History Main / TheSyndicate

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': The underground has a signifigant presence on the station, especially during the earlier seasons. However, after the kingpin N'Grath was taken down the resulting power vacumn enabled smaller operators to rise up and take control of the rackets operating on the station.

* The ''Series/BlakesSeven'' episode "Shadow" has the Terra Nostra ([[TheMafia Cosa Nostra]] RecycledInSpace) whose main revenue is the illegal drug Shadow. Our anti-heroes attempt (unsuccessfully) to [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilised buy their help in their struggle]] against the Terran Federation. [[spoiler:TheReveal is that Shadow is being harvested on a planet directly controlled by the President of the Federation, and Terra Nostra is just another means of controlling the populace, this time via its criminal underbelly.]]

** "A Piece of the Action" in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has Kirk arrange for the formation of a syndicate of mobs. It's all for a good cause, of course: the planet in question is run ''by'' mobs straight out of 1920 Chicago, so The Syndicate is the closest equivalent to TheFederation for the moment, and it helps to keep the Iotians working together.

The Syndicate is [[TheEmpire the autocratic superpower]] of the criminal world. It maintains an iron grip on the BlackMarket, commands battalions of armed guards and controls large sectors of land (from districts to cities or whole planets). Its influence might extend towards law enforcement, labor unions, politicians and corporations, whether through blackmail, bribery, coercion or simple business. Its many activities include racketeering, extortion, kidnapping, gambling, smuggling and trafficking.

In addition to standard {{Mooks}}, its security apparatus may consist of a MurderInc, {{Bounty Hunter}}s, ProfessionalKillers and the CorporateSamurai. You know you're in trouble when the Syndicate somehow boasts {{Pinkerton Detective}}s and/or PrivateMilitaryContractors. Often times, The Syndicate can be a bonafide NGOSuperpower.

On a semantic note, a "syndicate" is nothing illegal per definition, as it is simply a group of companies working together for mutual profit (the most immediate example would be television syndication). However, "the Syndicate" only has one meaning in modern Western popular culture. In this sense, it may have gotten its name from the so-called "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Crime_Syndicate National Crime Syndicate]]" of ethnic gangs and the similarly-vague "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Commission_(mafia) Commission]]," the RealLife governing body of the American [[TheMafia Mafia]]. Both were organized by the Italian gangster Lucky Luciano and the Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky in the early [[TheGreatDepression 1930s]]. The former group didn't actually have a name (calling it the "National Crime Syndicate" came from the media, who had to call it ''something'') and arguably wasn't even a group, more an informal agreement on the part of various gangs to stay out of each other's turf since turf wars are unprofitable and draw police attention. The only organized crime groups that had any real alliance were the Italian-American Mafia and the Jewish-American gangs.

* [[VideoGame/DragaliaLost Dragalia Lost]] has an evil organization called The Syndicate who experiment on innocent people and forcefully fuse them with dragons and fiends. [[TheWoobie Aldred]] was one of the people their victims, and he has since developed some serious PTSD from their procedures.

* The Malaysian pirate organization in ''ComicBook/BuckDanny''. Originally a well-connected fraternity of RuthlessModernPirates, they saw their power enormously increased when they were joined by Lady X (the heroes' archenemy), a UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo era spy who offered them a map of all the weapons, supplies, and equipment the Japanese military had left in hidden caches throughout the Pacific during their long retreat. Most of those weapons are obsolete, but it doesn't matter: the pirates are preying on civilian shipping, not professional navies, and most of the countries in the region don't have the means to field cutting-edge weaponry either. The resulting organization covers the entire western Pacific, extorts payment from even the wealthiest shipping companies in the world, and has friendly relations with several local governments.

** As mentioned under Film, SPECTRE. Creator/IanFleming was worried that Cold War villains would get outdated and invented the organization as a politically neutral replacement for SMERSH. Their membership apparently consists of big names in the Mafia, the Unione Corse, various SecretPolice forces, and, well, SMERSH. Apparently all those disparate groups can reconcile vastly different ideologies under the [[EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily common banner of world domination.]]

** Raymond Benson's novels would give SPECTRE a spiritual successor in the form of the Union. Originally a small mercenary group founded by former [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Right-Wing Milita Fanatics]], it eventually grows into the most powerful crime syndicate in the world, with associations in North America, Europe, the former Soviet Bloc and the Middle East. By the third book of the trilogy, it's enough of a threat that the world's major intelligence and law enforcement organizations have unofficially declared war on it.

