FIRST: IF YOUR GM HAS EVER REFERED TO YOUR CAMPAIGN AS "THREE MEN AND A DROID" AND LOOKS LIKE A VIKING, I WILL COME AFTER YOU WITH A VERY LARGE SWORD IN CHARACTER AND OUT FOR READING THIS.
That being said, my PCs have finally gained enough rep and experience for me to bring them into the real plot I had planned for them. They currently work for a Hutt that is a few levels under Jabba. That Hutt gets most of their wealth through the selling and distribution of spice in the corellian sector, most of it coming from the corellian system itself. However, the Hutt has foolishly left the running of the smuggling operation in the hands of a human who is about to double cross it and take over the ring himself. The PCs will be aboard the Hutt's ship for unrelated reasons when the news reaches the crime lord. A hutt sized temper tantrum will ensue, and in the heat of the Hutt's anger it will appoint the PCs to (with the assistance of a few trusted NPCs in the system) disrupt/take over the existing operation, rebuild it anew, and above all - find the traitor and bring him alive to the Hutt.
I'm hoping to have enough material while mixing in side-missions etc for this to run 18-20 sessions.
What I need to start, as the GM, is some sort of organizational structure and existing operational structure I can work with. So far my thoughs on the spice flow are as follows:
1 - medium sized frieghters bring bulk shipments of spice into the system, leaving hyperspace near the edge of the system and droping the spice off in remote locations. From there they meet up with a larger ship and load up on raw materials to deliver to one of the numerous manufacturing companies in the system. The freighters "work" for a collection of seemingly unrelated delivery companies that are all owned by shell corporations, feeding money to the Hutt as cover. This is so that local law enforcement doesn't see random ships jumping into the system with nowhere to go.
2 - a separate group breaks up the spice shipments into smaller lots and drops them in different locations, possibly canisters in "empty" sections of the system or on moons (deaddrops) where...
3 - another selection of ships without hyperdrives pick up the deaddrops shipments - they would work for salvage companies, mining companies, and courior companies that would be less scrutinized by customs as they aren't able to leave the system. These ships delever to locations on the actual planets
4 - another group breaks up the smaller shipments into even smaller shipments, then delivers them to other deaddrops on the planet
5 - gangs and other criminal organizations pick up the small shipments and are responsible for the final distribution to consumers.
Anything there I'm missing? The only knowledge of criminal activity I have is from watching breaking bad, but to me this seems like a solid system with a few possible weak points (large ships that the medium freighters load raw materials from).
This set up would require a whole organizational structure for distrobution, shell companies, and criminal groups at each step. What I don't know is how the criminal groups would look. Who would the heads of each area be? Would 1 guy oversee step 2, would it be like a pyramid scheme?
Any insight would be helpful, along with some good shell company names for all parties involved.