The “underworld” (jap.: 裏社会, Urashakai), both in reality and in the world of One Piece, is a shady milieu of criminals and criminals, which is hidden from the social classes and without control by governments or the law in the underground offers a platform to professional criminals.
Different underworld organizations usually have connections to each other and are thus able to create constructs such as a worldwide black market, cartels or even mafia associations. Within One Piece, organized crime figures are among the most influential and therefore most persecuted by the world government. They are often in close contact with the most powerful pirates.
Contents
Locations
East Blue
Even in the comparatively peaceful and supposedly weakest sea in the One Piece world, the East Blue, there are forms of underworld crime, though less so on the small, scattered and remote islands. For example, Bartolomeo recounted that he was a slum boss in Loguetown before the Straw Hat Pirates became known, until he watched Luffy and Buggy clash at the scaffold and ultimately decided to end his machinations and become a pirate as well.
Likewise, the “land on the bridge” Tequila Wolf is located in the East Blue, which, before it could be liberated by the revolutionaries, was a symbol of slavery by the World Nobles, who thereby supported the actually forbidden slave trade.
On Dawn in the Kingdom of Goa, corrupt machinations by the aristocratic government were also the order of the day.
Northblue
The Northblue can, at least based on events of the recent past, be described as much more influenced by the underworld than the East Blue. More than 20 years ago, the Vinsmoke family under Vinsmoke Judge rose to greater and greater power after he, together with Dr. Vegapunk, had decoded the “blueprint of life” and used this knowledge to build a clone army. When his clone force was finally large enough, he invaded East Blue with his force known as Germa 66 to take it over, but was defeated and driven out. Before that, however, he had been able to make contacts with the underworld, which years later eventually allowed him to even contact the Empress Big Mom herself in an attempt to marry into her Charlotte family, creating an even more powerful alliance.
About 13 years ago, Trafalgar Law, then only 12 years old, also became acquainted with the underworld of Northblue when he went with Corazón in search of a cure for his Hakuen Syndrome. In the process, Donquixote Doflamingo’s brother learned one day that former naval officer Diez Barrels was planning to sell a devil fruit, the Operation Fruit, on Minion Island. At the time, this illegal transaction interested not only the Donquixote pirate gang acting as brokers, but also the navy, which had negotiated a secret deal with the pirate.
Westblue
The West Blue is considered to be the most controlled by the underworld. Thus, until recently, the entire sea was in the hands of five families who had built a mafia network that dominated the entire Blue. Head of one of these families was Capone “Gang” Bege, known for his cold-bloodedness and cruelty. One day, just before he decided to become a pirate and sail to the Grand Line, he shot the leaders of the other four families, thus making a name for himself. It is therefore safe to assume that the Westblue is still heavily influenced by the underworld. After Bege finally reached the Redline and ascended to a Supernova, he sailed on to the New World, where he soon subordinated himself to Charlotte Linlin, who also maintains many dealings with the Underworld.
Grand Line – The first half
On the Grand Line, the high-ranking members of the underworld are among the most powerful people, though in the first part, “Paradise”, this is not yet noticeable in the same, strong way as in the New World. Nevertheless, the Straw Hat Pirates soon became acquainted with several examples of organizations that belonged to organized crime. For example, Crocodile, then a member of The Seven Warlords of the Seas, managed to build up his baroque company as a kind of underground army, unnoticed by the navy and the world government, and to gain more and more power in the kingdom of Arabasta.
In Water 7, on the other hand, the Franky Family, led by the cyborg Franky, was a feared institution that financed itself through robbery and ship dismantling. The fact that Franky was later able to buy wood from the Adam Tree on the black market with the money he “earned”, according to his own statement, makes it clear that he must have had contacts to the underworld.
Human trafficking is also widespread in some parts of the Grand Line, especially in the area of the Sabaody Archipelago just before the Redline. Several gangs of human traffickers are active there, kidnapping humans and members of other races and auctioning them off at the Human Auctioning House on the Sabaody Archipelago. Since the World Nobles are among the most important buyers of such slaves, they tolerate this normally illegal business as a “labor exchange”. The auctioneer of the Human Auctioning House is Disko, who works directly for the powerful broker Donquixote Doflamingo and is thus part of one of the deepest circles of the underworld.
