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I was thinking of a possible organization within the Empire.

Name: Agency of Internal Security Affairs.

Goal: To monitor [and deal with] organized crime syndicates througout the galaxy.

Organization: A branch for surveillance, and a branch of diplomats trained in dealing in the underworld.

What makes this agency unique is that the head of it is actually hidden, and simultaneously the head of a major crime syndicate (within the, say, top thirty in the Galaxy). Like Moriarty in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he or she has been undercover so long, he/she is now virtually the head of his/her criminal empire. But the difference is that unlike Moriarty, he's loyal to the Emperor, and uses the resources of the syndicate to aid the Empire.

Operational Style: Besides the massive surveillance activities, the AISA actually leaves most organized crime groups alone, unless they undermine the Empire proper. This formalizes Imperial dealings with gangsters, mercenaries, bounty hunters, and the like, within the Core areas, at least. They're not above using pirates occasionally to strike at the Empire's enemies. They're also big about playing the various crime groups against each other.

Is this idea feasible at all? I'm not too familiar with the EU, but I didn't find any sort of governmental organ the Imperials had for dealing with the various gangster syndicates.

Usually they are being unvariably paid off and skimming off the top themselves, or literally negotiating with them as legitimate rulers (though not officially, mind you). For Christ's sake, there was a region during the Empire known as Hutt Space. I imagine its something like Sicily and Southern Italy where there's an official government but its a joke and the gangsters do everything.

Illuminatus Primus wrote:For Christ's sake, there was a region during the Empire known as Hutt Space. I imagine its something like Sicily and Southern Italy where there's an official government but its a joke and the gangsters do everything.

That's actually quite true. There's a governing Hutt body that the crime families usually respect, but it's merely a formality.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Empire doesn't need a special bureau for this one. So long as the local Moffs, or whoever, get their fair share I don't see why they'd have any problem with the existance of crime syndicates. We know that they also employ them from time to time as well.

Of course, once you do cross the line, it's lights out... see Xizor.

The Imperial State took a fairly blasé view of organized crime; for the most part, organized crime was tolerated provided that it stayed within certain unstated rules of conduct. It periodically raided crime syndicates like Black Sun and the Hutt cartels to remind them of their place in the universe (e.g., "Side Trip," The Hutt Gambit), but for the most part organized crime was not a serious concern. After all, the Underlord of Black Sun was a respected businessman and established figure at court, and Hutt Space was an independent client state of the Empire, à la Centrality, the Tion Hegemony, and the Corporate Sector. In fact, the Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook mentions that socialite and drug dealer Wendell Wright-Sims "carries out his spice-dealing enterprises with the express permission of the Emperor himself," on the basis that "Palpatine wants only the choicest spice delivered to the august citizens of his capital"; Wright-Sims was a respected member of society and was regularly invited to exclusive functions and events. Drug use was common and even somewhat accepted among society members, with the knowing connivance of the Empire.

Aristocrats like the Princess Leia of Alderaan were trained in the use of lethal force in self-defense ("The Weapons Master") and were specially trained to resist interrogation and torture (Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama). Fratricidal assassination was a common feature of Imperial politics ("Soldiers of the Empire!"), and powerful robber-baronies like the Tagge Company routinely reduced entire planetary populations to wage-slavery (Dark Empire Sourcebook, Goroth: Slave of the Empire), and it was Imperial policy to despoil entire worlds with strip-mining ("A Princess Alone!"). High-ranking Imperial naval officers like Grand Admiral Miltin Takel and Admiral Lon Isoto were known drug-addicts (Shadows of the Emprie Sourcebook, In the Empire's Service), while other high-ranking potentates like Grand Vizier Sate Pestage and Grand Admiral Danetta Pitta used their positional authority to implement racist fantasies (Star Wars Handbook Volume One: Rogue Squadron, "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals"). Two high-ranking potentates, the Lord Hethrir and Grand Moff Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, were fully prepared to commit mass murder in order to prove a point (The Crystal Star, A New Hope). The behavior of gangsters like the Prince Xizor and Jabba the Hutt is not exceptionally vile when one considers that the entire galactic upper class is marked by a certain degree of psychosis and degeneracy.

True. But my idea wasn't to have an Imperial agency police the syndicates, but to rather to keep tabs on to them, and to act as the official organ in which Imperial policy was carried through (such as support Gang A at the expense at Gang B, whilst keeping Gang A from getting too powerful). Agents wouldn't be carrying out sting operations; instead, they'd be rubbing shoulders with ganglords to make sure that they're breaking the law in the way the Emperor wants them to.

Additionally, is the idea of an officially sanctioned syndicate Underlord who in reality is an Imperial agent the whole time too farfetched? Does anyone know what I'm getting at when I mention Moriarty?

There's no need to worry about organized crime when the Crime Lords know if they look at your funny, you can have there homeworld/star system turned to glass at a moments notice