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French organized criminal groups (cross posted from the other TW:2000 page)
As promised, below is my take on French organized criminal groups (next post: French law enforcement and criminal procedure) you would find active in France in TW:2000.
Corsican groups: the Union Corse is a good find …. but Corsica is, like Sardinia and Sicily, an extremely complex patchwork of clans & families, with a rich history (Corsicans like to remind people their 1755 Constitution predates even that of the USA). So whatever union there is will be, by definition, criss-crossed with fault lines (and therefore open & covert conflict). You will also find opposition between nationalist Corsican groups and more typical criminal groups. Nationalist Corsicans (i.e. those in favor of an even cleaner break with the Continent - hard to do given the amount of subsidies received by the island) have always accused the French Government of using criminal groups to do their dirty work. Said Government has retorted that the practical operations of said nationalist groups is pretty close to that of criminal groups (with the "revolutionary tax" being essentially a protection racket). Chances are both sides are right …. There have also been some close connections between Corsican criminal groups (esp. in the gambling "industry") and politicians (notably a famous minister of the Interior, convicted for corruption).
North African groups: France, during the economic expansion of the 1950-1960's, attracted a large number of immigrants from its former African & North African colonies. The economic crises of the 1970's led to a large increase in the unemployment rate in the "cités" (projects), and some "enterprising" folks, notably those with family links to the cannabis producing régions of the Rif (Morocco), went into the drug business, starting with cannabis and then using the distribution structure to turn to other drugs (heroin, cocaine). The glum situation in TW:2000 would be ideal for people selling access to an artficial paradise …. To be found in the projects surrounding the biggest cities.
Sedentary "travellers'" groups. Some of the more hardcore groups hail from the travelling Community (real life examples: the Horn & Hornec clans). Very tightly knit by blood ties, with their own parallel justice system (the "gipsy tribunals"), they specialize in things like armed robberies - but have been known in recent years to branch out in illegal waste dumping, using their muscle to get what they need.
Eastern Travellers groups (from the Balkans): these groups tend to specialize in fraud / theft, especially targeting the elderly, or sophisticated frauds targeting tax fraudsters ("rip deals"). They can carry some local political weight in the areas (in some parts of the South and the outskirts of Paris) where they have large established communities. Like the previous group, they have their own parallel system, but do not get along at all with them.
Italian groups: the Sicilian mafia (Cosa Nostra) are also active in the Mediterranean parts of France (real estate), where they have to share power with the other.
The triads: active in Paris and around, in the Asian communities, where they deal in human trafficking, contraband, and illegal Banking / loan sharking. Much less visible than some of the other groups, but by no means less Dangerous.
To that list, one can add less structured groups, typically with a clan structure (Turkish - in the construction business, Armenians ….). In the real world, one would have added the Sephardic (Jewish from North Africa - a community which has complicated relationship with the remainder of the French - Ashkenazi - Jewish communuty) criminal groups from the Eastern part of Paris (Belleville / Saint Mandé), but their specialties (sophisticated criminal fraud targeting large companies and the State) would have had a hard time "taking off" in the world of TW:2000. I would expect the more enterprising individuals to team up with some other groups - and they have access to "muscle" with ties to the Israeli army (and weapons).
Let's not, however, think that "regular" French people aren't involved, even though, by the late 1990's, you could not find a truly organized French mafia (these organizations rely on deep family / clan links which aren't found in the French social structure of the time). All of these groups need straw men (and women) to appear on the fake corporations used for money laundering, corrupt lawyers, bankers, notaires (a highly specialized type of lawyer dealing mostly in real estate / matrimonial & estate law), real estate agents …. to keep the organization running by laundering the funds and hiding its assets, groups that provide illegal manpower do so to supposedly overboard French companies looking to underbid their competitors … But these (at the time) were less likely to draw scrutiny - the French anti-money laundering statute was only passed in May, 1996. You could also find illegal arms dealers, mostly former military, with some connections to far right groups (motorcycle gangs are, however, almost a non-entity in the French criminal scene, contrary to Northern Europe). And let's not forget politicians, which, on both sides, have been known to trade support for votes (if this sounds familiar to people from Brooklyn or Chicago …. well, it is).
A French specificity would be the links between politicians from both sides and dictatorial regimes in the French sphere of influence in Africa, with suspicions of illegal Campaign financing, shady intermediaries - and merc groups supporting said dictators (and very occasionally being active in France). This is known as the "Françafrique" - but successful prosecutions have been very rare.
One could also, in more rural areas, find small "fiefdoms" where the local slumlord / corrupt garage owner has a small group of thugs to keep the locals in line.
I hope this will help you design some good scenarios to get your PCs, say, in the middle of a covert war between two or three of the above groups for an arms shipment ….
Next post: French law enforcement and criminal procedure.

Thank you for an education I only had part knowledge of.

What did the terrorism scene look like in France from 1990 to 2000? I mostly ask for use in "alternative" setting Twilight 2000 campaigns, but it bears relevance for the build-up to the Twilight War, as well as if the background resembles the original setting at all, where France stood apart from the entire Twilight War for the most part and capitalized on standing apart.

Hello!

Thank you for your interest.

As far as terrorism goes, the Basque movements were still alive and kicking, but not for long as improved cooperation between France & Spain slowly destroyed their logistical infrastructure.

There were some residual far left & far right movements, but they did not conduct major actions during the period (periodic brawls between far right & far left groups were a fact of university life back then, and it could sometimes result in serious injuries).