Mary Geoise
Slavery and human trafficking even reached the capital Mary Geoise due to the decadence of the World Nobles. It is therefore quite likely that the high-ranking members of the world government, e.g. through covert missions of the Cipher Pol, have access to various other secret operations of organized crime.
New World – Punk Hazard, Dress Rosa, Totto Land & Wano Country
The New World is in the hands of the most powerful and strongest people in the world of One Piece. Besides the world government and navy, these are mainly pirates and the masterminds of the underworld. Almost every size of this ocean has connections to the underworld and increases its influence by doing business with them. The trade in weapons and devil fruits, as well as the formation of strong alliances, play a major role in this. Shortly after their arrival in the New World, the Straw Hats arrived in Punk Hazard, where they met the corrupt scientist Caesar Clown, who did not shy away from sacrifices for his research. This research mainly served the underworld cooperation with the emperors Big Mom and Kaidou. In addition, Crown also worked on the development of new weapon technologies, above all by means of his devil powers, which he had received from the Gas Fruit. This ultimately led to the creation of Shinokuni, which Caesar wanted to sell in a live demonstration. Several representatives of the underworld took part in this via monitor, including envoys of Big Mom and Kaidou, as well as Eustass Kid and Killer and some still unknown silhouettes.
Caesar Clown’s other research for Big Mom involved artificially creating giants, for which the scientist even kidnapped children.
The middleman for the dealings with Kaidou was the Samurai of the Seas Donquixote Doflamingo, for whom Crown produced SAD. This is the starting point for the creation of artificial devil fruits, the so-called Smiles, which Doflamingo produced on his island Dress Rosa in order to maintain his machinations with Kaidou. During their stay on Dress Rosa, the full implications of the underworld within the second half of the Grand Line were revealed to the Straw Hat Pirates when they stumbled upon the Samurai’s underground trading port. This was primarily where pirates docked to trade weapons, however Revolutionary Koala’s investigation also uncovered crates destined for the Kingdom of Doerena, meaning that governments are also involved in deals with the underworld.
Finally, Luffy and Co. delved even deeper into the underworld in Totto Land, Big Mom’s territory, which regularly hosts parties to which all the bigwigs of the underworld are invited, including black market and organ traders, pimps, and corrupt industrialists. Especially through the stories of Pekoms and Vito, the Straw Hats learned that the underworld is an extremely dangerous milieu, where kidnapping and contract killings are common, especially if you cheat or insult your trading partners.
Even in Wano Country, the land of the samurai isolated from the rest of the world, the power of the underworld is represented, which of course was strengthened by the influence of Kaidou. Thus the trade with weapons and especially Smile play an important role for the emperor, as well as for the shogun. Furthermore, the dreaded Yakuza maintain close contact with the underworld.
Goods & Services
Nebula
Nebelin is a powder that produces rain once it is burned. Crocodile traded this valuable substance to accuse Kobra, King of Arabasta of using it to make it rain solely in the capital city of Arbana.
wood of Adam
Adam trees are extremely robust and highly rare plants, which promise a nearly indestructible wood. The ship Gold Rogers was once made of this wood, and the Thousand Sunny was also made by Franky from the wood of an Adam tree. According to his own statement, he bought it on the black market.
Weapons
The trade in weapons is one of the cornerstones of the Underworld’s black market, especially in the New World. The arms trade flourished in Doflamingo’s underground port, for example, and Caesar Clown also found dozens of underworld buyers for his poison gas weapon Shinokuni.
Devil Fruit
Among the rarest and thus most valuable items in the One Piece world are the legendary Devil Fruits. Along with that, they are no less coveted, both by pirates and governments. As a result, secret sales of Devil Fruit occur time and time again, such as after Diez Barrels came into possession of the Operation Fruit. Even more closely linked to the underworld, however, is the trade in artificial Devil Fruit, the so-called Smiles, which in turn are made from SAD. The only producer of this was Caesar Clown, who sold it to the broker Donquixote Doflamingo. He produced the smiles from it and did his business with Kaidou.
