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Aztec (Internet)
Cocotona (customized map from ShadowHelix)

Cocotona (and its affiliates)

The Cocotona is a gang based in Aztlan. (cocotona (Nahuatl): to destroy, dismember, demolish)
It is a gang that propagates rapidly, is organized like a subversive organization, and it is the only First-Tier gang which has all-female chapters. Which is expanding into the Aztlaner / Latino communities of the successor states of the former United States, much as a revolutionary movement or religious cult would spread.

Membership: 6,000 (plus affiliates)[1]

Annual Income: up to the 10s of millions (nuyen)[2]

Background[]

The Cocotona emerged from the violent Mexican and Central American street gangs of the 20th century, becoming even more brutal with the Awakening. Though the David Cartel controls nearly all organized crime in Aztlan, the Cocotonan in turn control a big chunk of Aztlan's disorganized crime.

It operates in the sprawling shanty towns that border the sprawls of Aztlan, places that even the mighty David Cartel dare not go into. The Cocotona operate throughout the country of Aztlan, a vicious gang that gives even Shadowrunners nightmares.[3] Which would include the major cities of Tenochtitlan, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Veracruz, Acapulco, Mazatlan, Austin, El Paso, San Antonio, Tucson, and San Diego.[4]

Organization[]

The gang is organized into semi-independent cells with a central leadership. As of 2072 AD, it's 6,000 strong, not including affiliated Latino gangs north of the border in the UCAS, the CAS, and in the PCC. The influence of Cocotona reaches into the prisons of the UCAS and CAS where Latinos become affiliates who when released from prison turn their local gang into an affiliate of Cocotona. Among the cities north of Aztlan where the Cocotona have a presence are Los Angeles, Washington DeeCee, and Austin. Most of the members are Mestizo and male, though there are a few all-female cells. The Awakened and metahumans are both accepted.[5]

Gang Culture[]

Initiation into the gang requires murder or to be more specific a human sacrifice. A prospective member needs to kidnap someone and then in a ritual, cut the victim open, and eat the heart. The stronger and more powerful the individual you kidnapped, the higher your chances of the gang accepting you as a member. At which point your ears are pierced with black thorns, making you a full member. Law enforcement in the UCAS interrupted such an initiation ritual.[6]

Criminal Enterprises[]

The Cocotona dominate street crime in the ghettos of Aztlan. Which includes street-level drug sales, kidnapping, ransom, armed robberies, and extortion. They also smuggle people into Aztlan and drugs into the UCAS, CAS, and NAN. In addition Cocotona is involved in human trafficking, both in Aztlan and north of the border, and organ trafficking into and out of Aztlan.[7]

Trivia[]

Cocotona seems to have been modeled on the two Latino super gangs (both Surenos) of Los Angeles, the 18th Street Gang (founded by Mexican immigrants who weren't accepted by the Chicano gangs) and Mara Salvatrucha (founded by Salvadoran refugees who weren't accepted by either the Chicanos or Mexicans). Both of them extremely violent, organized into autonomous cells (sets or cliques), have all-female cliques, and have a central leadership.

Gangs which run the prisons of several Central American countries, have spread throughout the barrios of Central America and the major cities of Mexico, and have expanded across much of the United States. The only differences being that both are much larger than Shadowrun's Cocotona (with 50,000+ members each as of 2018, at least x5 as large as the Ancients), both having ties to the drug cartels, and being "Surenos" both come under the influence of the California-based prison gang called the "Mexican Mafia" (aka, La Eme) when in the United States (the Mexican Mafia also exists in Shadowrun).

References[]

  1. o33031982Vice p.135-137
  2. o33031982Vice p.133
  3. o33031982Vice p.135
  4. o53561113Aztlan p.121
  5. o33031982Vice p.135-137
  6. o33031982Vice p.137
  7. o33031982Vice p.135-137

Index[]

  • o33031982Vice, 133, 135-137

Central American Supergangs in the Real World[]

Links[]

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