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The Western Underworld is a blanket term for the criminal society operating across the west coast of Zacapican, particularly within the Zacaco Republic, and its various interdependent organizations and outposts across the country. Organized crime in western Zacapican is controlled by various street and prison gangs operating together within the same criminal ecosystem dominated by the highly influential Akuitsiurhiri organization and the gangs that pay tribute to them, collectively referred to as the Opitzome (tr. "street pigs"). The network of Akuitsiurhiri relationships is far a peaceful and unified order. Akuitsiurhiri members are not considered to be part of the Opitzotl gangs or vice versa, while the Opitzome regularly wage war on one another in a near-perpetual internecine conflict that touches most elements of the criminal underworld in Zacapican. However, the western underworld is governed by a code comparable to international law that governs the interactions between groups, including the conduct of violent actions and gang warfare, and is backed by the Tzitzimime hit-squad which acts as the enforcement arm of the Akuitsiurhiri.

Different elements of the western underworld are involved in virtually all facets of organized criminal activity at different levels. Racketeering (including numbers and protection), robbery, extortion and other forms of street crime are carried out by Opitzome as well as a number of independent outfits active in the west. The upper levels of the Opitzotl gangs are also engaged in drug trafficking, operating international smuggling routes as well as local distribution networks. Disputes over drug profits and territorial rights for distribution are the main motivator for conflict between Opitzotl outfits. White-collar crime, specifically money laundering, is the realm of the Akuitsiurhiri occupying the highest and most profitable echelon of the underworld.

Organizations

Akuitsiurhiri

The Serpent's Blood are an ethnic Purépecha clan based in the minor city of Akambaru in coastal Zacaco. According to their traditions, the Akuitsiurhiri originate as a secret club of western Purépecha dissidents against the hegemony of the eastern Puré-Nahua city state of Angatahuaca some time during the 13th century. This is highly disputed by historical sources, although the origins of the Akuitsiurhiri certainly pre-date the Zacapine Revolution. Their criminal activities are known to have begun in the mid-19th century with documented evidence of Purépecha bandits from the hills running a protection racket in the agricultural calpolli of the central Zacaco valley.