Extortion, kidnapping, contract killing
During their stay on Fishmen Island, the Straw Hats met the two combatants Big Moms Pekoms and Tamago. They had come to the island to collect their captain’s regular supply of sweets in return for protecting Fishmen Island. When the people of the Ryuuguu Kingdom could not deliver due to the fighting against the New Fishmen Pirates, they threatened that Big Mom would destroy the island.
It was also clear from the following reunion with Pekoms on Zou that Charlotte Linlin’s underlings had not underplayed their hand. This time, Sanji was the target of their interest, but when Pekoms tried to spare the Cook for saving his countrymen, he was gunned down in cold blood by the former mob boss and his companion, Capone Bege. The very same eventually forced Sanji to accompany him to be forcibly married on Whole Cake Island. During the journey there, Bege’s underling Vito revealed to him that the underworld was Big Mom’s environment and that she was therefore not afraid to have her enemies’ loved ones murdered.
An example of this can be seen a little later, when Sanji’s ceremony was about to begin and the entire notable underworld showed up at Big Mom’s invitation. The organ trader Jigra, however, did not want to be searched when he was suddenly shot by Charlotte Katakuri, who had foreseen through Haki that Jigra was planning to assassinate his mother, who had once had Jigra’s father murdered after the organ trader had not accepted one of her invitations.
Slavery & Human Trafficking
As mentioned above, human and slave trafficking is still present in many places in One Piece. For example, it particularly flourishes around the Sabaody Archipelago and, of course, in the New World, where gangs of human traffickers often seek their business with the underworld.
Stolen Goods & Money Laundering
Money laundering and fencing also seem to be a reality in One Piece. For example, the “Warehouse Titan” Giberson is referred to as a powerful fence of the underworld. Likewise, the “God of Fortune” Du Feld is also called the King of the Black Market, suggesting crooked money transactions, as well as money laundering.
Corruption & Cartelization
Two other examples of such shady dealings are “Big News” Morgans and “Deep Sea Stream” Umit. The former is president of WWZ, but also seems to have very close contacts with Big Mom, suggesting corruption. Umit, on the other hand, is considered a shipping magnate; so his ties to the underworld could be due to cartelization or the like.
Organ Trafficking
Rather casually mentioned was Jigra’s existence as an organ trafficker, so that also confirms this branch of the underworld.This information comes from an anime filler.
Connected to Jigra is the organ dealer assassin group. After Jigra’s death, they tried to storm the tea party, but were defeated by Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Daifuku.
History
Past
Slavery existed within the world of One Piece 800 years ago. The then King Dress Rosas, ancestor of the Donquixote family, enslaved the dwarves of the Tontatta tribe of Green Bit.
63 years ago, the “Holy Mother” Carmel founded a children’s home on the island of Elbaf, where she let defenseless children of various species live together. However, as it turned out, Carmel was actually a slave trader who sold the children to the world. In doing so, she occasionally made deals with the Cipher Pol, as the world government was interested in children with fighting potential, especially giants. Carmel had been active in the underworld under the alias “Mountain Witch” for 50 years at this point.More than 20 years ago, Vinsmoke Judge and Dr. Vegapunk met and decoded the “blueprint of life” together. Vegapunk was arrested for this, but Judge escaped and used his knowledge to create a clone army, which increased his power enormously and gave him some contacts with the underworld.
19 years ago Boa Hancock and her sisters were kidnapped and sold as slaves to Mary Geoise. The same happened to the fish man Fisher Tiger, who one day could no longer bear his suffering and raged in the Holy Land. Thereby all slaves could be freed.
Thirteen years ago, Trafalgar Law and Corazón came to Minion in search of a cure for Hakuen Syndrome, where the surgery fruit was sold.