The Corsican situation is somewhat apart, because of its incredible complexity: apart from occasional attacks on symbols of the French "colonial" state (the most notorious was the assassination of Préfet Claude Erignac on Feb. 6, 1998), a lot of it was directed at properties built by outsiders (often illegally, if truth be told ...). That period also saw assassinations between various groups of Nationalists, rival organized crime groups - with a fairly unique Corsican phenomenon known as the "poussette" (litt: stroller) - spreading rumors that someone has it in for you to push (hence the name) you to strike first.

The big terror threat at the time was Islamist terrorism. France was hit first with the hijacking of Air France flight 8869 from Algiers on Dec. 24, 1994 - which ended with an assault by the GIGN on the plane as it was grounded, and then with a series of bomb attacks on the Paris transport system in 1995, notably on July 25, 1995 where a bomb at the Saint Michel RER station killed 8 and injured 117 (to this day, trash disposal containers on the Paris subway have been adapted so you can't put a bomb in them). This was an offshoot of the second Algerian civil war, with sympathizers from the Front Islamique du Salut conducting a series of attacks. Up until 9/11, French law enforcement regularly complained about the lack of cooperation by US & UK authorities, which, the French felt, did not see it as a significant problem (and had actively supported some parts of the network during the war in Afghanistan). Another tidbit: right before 9/11, Ahmad Shah Massoud, an Afghani warlord who was considered a French ally, was murdered by a fake camera crew ......

Hope this helps!

It does help, so thank you. As a former HUMINT Collector-turned-Analyst, further understanding what the sorts of unpleasant people I spent 15 months in Iraq finding for the Combat Arms to go get or kill is an odd interest/hobby of mine. Understanding the Why, How, and What of terrorism around the globe, especially with US allies (I'm aware the limitations of US politicians and general public apathy if the majority of the US politician along with CIA stupidity) is something I try to do...then work in everything I learn from those "studies" into fiction and RPG campaigns.

Also so I can inform the less-informed and stupider of my fellow citizens that the US came LATE to the domestic terrorism/domestic attacks "scene".

So, thank you.

Hello, glad to be of help .... Why people resort to political / religious violence is always a complicated, and sometimes very uncomfortable discussion (one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter ....). I also don't want you to think that the French were incomparably brilliant in ferreting out Islamist terrorism: our Government "brilliantly" harbored Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1970's (probably with a view to undercutting US / UK influence in what was then their backyard) - only to be branded "Little Satan" (and to be the target of attacks by Iran's proxies) as soon as it came to power. Once burnt, twice shy.
Oh, and I forgot the tidbit about our domestic intelligence services: back then, we had both the DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire), and the Renseignement Généraux (RG). The latter had a pretty bad rep (collecting info on possible opponents, making up somewhat ridiculous info to make themselves sound important ....), but, when they were merged in the DCRI, it appeared that there had been a loss of HUMINT because not all RG agents were bumbling fools .... and this may have had something to do with stuff that happened in 2015.

That was a bit of laziness from Fran Chadwick, like Spain that is controlled by Army units and "roving bands of guardia civil", the army... maybe, in 84 when that chapter was written was quite sizeable, was a shitty conscript one with literal junk equipment, but big after all. But the Guardia Civil... they are deployed everywhere but in the big cities, Catalonia and Basque Country, and it's like 10-20 agents per town... maybe more in the bigger towns and cities, you are not going to be "marauding and extorting" anyone with these numbers.

There's a lot more of play with the nationalistic factions (basque, catalonian and maybe galician), right wing factions, left wing terrorism... but obviously the important places were all in central europe so they did all the work there, if they feel like it they can just write a sourcebook about it.

And Italy invading everyone ... not that the Italian army was bad (it got some pretty good gear in the late 80"s), but politically it does not work. I'd be quite happy to work on a French sourcebook - looks like it would go well with your Spanish one!

To be honest, a lot of the GDW stuff was something of a stretch as regards believability (and on occasion dodgy in terms of geography, too) - I don't think I've ever seen a comment from a Brit that thinks that the Survivors' Guide to the UK was anything but laughable as regards the situation in the country.
But to be fair, GDW wrote this stuff in the 1980's, long before the internet was something we all have at our fingertips. Now, if you want to know what Wawel in Krakow looks like, you can Goggle streetview it....
Plus, it's a game background - it needs to be 'dramatic' and fun, which means playing a little fast and loose with the real world.
Also, GDW weren't that big, and (in the absence of the global communications we have now), it probably wasn't feasible to get a local opinion on the situation described in the game for each and every country mentioned.

I think that we can safely say however that standards and expectations are set at a somewhat higher level today than 35 years ago.

But even then, it would have been perfectly possible to engage people with actual 1st hand insight in the creative process. However, admitting to oneself that hey, I could actually use some help getting "my" baby into shape is never easy. "Not Invented Here" will always be a bit of a stumbling block.

I think our friends at Fria Ligan can be a bit more open about this - sending the Alpha version to all Kickstarter Backers (incl. yours truly) is a step in the right direction. Since TW:2000 is supposed to be gritty & realistic, I think getting the story right (or at least not laughable) is quite important. So the French staying out of the war when Germany is invaded (we had bilateral defense treaties with them - and still do - as well as a French troops stationed there, it is our main trading partner....) is dubious - just like one needs to account for French nuclear retaliation if Metropolitan France is targeted. Which may mean that most of France is a nuclear wasteland (as well as a good chunk of the Western Soviet Union), but at least that would be internally consistent.