Letter from the Chair

FCMUN VI Mob in Boston

Letter from the Chair,

Welcome to FCMUN VI and to The Departed! My name is LizzySkokan and I will be serving as your chair and very own Frank Costello/Jack Nicholson for the weekend. I had the inspiration for the committee this past summer and have been working hard to make sure it goes smoothly and lots of deals are struck. Aside from my love of Boston and the mob I enjoy post-Soviet transitions and too much TV. I am part of the class of 2013 majoring in French and International Relations with an International Institutions focus. My Model UN career has been pretty short, starting my sophomore year of college and taking my junior year off when I was abroad. I was the Chair for FCMUN IV’s European External Action Service and happy to be back in the saddle. I am Vice-President for MHCMUN, outside of MUN my life is pretty dull, I’m an unofficial advisor for the Ultimate Frisbee Team, a French tutor, and offer time management planning sessions.

The Departed is the Academy Award winning film that finally got Martin Scorsese an Oscar. In addition to a star-studded cast the film was incredible and I hope you all have seen it at least once by now. The film revolves around Frank Costello’s organization and their illicit activities including, but not limited to, drug dealing and smuggling, theft, black market sales, and generally being all around tough guys. This committee takes inspiration from the film, but it will not be copying it, thus do not assume anything from the film is true for this weekend, especially when related to moles.

The committee will be operating with relaxed parliamentary procedure. The movie is very free in its use of derogatory terms and swearing. Upon your arrival we will discuss their use more in depth, but there will be no swearing at delegates on the personal level and none on the character level without evidence of a wrong doing to the organization. You will note below that only character names are given, due to the nature of the committee detailed character information will only go out to the character themselves. Upon arrival to the conference feel free to share as much or as little as you wish. In the meantime study Boston, the mob, and watch the movie. Keep in mind that I don’t want to see the Staties over the weekend, unless we’re sticking it to them, so learn a few tricks from your favorite mob movies.

Good luck and don’t f*** up,

LizzySkokan

Chair, The Departed (Costello’s Side)

History of Irish Mafia in Boston

The Irish mafia was established in Boston in the early 1930s. They began by running alcohol during prohibition and selling it to make a profit. During this time they began to gain a reputation for a hard running group in South Boston (Southie). After Prohibition ended they had a healthy profit and began to branch out into other forms of commerce. In the beginning they mainly fixed horse races as well as dog races. Once this avenue of revenue became less prominent the Boston mob moved into drug trafficking, theft on many scales, and ‘protecting’ neighborhood businesses from the Providence (Italian) mafia. Since the growth of the Italian mafia was occurring simultaneously many turfs wars began to occur and are still active today in the attitudes of the mob’s members. In the 1960s the Irish mob began to grow thanks to the new leadership of Frank Costello

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Irish Mafia Under Frank Costello

Frank Costello started out running betting slips for the bookies in the Irish mob. He worked his way up the ladder until in the 1950s he was a young lieutenant in the mob. Frank was a very bright young man and saw the many inefficiencies and growth possibilities for the organization. He gained many loyal men in the mob before he took out the head of the mafia in a open gun fight. Few stepped up to challenge the young man for leadership and those who did were quickly taken out. Frank rewarded those who were loyal to him and they moved quickly up in his organization.

The organization itself began to blossom, not only did Frank expand the drug business, now moving into the newly popular heroin and pills, in addition to marijuana and cocaine; but Frank also moved into the North End which had been previously controlled by the Italian mafia in Providence. This set off the biggest turf war yet between the two organizations. Many were killed on each side, it is believed the Frank set the Providence College fire of 1977, as that is where is Providence rival’s daughter attend college, although this has never been proven. In the end Frank ultimately gained control. Frank also had no trouble expanding internationally, selling whatever he could to the highest bidder; notable examples are selling nuclear technology to North Korea, weapons to Cuba, and CIA and FBI agent names to the USSR.

Frank began to test his products and became slightly paranoid, although only those in his inner circles would notice. Every three years or so he would purge his organization as he thought everyone was a rat. This made it difficult for new recruits to become loyal if they knew they were going to be killed. This eventually led Frank to hold onto one or two members for significant periods of time, the most notable being French. With French next to Frank in the organization, Frank’s paranoia began to lessen but remained present. In recent years Frank has had difficulty in his organization due to constant pursuit by us (Massachusetts State Police), the Boston Police Department, and the FBI. In addition citizens are becoming less dependent on the mob in the age of technology.

Drugs Trafficking

Frank’s organization is the biggest player in the state of Massachusetts when it comes to drugs. The organization deals in all manner of drugs, the biggest being cocaine, heroin, prescription pills, and marijuana. It is believed that Frank himself only drinks and does cocaine occasionally. Cocaine is the organization’s main game. Boston provides a multitude of users, wealthy students, bankers, and doctors to name a few. We believe that Frank works with the Colombians for his cocaine. Bringing it up mainly via water routes although occasionally using land as well. Frank is a very smart businessman and plays the different cartels off each other to get the best price. These factors of different routes and different suppliers make it difficult for us and the DEA to get any information from the other end. Heroin is also up there for Frank, supplying the lower end neighborhoods of Boston such as Roxbury and his own Southie on occasion. We believe the heroin comes from South Asia and South East Asia, again using the different suppliers to get the best price and providing a multitude of routes. This has taken a toll on the price of heroin, as it is coming across great distances, but is of the highest quality heroin on the streets today, ranging from 60-80% pure. With the high purity Franks has been able to break into some of Connecticut with his product without facing any known repercussions from New York families and gangs. Prescription pills is the fastest growing branch of Frank’s organization. Frank has leverage over lots of doctors and pharmacists, either through blackmail or possibly owning them since there time in the neighborhood; thus Frank is able to get lots of actual prescriptions for a low cost and have them be high quality. That is not to say Frank won’t make his own versions, we believe he has numerous chemists who make compounds for him when needed, for example after Hurricanes hit manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico in 1998 Frank started manufacturing phony flu to fill the ‘need’. These fake shots resulted in over 10,000 people getting the wrong shot and being at a higher risk for the flu that year, that year over 64,000 people died. For prescriptions Frank deals in all the major ones, Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Dilaudid, Xanax, Desoxyn, Adderall, Seroquel, Valium, Ambien, Codeine, and Dextromethorphan. In addition as stated above Frank will have compounds made when there is a need during drug shortages. Marijuana is Frank’s smallest drug operation, often thought of as being the easiest illegal drug to obtain and popular among youths, Frank sees it as a relic of the past, and not a drug of his people. We believe that Frank gets most of his marijuana from Canada, although some specimens recovered appear to come from Mexico too. Canada seems to be the preferred route due to the lack of security (no passport needed), and the higher quality. Marijuana is also the only area where Frank does not viciously drive out his competition. He mainly deals it to those who buy his other drugs.