Ten years ago, Donquixote Doflamingo was already an influential man who was shunned by the world government. Thus, because of his status, he could simply claim the kingdom of Dress Rosa without being persecuted for it.
Arabasta
At least four years ago, Crocodile founded the Baroque Company in Arabasta, hiding from the world government, and thus built himself an underground army of sorts. A short time later, he used the black market trade to purchase Nebelin, which he smuggled into Arabasta. There he caused an accident to frame the king for bringing Nebelin to the capital only to have it rain there. This led to a rebellion, which ended after Luffy’s victory over Crocodile. In addition, the Samurai of the Seas was arrested for his dealings with the underworld after his defeat.
Water 7
When the Straw Hat Pirates came to Water 7 to have the The Going Merry repaired, they quickly made the acquaintance of the Franky Family, an association of shipbreakers. These were known in the city for theft and plunder, and sold their looted goods on the black market to which they had access. So they eventually stole from Nami and Usopp, who were carrying the cash they had exchanged for their treasure from Skypiea. For this sum, their boss Franky was even able to buy wood of the Adam tree in the underworld, which is considered extremely rare.
Sabaody Archipelago
Shortly before reaching the Redline and thus completing half of their journey, the Straw Hat Pirates was confronted with the human and slave trade. They reached a small atoll just outside the Sabaody Archipelago, which served as a hideout for a gang of human traffickers, the Tobiuo Riders. The Tobiuo Riders earned their money by kidnapping humans and other valuable species and selling them on the Sabaody Archipelago.
After a short fight, however, they became allies of the Straw Hats, who therefore continued their journey. In the process, they met, among others, the mermaid Camie, who was kidnapped a short time later by other human traffickers, the Makro Gang, and brought to Sabaody. Searching for her there, Luffy and Co. finally ended up in the so-called Human Auctioning House, where slaves were auctioned off. The leader of these auctions was Disko, who worked under direct orders from the powerful broker Donquixote Doflamingo.
Punk Hazard
Two years after their sojourn in the Sabaody Archipelago, the Straw Hats finally made it to the New World, where they chose Punk Hazard Island as their first destination, having received a distress call from there. On the climatically divisive island, however, the gang immediately uncovered several major secrets when they encountered the corrupt scientist Caesar Clown, who was doing extensive business with the underworld. He had kidnapped several children and used them for experiments aimed at artificially creating giants. As it would later turn out, Crown was conducting these experiments on behalf of the Empress Big Mom.
Likewise, Crown was associated with Donquixote Doflamingo, for whom he produced SAD. All of this served to further his research into novel, devastating weapons, which were based primarily on the devilish powers of the Gas Fruit. Thus he had developed the deadly poison gas Shinokuni, which he was about to distribute to the Straw Hat Pirates at the time of their landing. For this purpose, Caesar Clown held a video conference during which he presented his invention. This conference was attended by a number of underworld luminaries, including envoys from the emperors Big Mom and Kaidou, as well as a few other as-yet-unnamed representatives.
Dressrosa
After their findings from Punk Hazard, the Straw Hats traveled on to Dress Rosa, the island of Donquixote Doflamingo. There, they were horrified to discover that the Samurai of the Seas had purchased the Fire Fruit in the Underworld, which once belonged to Ace but reappeared after his death. The Devil Fruit was to be the prize of a fighting tournament in the island’s coliseum, which Luffy immediately entered.
Meanwhile, on the island, his nakama made several startling discoveries, including that, as once 800 years ago, dozens of dwarves were being held by Doflamingo to make artificial Devil Fruit, called Smiles, for him from SAD. These, in turn, Flamingo sold to the Emperor Kaidou, thus acting as an underworld broker between the latter and Caesar Clown. Furthermore, the pirates uncovered a secret underground trading port, which Doflamingo used to trade weapons with the underworld. One of the products shipped from there was Kitekkou, a highly rare and therefore valuable metal only available on the black market.