** Black Sun, the most powerful criminal organization of the galaxy, featured in ''[[Literature/StarWarsScoundrels Scoundrels]]'' and ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire''. It's an Empire within an Empire (though predating it by centuries) and has a cozy arrangement with Palpatine (for example, providing logistical support to the construction of the Death Star) who considers it valuable enough that its leader, Xizor, is a respected member of the Imperial Court, the third most powerful man in the galaxy, and a rival to Darth Vader himself. Its upper-level members are all rich and powerful in their own right--Xizor is the CEO of the galaxy's largest transportation company, one of his underlings Durga leads a Hutt crime family that rivals Jabba's, etc. Later novels reveal that Black Sun accumulated most of its power not by bribery or intimidation, but by gathering information to {{blackmail}} high-level officials into cooperating, making it as much a private intelligence agency as a crime syndicate, and one the Bothans alone can outdo.

** In an earlier era, we've also seen the Crucible, a massive slave-trading organization that covers the entire galaxy. Originally created by the Sith, it was meant to produce warriors for their armies: refugees were kidnapped by the Crucible and made to fight in slave pits until they were forged into ruthless killers and their weaker members weeded out. When the Sith Empire collapsed, the Crymorah lived on, sustained by the profit motive but maintaining the brutal methods they learned from their creators, until it's finally brought down about four millennia before the original trilogy.

** ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In season 1, Wilson Fisk takes control of the Italian mob in Hell's Kitchen, and strikes up alliances with the Russians, Triads, and Yakuza, in order to streamline and control their business interests. In season 3, after he's released from prison, Fisk sets up a new syndicate by extorting other high-profile crime lords into paying him a protection tax in exchange for not being sold out to the FBI officials in Fisk's pocket.

** The Greeks are a straighter example, an international trafficking ring that actually ''is'' the underworld superpower that the Baltimore drug lords only wish they could be. The entire city is ultimately nothing but one investment among many to them, and when it doesn't work out they walk away with little damage to their organization and no risk at all to their leaders.

* ''Series/TheWire'': The New Day Co-op is a sort-of example of this, a loose alliance of Baltimore drug kingpins who share money and resources.

* ''{{Series/Defiance}}'': Detak Tarr's crew seems to be the only game around in terms of criminal groups, which makes him the unchallenged kingpin within the underworld.

*** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' reveals that [[spoiler: in the 32nd century, the Andorians have left TheFederation (along with many other planets) and joined the Orions in forming the Emerald Chain, an NGOSuperpower that's a serious threat to what's left of the Federation]].

* The Pizza Bat corporation in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' is in control of a mafia the size of a small army. Needless to say, they pretty much run the city.

* ''Series/KidouKeijiJiban'' has Criminal Syndicate Bioron, an underground and extremely well armed crime organization looking to overthrow the government of Japan.

* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': The Impossible Missions Force faces off against The Syndicate several times.

* In ''Film/PointBlank'', Lee Marvin battled a remarkably organized crime organization which was explicitly referred to as "The Syndicate". ''Film/TheOutfit'' was a loose sequel to ''Point Blank'', and ''Film/CharleyVarrick'' inhabited a similar world

** And two films later, we have ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' itself, which make Mr. White, the BigBad of ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' and ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' to hide away. Turns out Quantum was a subsidiary of them. They get completely wiped out in ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', eventually.

*** And two films later, we have ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' itself, which make Mr. White, the BigBad of ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' and ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' to hide away. [[spoiler:Turns out Quantum was a subsidiary of SPECTRE.]]

* Mentioned in ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas''. Lucy remarks that "We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know."

* The Umbrella Corporation in the ''Film/ResidentEvil'' movies.

See also TheMafia (and its Russian cousin TheMafiya), TheIrishMob, TheTriadsAndTheTongs, TheCartel, {{Yakuza}}, and MafiaPrincess.

** The Index has shades of being a MysteryCult. On one hand, they don't extort money from civilians, and their members are forbidden from committing violence without justification. On the other hand, they sometimes give "Prescripts" to people (civilians or Index members), which usually are weird instructions like "in 400.000 meters, turn right". If followed, Prescripts [[GambitRoulett always result in the Syndicate benefitting in some way]]; failure to follow them is punishable by instant execution.