Stanfield Organization

On the fictional television drama The Wire, the Stanfield Organization is a criminal organization led by Marlo Stanfield. The Organization is introduced in Season Three of The Wire as a growing and significantly violent drug syndicate. Marlo has established his organization's power in West Baltimore's main streets in the shadow of the dominating Barksdale Organization, which was more concerned with conducting its activities in the Franklin Terrace Towers. The Stanfield Organization violently clashes with the Barksdale crew after the latter is forced to move on from the demolished Franklin Terrace Towers and tries to reclaim the streets the gang once dominated. Marlo's is the only crew in the area not to let itself be absorbed into the feared Barksdale gang, and a violent turf war breaks out. The Stanfield Organization begins as the underdog, but fallout from the strain of the war combined with a successful investigation by the Major Crimes Unit manages to destroy the Barksdale Organization at the end of Season Three. By Season Four, Marlo's crew becomes the most powerful drug organization in West Baltimore, and forms an alliance with the New Day Co-Op while ruling its streets through fear. In Season Five, after a period of aggressive expansion which culminates in Marlo seizing control of the Co-Op, a series of arrests and deaths destroy the organization. It is, arguably, the most violent and ruthless of the drug trade organizations portrayed in The Wire.