The Lucero Family

The Lucero crime family is one of the legendary "Five Families" that dominated organized crime activities on iEra in the old days of the game. The origins of the Lucero crime family can be traced back to the early days of iEra. Bulldogg, Dom, and Sonny Lucero (three patriarchs of the iEra mafia) co-founded the family in A.D. 2011. Its activities included racketeering, loansharking, extortion, fraud, assassination services, and sales. The family is one of the most respected mafia's in iEra due to its traditional nature. The Lucero family has been described as diplomatic, reasonable, cunning, and even Machiavellian. Other prominent early members of the family included Swagg, Dos, Octo, Lucky, Kyle, Nate, Antonio, Lights, and more. The Lucero family has been lead by Bulldogg, Sonny, Dom, Kyle, Nate, Blake, and Antonio Lucero. The Lucero family has also produced multiple iEra admins, including Bulldogg (LAT), Kyle (SFX), Lights (GFX), and more.

Historically, Lucero has been based out of Northridge. For the last several years, Lucero has operated out of Eastridge (the eastern half of Northridge). In 2015, Kyle Lucero (SFX admin for iEra) created Lucero Boulevard. Kyle levelled and produced music for what are known as the "Lucero Houses," three houses interconnected underground by a series of tunnels. The houses are located just west of Amy's Hat Shop and north of Aran's Fashion Shop. In the tunnels, there is a private practice sparring arena referred to as "Lucero Spar" as well as a defunct PK arena. Mobsters often host spars at Lucero Spar for pride. The Lucero Houses have statues of prominent Lucero members from 2015, including Salvatore (Kyle Lucero), Samantha Mendoza (a Captain for Dom Lucero), and Meep (a soldier). In addition to Lucero Boulevard, the Lucero family has also claimed ownership of the Turks building, where a statue of Bulldogg Lucero can be found. There are also statues of Bulldogg and Swagg Lucero in the Astro Club, however the family never aggressively pushed for ownership of Astro due to the controversial reputation of this turf. The Lucero family is unique for being the only family in the history of the iEra mafia to ever have a civil war. In 2016, the Godfather, Dom, and the Don, Nate, found themselves in a state of disagreement when it came to how the family should be run. The arguments got out of control and it resulted in Dom exiling Nate from the family. Many of Dom's members were loyal to Nate and left the family to join Nate's crew. Thus, two opposing Lucero families were formed. The war between Dom and Nate became so brutal that when somebody said they were a member of Lucero, they would be asked whether they were loyal to Dom or Nate. Rumour has it that Dom and Nate went four years without speaking to each other due to the infighting. As of 2021, the two are back together and Lucero has been reunified.

In 2017, Caporegime Vito Lucero began causing problems for the Lucero family. Vito served under both Dom and Nate and was expelled from the family permanently due to incompetence: Specifically, Vito wanted the family to get involved with illegal USD trading; however, both Dom and Nate vehemently opposed this. The two bosses wanted nothing to do with bannable offenses since they were in agreement that Lucero's name must be kept clean; thus, Vito was forced out of the Lucero family and whacked. Not long thereafter, Vito went on to form his own family, which would go on to become notorious: The Battistelli crime family.

The Lucero family is an extraordinarily old-fashioned mafia. The four cardinal virtues of the Lucero family are wisdom, strength, silence, and loyalty. In fact, rumour has it that ranked members must swear a vow of silence in order to be "made" in the family. Lucero was always one of the most serious and structured mafias. This alienated some prospective members whom looked to have nothing more than a lax and fun time in the mob. Dom Lucero was known for operating by the principle "slow to hire, quick to fire." When somebody was suspected of being a rat or traitor, Lucero showed them no mercy. Dom, who had also served as director of Talon Company (a famous iEra private military company founded by Kevlar Vaughn), was known for his policy of lethal retaliation against treacherous members: "If they smack us around, then we'll smack 'em around twice as hard." Despite being stylistically traditional, the Lucero family was one of the first mafias to reach out to the cartel gangs for alliances. Historically, mafias and cartels were sworn enemies, but the Lucero family thought it was impractical to swear by this convention if business could be done between the two sides. In 2015, Lucero (lead then by Dom) formed alliances with CJNG and Flores, bridging the divide between the mafias and cartels for the sake of business. These alliances proved successful and created a syndicate that was tactically impressive: Brains, backed by brute strength.

"Since the creation of the Lucero Houses, the family's primary objective has been to protect ownership of them at all costs. In terms of turf, nothing else matters as much as Lucero Boulevard. It was made for our family, by a member of our family, and there are statues inside to prove it." - Dom Lucero, Don.