Zou
After Doflamingo’s fall and the exposure of his secret underworld dealings, the Straw Hats traveled on to Zou. There Sanji, Nami, Chopper and Brook had already sailed ahead, with the Cook receiving an unexpected visit from Pekoms and Capone Bege, who came to him on behalf of Big Mom. The reason for this was an arranged marriage of Sanji to one of Charlotte Linlin’s daughters, initiated by the latter’s father, thus forming an alliance and strengthening the power of Sanji’s family through Big Mom’s extensive underworld connections. Pekoms and Bege noted that refusing Linlin’s invitation would result in Linlin using her contacts to have Sanji’s friends murdered.
To make matters worse, Jack, a subordinate of Kaidou, invaded Zou and used the poison gas Koro, which he had purchased as an illegal weapon of mass destruction from Caesar Clown.
Whole Cake Island
To get their nakama back, Luffy and company immediately went to Totto Land, Big Mom’s territory, centered on Whole Cake Island. Before they could infiltrate this base, however, they made the acquaintance of Germa 66, the army of the Vinsmoke family, of which Sanji was a member. This family had once built up its power in the Northblue and was now seeking an alliance with Charlotte Linlin in order to use her contacts to the underworld for their own purposes. To this end, the Empress arranged a “tea party”, which was to be a wedding ceremony between Sanji and her daughter Charlotte Pudding. She invited all the greats of the underworld, including the president of the “WWZ” Morgans, the notorious black market trader Du Feld or even the “queen of the pleasure district” Stussy.
The very latter reconfirmed Cipher Pol’s connections to the underworld when it was revealed that she is secretly an agent of CP0.
Wano Country
Finally arrived in Wano Country, it quickly turned out that even here the influence of the underworld has taken hold. The Yakuza, a mafia-like organization, control the destiny of many residents, for example by collecting protection money. Until 20 years ago, the Yakuza of Wano Country were led by a man named Hyogoro, who was considered very benevolent among the people and therefore quite popular. Nevertheless, everyone knew about his branched connections to the underworld. One day, however, Hyogoro was defeated and enslaved by the young and powerful samurai and swordsman Kyoshiro, who now leads the Yakuza with an iron hand in the towns and villages of Wano Country.
Furthermore, even the CP0 has a secret interest in Wano Country’s business, which is why they even sent agents to negotiate with Kurozumi Orochi about the next arms shipments.
Known persons with connections to the underworld
| Name | Image | Underworld Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Bartolomeo |  | Slum boss |
| Caesar clown |  | HijackTrade with SAD & Shinokuni |
| Capone Bege |  | Mafia Boss |
| Carmel |  | Slave trade |
| Charlotte Linlin & Big Mom Pirates |  | HijackMurderBlackmail |
| Cipher Pol |  | Slave Trade |
| Diez Barrels |  | trade in devil fruit |
| Disco |  | Slavery |
| Donquixote Doflamingo |  | Trade in Weapons, SAD, Smile & Devil Fruit |
| drug peclo |  | Unknown (Underworld Attendee at Big Mom’s Tea Party) |
| Du Feld |  | Money launderingBlack market trading |
| Duval |  | Human Trafficking |
| Eustass Kid & Kid Pirates |  | None, however, participants in the demonstration Caesar clowns to collect information |
| Franky Family |  | RobberyMoney LaunderingBlack Market Trading |
| Germa 66 |  | War drive |
| Giberson |  | Hehlereieventually corruption & cartelization |
| Hyogoro |  | Former leader of the Yakuza |
| Ibusu |  | Arms trade |
| Jigra & Organ Traders Assassin Group |  | Organ trade |
| Kaidou |  | Trade with artificial devil fruits |
| Kurozumi Orochi |  | Arms trade |
| Kyoshiro |  | Yakuza boss |
| Macro |  | Human Trafficking |
| Morgan’s |  | Corruption |
| Crocodile |  | Establishment of an underground armyTrade with Nebelin |
| Stussy |  | Unknown (Underworld participant at Big Mom’s tea party) |
| Peterman |  | Human Trafficking |
| Umit |  | CorruptionCartelization |
| World Nobles |  | Slavery |