Thievery

Frank’s personal passion is theft. He gets the biggest rush organizing and executing thefts of everything from medical equipment, to technology, to papers, to art. Boston provides a plethora of possibilities for Frank, with MIT, Harvard, Boston’s branch of the Federal Reserve, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, numerous banks, the FBI and other government branches, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Boston Science Museum, Historical sites, and the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. As mentioned above, Frank will sell to anyone who is willing to pay. He has duped numerous buyers in the past, giving them false information or replicas of what they intended to buy, thus he can sell it twice and make twice the profit. Frank rarely makes more than one or two thefts in a year. This is due to the high value of his targets and the amount of planning involved. It is believed that Frank has been behind a number of thefts from MIT for high value research prototypes and more famously the Isabella Stewart Gardner Heist. Although Frank was not there to the best of our knowledge he planned the whole thing. Nothing is off limits to Frank, not your house, particularly not your family, as he has not had a steady or good family life and no children.

Protection

This area is a kickback to the old days of Frank and the Irish mafia. Frank has largely control over Massachusetts and New England except for a few areas held by Providence. There are areas of resistance in strong Italian communities of Massachusetts, notably the North End of Boston. However one of Frank’s low-level men goes out in each neighborhood he controls every week and collects a flat fee, normally higher than reasonable. This is for the ‘protection’ that Frank provides from the Providence mafia. This fee was needed and paid gladly during the height of the turf war with Providence, as the mafias needed ammunition and money and the people wanted to know they would be safe. Since the calming of the war the next generation sees no need for this fee and often ends up on the wrong end of Frank’s muscle Delahunt or whoever is in charge of that neighborhood if outside of Boston and in the rest of Massachusetts and New England. The Italians and other minorities in Italian neighborhoods under Frank’s control only continually pay the fee willing. These fees provide the baseline funding for Frank's organization. Many of the altercations that occur today between the Italians and Frank’s organization are rooted in the protection fee in Italian neighborhoods that the Providence mafia feels rightly belong to them.

Investigations and Arrest Attempts of Frank Costello

The State Police have had the Boston mafia under investigation since its creation, however not once has an arrest been made for a higher up in the organization. Each investigation has resulted in botched arrest attempts, numerous gunfights, and many resignations from the police force. This leads us to believe that Frank Costello always has at least one mole somewhere in the Department, especially in the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). Frank remains heavily involved in his organization unlike his Italian counterparts who protect themselves through the family. This makes Frank more involved and in control of his organization, however it gives us many more opportunities to arrest him. In the mid 80s at the height of Frank’s drug use the department had him in handcuffs when all the evidence got ‘misplaced’. In the 70s the department was able to arrest Frank’s little brother, Liam, who, soon after, was killed in prison. It is largely believed that the Italian mob ordered the hit and this set off the turf war. The case against Costello has been in the process of being a federal case for nearly two decades although this has not yet occurred. Other cases against Costello have never been able to be fully made because of constant leaks in departments, although perpetrators have been found, this is without a doubt the department’s biggest problem in regards to Frank, leaks. Due to these many failed attempts the SIU is starting from scratch and creating this new unit which all of you have been chosen to be a part of. Recently the department has had increased access due to technology and especially the Patriot Act.
Frank’s Personal Life

Frank is one of seven children, almost all of whom have worked for his organization at one time or another. His four brothers all worked for him and were all killed during the peak of the turf war with Providence in the 70s. Frank’s two sisters worked in the money-laundering portion of the organization but have not been seen in about 20 years, it is believed they were stealing money from Frank, he found out and had them killed. Frank is a devoted Irish Catholic and goes to church every Sunday. He makes large donations to the church and has helped keep numerous catholic churches in Southie running. Frank’s mother is one of only two women whoever believed fully in Frank. He honors her memory and places flowers on her grave every Tuesday without fail. The other woman who believes in Frank is his wife. He is married to Gwen Costello (née Mcinnerny), and has been for 40 years. No children have been produced in the marriage. Costello also frequently hires women, his wife appears to be fine with this, as she does not partake in drugs and his hired women always appear to. No known children have been born via these women as well. Frank has no nieces and nephews known to us, thus making it difficult for the organization to know whom the heir apparent for his organization is. If Frank were to go to jail he could easily continue running the operation from there, however if he were to die in a cross fire a large power struggle would ensue.

Characters

Sergeant Colin Sullivan

Detective Sergeant Sean Dignam

Captain George Ellerby

Trooper Rob Barrigan

Trooper Tony Brown

FBI Special Agent Frank Lazio

BPD Liason Lieutenant Patrick Donnell

IA Captain Philip Gallagher

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