Four Families

The Four Families refers to the four largest factions within the NAL Pègre. Despite the name, these factions are not really family enterprises, although often several members of the same families in fact usually belong to them. Each is usually named for a famous founder or founders. For most of their history, the "Four Families" have been headquartered in the city of New Amsterdam but certainly have contacts and operations all over North America and indeed the world.

According to the CBI the four families are:

• The Gambeaux Family - headed for most of its existence by Charles-Luc Gambeaux. Between the four this is considered the most prestigous, mostly because so few of their higher-ups have ever been convicted but also due to the great age of the top men of the organization. When Charles-Luc retired in 1983, his brother and son continued to run the organization until 1998 when the former died and the latter also decided to retire (he died in 2000). Fighting for control the mighty Gambeaux Crime Empire continues, but mostly it is a struggle over who will replace The Old Men, five lieutenants to Gambeaux who have run the family as a junta since 1998. All five were born in the 1920s and are constantly in the process of enforcing discipline against their younger associates. Of all the four families, the Gambeaux take most seriously the prejudice against anyone who is not of French blood.

• The Signoret Family - one of the two oldest families, the Signorets go back to before the First Great War when they were smugglers. Prohibition pushed them into the big time, and they were one of the very few Pègre groups to survive relatively intact to the current day. Today, their specialty is illegal drugs which probably makes them the wealthiest of the four. "Signoret" refers to the three brothers who saw the organization's rise as major bootleggers. During the 1980s the Signoret Family underwent an internal power struggle that involved a surprising number of kidnappings before the current head of the family negotiated a truce. This is Peter Dale (aka Pierre Daille), who unusually has allowed himself to become well-known, even courting the limelight. He has been indicted no less than ten times since 1989 but has not convicted.

• The Lahaie Family - the more-or-less direct descendant of the criminal empire created by the infamous Alphonse Lambert (aka "Scarface") during the 1920s and 1930s. Named for Lambert's chief lieutenant who took over for the kingpin when he was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and who oversaw the family expansion to control of the vice trade (prostitution, pornography, etc.) The Lahaie family is generally considered the most violent of the four. They are also most known for employing those of ethnicities other than French, albeit there is a glass ceiling in place.

• The Arnaud Family - of the four, this family (which takes its name from a famous head who was murdered in the spectacular St. Patrick's Day Massacre in 1927) has taken the path of having the most legitimate front enterprises and businesses. Among other things, this means it tends to launder money for the other three and is the most secretive of them. The current head of Arnaud Family is Jean Villon, illegitimate nephew of his predecessor who groomed him for the job. The Arnauds were the first major family to allow non-Francophones into positions of power.

Since roughly 1999, an unofficial "confederacy" of Pegre leaders based in the Southern provinces of Jacobia, Carolina, Mobile, East and West Florida as well as Kentucky, Tenisi and Cherokee Nation have been quietly putting for plans for a "Fifth Famille."