A.D. 2021
Following their reunion, Nate and Dom had both longed to revive Lucero. An informant reported to Dom that Battistelli was claiming Lucero Boulevard as turf; furthermore, Battistelli went so far as to rebrand Lucero's turf as "Battistelli Block." When Dom and Nate were made aware of this, the two bosses moved to strongarm Battistelli into disavowing all claims over Lucero turf: Dom demanded that Niccolo, then-Don of Battistelli, immediately rescind all their claims. Niccolo agreed with a caveat: Dom would have to meet with Vito to "finalize" the deal. Dom refused to speak with Vito under any circumstances, instead delegating the task to his Consigliere, Nate. Dom had said, “I am not willing to talk business with somebody permabanned from the game." Numerous organizations aligned with Lucero were placed on a wartime stand-by in case the talks fell through (MMC, Castillo, Sanchez, Tattaglia, Harway, Red Rose, Rifonzo, and the Yakuza); however, due to Battistelli's eventual implosion, the use of force was not warranted. By the end of May of 2021, the Battistelli crime family had totally dissolved as a result of various civil disputes amongst members. Isiah Battistelli, then the Underboss of Battistelli, was amongst the first to flee from the sinking ship. Following his departure, Isiah met with Dom and Nate in private. Nate knew Isiah from Graal Classic, which led Dom to offer Isiah membership in the Lucero family. Isiah accepted and would go on to eventually become the Underboss of Lucero. Thence, with Battistelli gone and recruitment underway, Lucero's presence in Eastridge was once again made known throughout Era City and the family's revival was set in motion. As the news of Lucero's return spread across the City, the Lucero Houses quickly became a sought-after territory for up-and-coming gangs. The year 2021 marked Lucero's tenth anniversary, as the family was established in 2011. Upon their return, the Luceros were heralded as patriarchs of the mafia and "legends" due to their prestige. The majority of bosses respected Dom and wanted to work Lucero's crews due to the family's immense history. Others coveted the Lucero Houses and went to war with Lucero; however, no family was successful in conquering Lucero Boulevard, as Dom fought tooth and nail to retain ownership over his family's land. Significant wars were held between Lucero and Crimson, Montana, and, eventually, cartels.

Dom had no interest in working with any cartels, which caused a months-long series of battles in Northridge. The war culminated with the Battle of Lucero, also known as the Eastridge Offensive. The battle was a major offensive campaign on Lucero territory that lasted almost twelve hours and carried on overnight. The shootout began around 6 P.M. EST and lasted until almost 6 A.M., exhausting everybody involved. Shift-based leadership was implemented. Dom commanded Lucero's forces for the first half of the battle and then granted wartime executive powers to Klaws and Sammy Lucero until the conclusion of the shootout. Lucero, having recently created a defensive "war pact" amongst various mafia organizations, fought alongside Tattaglia and their allies. Brunetti, comprised of former Battistelli members, recruited numerous hood and cartel gangs for help. The result of the battle was contested by both sides. Lucero and Tattaglia claimed victory due to their men outlasting the enemy on the battlefield; however, Brunetti attempted to enforce the "three person rule" to claim a victory. This rule holds that a "last man standing" war is won when less than three opponents are left on the battlefield. Historically, this rule was never implemented by default, as bosses had to agree on it before a battle broke out; therefore, Lucero and Tattaglia insisted that they won both literally and on technicality. Teezy Tattaglia's commentary on the Battle of Lucero can be found here (YouTube, Dunclumz):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWt_rTxIOMYDespite being a smaller family, Lucero was comprised of older-generation players and also maintained a powerful network of allies. Under Dom's command, everybody ranked Caporegime or higher was 18 years old or above, an informal rule. The crew featured many military members, college students or graduates, traditionalists, Machiavellians, Stoics, and more. While Lucero was capable of being outnumbered, the family was never outmaneuvered. Lucero employed skilled streakers, including: Franklin Magnolia, Artist (Tokyo), as well as Isiah. In addition to its prestigious legacy, the Lucero family was respected for adhering to mafia purism and being able to put up a fight on the battlefield. As the Summer of 2021 began to come to a conclusion, so did the Lucero family's revival. Many of Lucero's key players became too busy in real life to set aside time for in-game affairs; thus, the family's activity began to fade away. Members of the Lucero family still frequent the streets of Era City to this day. Although rumours have spread about the next chapter of Lucero history, it lies in the hands of a few men to decide when the stars will next align.