American variety show: The Godfather, the Peace Ambassador, what the heck?

Chapter 35 Opportunity to Rise to Power
Jordan's party went on from morning till night.

Luca stayed until evening before leaving with the money, and Jordan, who was already somewhat delirious, came to see him off.

"Old Pigeon, want to get a piece of the pie on Wall Street?" Jordan said with a sly smile. "Come work for our company, and I'll teach you how to be a qualified stockbroker."

"Hey, you've turned against me, trying to recruit me now?" Luca chimed in. "Then tell me, what makes someone qualified?"

"The first lesson on Wall Street is that the truth of the market is not important; what matters is what you make the retail investors believe."

Jordan, who has fooled countless people, skillfully imparts his experience: "If you can grasp the essence of this sentence, you are not far from success."

In short: a lie.

"Forget it, I don't have that talent."

Luca isn't very interested in stock trading; he's not good at it and wants to leave it to someone who is.

Luca: "You guys have to call countless customers to sell to earn that 250 million, but I only need to call you."

Jordan: "."

Mad seemed to make a lot of sense, and I couldn't refute it.

Who is the wolf in the end?

Luca: "For the sake of the remaining 300 million, let me tell you something else, so you won't get scammed again."

"Tell me, which bastard is trying to dump stocks and crash the market this time?"

"No, no, no, it's your Swiss banker friend. He has a lot of evidence of your money laundering, right? If he gets caught by the FBI, he'll most likely betray you to save his own life. I suggest you transfer that $2000 million out of the country beforehand and cut ties with him."

"How could that be? He's in Switzerland, not in the US, how could the FBI have caught him?"

"Can't he come to America for a visit?"

Luca pulled a photograph from his pocket. "Sorel does more than just launder money for you. Many Americans are his clients, and some of them are drug dealers."

Jordan looked at the photo, which showed Sorel meeting with others, and the location was even in New York.

Damn it, this idiot actually came to America? And he's not even coming to see me?!
Suddenly, Jordan's heart skipped a beat, his dizzy head cleared, and he felt a strong sense of crisis.

I must never let the FBI know that I'm laundering money!

According to the original storyline, Jordan was arrested mainly because Sorel betrayed him, which made the FBI's work much easier. They didn't even have to bother looking for evidence; they could arrest him every time.

Luka has now given Jordan a heads-up; it's up to Jordan's own fate. If he cuts ties cleanly as soon as possible, the FBI won't have a chance to act in the short term.

After the yacht docked, a preoccupied Jordan escorted Luca off the yacht, casually asking when the club would open so he could become a member and show his support.

Luca: "It should take another month or two of renovations. I'll let you know when it opens."

Jordan: "Haha, no problem, I'll bring the company over for a team building party!"

Luca: "."

Wait, tell me clearly what kind of party it is first?
After waving goodbye, Luca walked away, opened the panel, and began to observe.

[Bond: Friends]

The bond is established in one step, and we've become friends on the surface. The new skill [Nerve Paralysis] is unlocked.

[Remaining Skill Fragments: 73]

Since I started following Jordan, although there haven't been any major incidents, I've managed to collect a little bit every day, and I've accumulated 73 yuan so far.

That's enough to learn a skill.

[Would you like to spend 50 skill fragments to exchange for "Nerve Paralysis"?]

【whether】

Yes!
[Redeem successful, skill added]

[Nerve Paralysis: Your immunity to any toxins +30%]

[Remaining Skill Fragments: 23]

Luca really likes the passive skill that increases poison resistance; he might need it someday.

There are some assassins in this world who are very skilled at using poison.

The following day, Luca gave the money he got from Jordan to Jimmy to launder and continue renovating the club.

Luca made around $450 million from Jordan and Steve's company in this round. Apart from the $250 million that Jordan gave him, which was a bit troublesome, the money he made by shorting was all real money.

However, it's not a big problem. Jimmy is very good at laundering money. For example, he can use family members' real estate companies to buy a few houses and then sell them to launder the money.

Time flew by and it was early June.

These past few days, Luca has been occasionally taking Lyon to deliver fish and enjoying some quiet time with Matilda, while also going to the supermarket from time to time to urge her to get married. Matilda has also found a holiday part-time job at Uncle Biao's supermarket.

She found summer vacation incredibly boring. The only time she had fun was when she was with Luca; when Luca was busy, she was bored on her own.

