one of the warehouses has some market value, but because the goods include popular items such as high-end textiles from Windsor, wines from Frank, and sugar presumably from the Caribbean, its market value could easily soar to at least $8000.

It's clear that profiting from the loss of one's family is still the most lucrative...

Wayne thought for a moment, then turned to Lina and said, "Have the intelligence team release the information that these gangs have cooperated with the asset verification. Let's leave aside the specific tax amounts for the Rabbit Gang and the Tuto Gang for now, but we can directly state the asset value of the Sailor Gang."

The first two gangs are now considered "friendly forces." Whether they should be subject to strict scrutiny or left as is depends on how things develop.
As for the Sailors' Gang, these items are clearly not something an ordinary gang could afford to import on their own; they definitely involve smuggling.

Although the profits from this shipment may not have originally belonged to the sailors' gang, and they might only get a small fraction of it, it's still good to show everyone the amount, so that people can see how much even a small part of their wealth is worth, and avoid giving them unnecessary sympathy.

"What about the Erlan riot gangs?" Wayne then asked.

Seth pondered for a moment: "The preliminary investigation results are not very good. The income of the Erlan gang probably comes from two parts. One part is the various 'head taxes' and 'income taxes' they collect from community residents, such as 'public construction fees' for the community and referral fees for arranging work at the docks. Since there are no accounting records, this part can only be estimated."

"Many of their businesses in the community are considered to be in the form of equity investments and profit sharing. If we define it strictly, most of their assets are not in their names, including real estate. We may need to find out the specific assets, but the amounts are estimated to be small."

"The most valuable property certificate that can be directly taxed from them is the shareholding certificate for the Caribbean coastal plantation that Miss Lina found—it's a large sugar plantation, and the value of those shares is estimated to be over $1.5."

When Wayne first heard the first half, he thought O'Sullivan was actually a "do-it-all" person. The Irish gang's role in their community was somewhat similar to that of a small-town government, so he figured they wouldn't go too far in exploiting their own people.

But when Wayne heard about the plantation's share value, he almost lost his composure. These days, plantations exist all over the world. Small ones just grow some agricultural products, and even breaking even might be a problem. Larger ones require investment in irrigation and processing equipment, as well as maintaining good local relationships; the value difference can be enormous.

Wayne had only looked at the name of the plantation at first, and with so much going on these past few days, he hadn't paid much attention to it, and almost mistook O'Sullivan for a good person.

The portion he pocketed alone was this much; the profits behind it must be even more outrageous.
It's true that people from the same hometown are more ruthless when it comes to taking advantage of each other... Maybe his secret "side businesses" are even more outrageous than the Sailors' Gang's.

Based on the profit-sharing ratio provided by the city hall, the detective agency's share of the current earnings is relatively small, totaling approximately $2600.
Wayne took some money for granted, but looked down on others. Even Lina was a good example of this – if she wanted to rob a bank, a typical small-town bank probably wouldn't be able to defend against that level of attack. The slightly more troublesome aspect might be the church's follow-up pursuit.

As for the dockside tabloids that can be started at any time, with Seth and his fellow intellectuals around, all that's missing is a printing press.
Seth has already selected a small manual movable type printing press available on the market. As long as the illustrations are not important, there is no need to find a craftsman to engrave the printing plates. It can be done for about $200. The detective agency will approve the payment in the morning, pick up the goods at noon, and spend a day or two getting familiar with the equipment before starting to print.

Money matters are simple. Inessa, who manages the finances, is present right now; the three partners can withdraw the funds with a simple nod.

However, once they officially started running a tabloid, they couldn't just make up rumors like they did at the beginning. Wayne set a tone:

"Considering the issue of reach, our tabloids can include some jokes or entertainment content that ordinary people like to read. But overall, we should try to focus on verified facts and use them to quell some controversial issues. As for news that might incite gang conflicts or cause riots in the dock area, we will not use the tabloids to publish it."

After listening, Seth pondered for a moment: "Or could we create a 'Unverified Information' section? On the surface, we'd publish things we've heard in the dock area, but we could actually filter them beforehand. That way, we wouldn't be held responsible, and it would be easier to create momentum."

As expected of a scholar, when he gets cunning, he's even more ruthless than an ordinary gangster.

Wayne was initially happy to see the gangsters fight each other to the death, as it was far more efficient than Willie and his gang accompanying the prosecutors to investigate and prosecute each case to boost their political achievements.
However, after visiting the home of that minor leader of the Erlan gang, I felt that ordinary gang members lived just like everyone else, experiencing the same ordinary side as everyone else, including the normal life and death. So I decided to exercise a little restraint, draw a red line to tell the gang not to cross it, and let Willie and his gang slowly rack up their performance if things got really bad.

More importantly, the dock area is already chaotic enough.

Even setting aside the suspected higher-level beings, the possible high-level extraordinary beings, and Jason, the collective silence of the gentlemen in Richmond, who didn't utter a single word of criticism, made Wayne wonder if "another scoundrel is trying to harm me."

Therefore, things that might be used as "solid evidence" should be presented in a positive and optimistic manner. The shrewd gentlemen in Richmond are much harder to fool than scholars.

Wayne didn't completely reject the suggestion, but he wasn't really encouraging it for the time being: "This column can be done. Considering the situation in the dock area, the tabloid itself doesn't need to be too serious, and the wording should be as simple as possible. However, in the short term, that column should only publish some trivial gossip or local embarrassing stories. Let's build up our audience first."

There's no need to deliberately spread false information. Just objectively present the facts, stating which gang was responsible for which recent attack. Those gangs, the victims, and their families will then naturally settle their scores and seek revenge.
However, some acts of revenge will also stain the innocent with blood, while others are considered "deserved to die, how dare you seek revenge?" Even if some hatred sounds like "everyone is a villain," it is ultimately the result of "no one taking responsibility for what should be taken care of."

Stop fighting and killing. You'd be better off working in a factory. Bad guys will always get their comeuppance.

The first issue of the tabloid featured a job posting for a cannery.

(End of this chapter)