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The Barksdale Organization is a fictional drug dealing gang on the television series ''The Wire''. Many of the characters featured in season one of The Wire belong to this organization. Season one largely deals with the Baltimore Police Department setting up a Major Crimes Unit to investigate the Organization. The Barksdale Organization is led by Avon Barksdale who is portrayed as the most powerful drug kingpin in Baltimore. The gang's criminal activities include heroin and cocaine dealing, homicides (including witnesses in criminal cases against them) and money laundering. Avon Barksdale's power in west Baltimore was established for some time before the events of season one. The Barksdale Organization started a turf war of the city's largest public housing project. When they won the war and got the prized Franklin Terrace Towers, they had the best drug territory in the city,〔http://www2.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=8780〕 and dominated the illicit heroin trade in west Baltimore. The show starts sometime after these events. The Baltimore Police Department as a whole is portrayed as underfunded and incompetent. While the Major Crime Unit is able to arrest a number of people in the Barksdale Organization including Avon, they do not have the resources to put a strong enough case together to permanently cripple the organization. All those arrested plead out and get light sentences (with the exception of Wee-Bey and D'Angelo). Avon's best friend and second in command Stringer Bell runs the organization until Avon is released from prison in season three. Ultimately, a second prolonged investigation by the Major Crimes Unit, a bloody turf war with the emerging Stanfield Organization and internal dissent leads to the Barksdale Organization's collapse in the fall of 2004. With most of the Barksdale Organization in prison or dead, the Stanfield Organization becomes the dominant heroin dealers in west Baltimore. ==Structure== Avon ran the organization as a hierarchy with himself at the top and Stringer directly below him. Stringer oversees the entire drug operation and advises Avon on all matters. They were both isolated from the drugs, handling only money. Avon had a number of enforcers (soldiers) who served him through protection, contract killings, and intimidation work, including childhood friend Wee-Bey Brice. Avon himself kept an extremely low profile, eschewing overt displays of wealth so as not to attract attention, avoiding being photographed, not having a driver's license, and owning nothing in his own name. The Barksdales retained attorney Maurice Levy, who advised them on how to counter police investigations and represented members of the Barksdale organization at hearings and trials. At the beginning of the series, Avon is the top player in the West Baltimore drug trade. His territory includes the prized Franklin Terrace Towers, a massive public housing project consisting of six high rise apartment buildings. These towers provided the best territory in the city to sell drugs. The Barksdales have a crew at each tower that sells heroin and cocaine 24 hours a day. The Barksdales also controls other smaller territory like a nearby low-rise housing project referred to as "the Pit" (or the courtyard). Each crew is headed by a lieutenant who is responsible for trade in a certain area, with some receiving a percentage of the revenue of the narcotics they sold. The lieutenants would contact there superiors to refill inventory and to kick up the proceeded from the drug sales. Lieutenants did none of the legwork in the drug transaction. They had to monitor their crew and make sure everything ran smoothly, only periodically collecting the proceeds from the drug sales and making sure everything adds up at the end of the day. Beneath the lieutenants there is several drug dealers usually referred to as "hoppers." Typically there is a second-in-command who would handle the money, "touts" were responsible for attracting customers; "runners" would hand over drugs to the customer; "look-outs" were responsible for watching for police or stick-up gangs approaching, while others would watch over the main drug stash. Each dealer would receive a weekly cash payment for their work from the lieutenant above them based on hours worked. Every member of the organization was subject to strict rules designed to thwart police investigations. The dealers were not allowed to carry cell phones (initially) or use drugs. They were all aware of how to deal with police interrogation and knew that the organization would protect them if they did not say anything to the police. Lieutenants and enforcers carried pagers so that they could be contacted (they later used disposable cell phones). They were subject to the same rules as the dealers, but also knew not to talk business in cars, public places or with anyone outside of the organization. Such discussions were limited to property and territory owned by the Barksdale organization. A strict telephone usage policy was applied rigidly throughout the organization. The pager messages were encoded to prevent easy tracing of the telephones used, all of which were public telephones. When pages were returned with a phone call no names were supposed to be used, and if a name was used, the speaker was rebuked. A separate code was used for resupply signals, which involved turning the pager display upside down. When the police catch on to this method, the Barksdales start using disposable cell phones that are constantly replaced to avoid being wiretapped. Avon received his narcotics supply through a connection to a Dominican organization in New York and had several other options for suppliers in surrounding cities. The main supply of narcotics was separated from the rest of the organization and held in a house in Pimlico where it could be cut and divided into smaller "stashes" for distribution among the Barksdale territory. Once inside the towers, these smaller packages were moved from room to room on a regular basis, to avoid the scrutiny of police and stick-up men. Avon's main office was one of his front organizations, a strip club named Orlando's. It was here, behind a locked and heavily guarded door, that the drug money was counted and secured before being sent on to its ultimate destination. Avon usually conducted his business in this office, rarely venturing onto the street. The club's legal owner, Orlando Blocker, was kept away from the drugs in order to maintain the front's appearance of legitimacy for the city. The organization laundered its profits through various fronts, including a funeral parlor, Orlando's, and a property developing company named B&B. It also invested in property, never actually using either Avon or Stringer's names on official papers. It also made campaign contributions and later bribes for assistance with development contracts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barksdale Organization」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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