It's only in Little Italy that it's really fun. Everyone there is talented, speaks very nicely, and everyone knows that Luca is her brother, so no one will bully her.

Luca was happy to see this happen, but he thought it best for the children to stay out of Mafia's business.

The rest of the time, Luca was gathering intelligence on all aspects of New York.

First, regarding Jordan Belfort's situation: he's already started transferring assets to Switzerland, intending to replace him with a more reliable bank manager, and things are progressing well so far.

Luca doesn't need to worry for now.

In addition, Denham kept his word and did stop harassing Jordan, but the investigation did not stop either, and it is unknown what he was secretly investigating.

Sometimes when he has free time, Denham will come to the bar in Little Italy to sit for a while and have a few drinks with Luca.

Luca was more than happy to do so. It wasn't easy to cultivate a close friendship with an upright and incorruptible FBI agent like Denham.

Even at the close friendship stage, it's necessary to open up to each other.

Denham is clearly not going to open up to the Mafia anytime soon.

Compared to the cat-and-mouse game between Jordan and Denham, Ricky Roberts' drug bust was a major event that could change the landscape of New York.

The war on drugs has begun, and if Luca doesn't get involved, according to the original storyline, this will be a long and drawn-out war of attrition.

The core issue is that these police officers never imagined that Frank's drugs were transported in via U.S. military aircraft.

Without uncovering this core secret, you'll never be able to bring down this drug kingpin, Frank.

Luca only knew that the planes were transported back by US military aircraft, but the specific airport, the aircraft, and the US military unit secretly controlling them were all glossed over in the original storyline.
He could use his foresight to directly threaten Jordan, the businessman, but he couldn't just go to the US military base and cause trouble.

That is courting death.

The Mafia is no match for the U.S. military, the largest gang in the world.

After much deliberation, Luca realized that he still had to use federal power to deal with Frank. At least Rich Roberts could openly apply for a federal search warrant to search military aircraft.

In early June, on the very day Luca collected 50 skill fragments, a new tire shop opened in the Bronx. The owner was a black man—Frank's brother.

This tire shop was secretly a distribution center for drug trafficking and also Frank's nominal source of income.

On the opening day, Dominic, the second-in-command of the Lucchese family, also visited the site.

This isn't about finding fault, it's about cooperation.

"Some time ago, Dominic went to see Frank in Harlem and got the Blue Magic from him."

Inside the bar, Margio complained to Luca about the matter, "That nouveau riche black man, Mad Frank, I don't know where he got such high purity stuff. No one in all of New York can compete with him. Anyway, we've become Frank's distributors now."

Margio: "You know, before Frank took over New York with his blue magic, the Bonanno family dominated the New York drug trade, practically monopolizing the import and export of drugs in New York! Until Frank came along and changed all that."

Luca picked up his glass, his gaze thoughtful.

Of the five major New York families, the Bonano family was the first to break the committee's rules and engage in the drug trade.

—Decades ago, when the National Committee of the Mafia was first established, it established a rule: drug trafficking was prohibited.

Drug trafficking is a serious crime that not only arouses public outrage but also attracts federal crackdowns, prompting Congress to allocate more funds to increase police budgets and intensify the crackdown. Investigating criminals is expensive, and if the police are not well-funded, families will face far fewer crackdowns and will be safer.

But ever since the Bonanno family broke this rule, all the major families have touched it to some extent.

The exorbitant profits have led greedy people to disregard the rule.

If everyone breaks the rules together, then it doesn't count as a foul!

That said, the Bonano family is incredibly stingy. They don't share drug distribution channels with other families and they've violated the National Committee's golden rule of "family sharing."

This made the other families dislike Bonanno.

But now, drug trafficking by the Mafia is nothing compared to Frank, who is now New York's biggest drug lord.

"Does Dominic intend to work with Frank long-term?" Luca probed.

Marigio retorted, "Is there any other way? If we don't cooperate, we can't do business. Frank has driven the market price so low that other drug dealers have no way to survive."

Luca, holding his wine glass, remained silent for a moment, thinking to himself that the second boss was pushing him to the brink of ruin.

Why get on Frank's doomed ship?
Once you're on Frank's pirate ship, you risk being betrayed by him.

Once the second boss is caught and goes to jail.
Perhaps this is a good opportunity for me to rise to a higher position.

Luca thought to himself.

(End of this chapter)