Spice Cartel

"When I was chancellor, I sent [Sifo-Dyas] on a mission to deal with a flare-up in the Pyke Syndicate."
"The Pykes?"
"A powerful part of the Spice Cartel. Their criminal activities had allowed them to almost completely control the production of raw spice used to create a powerful drug. We were facing a full-scale war underneath the surface of Coruscant. Knowing of his expertise on the underworld, I contacted Master Sifo-Dyas to stabilize the problem."

―Finis Valorum and Yoda^[2]

The Spice Cartel was a criminal organization that controlled the spice trade from within the underworld of the planet Coruscant,^[1] capital of the Galactic Republic.^[3] The Pyke Syndicate was the main faction of the cartel^[4] that controlled the production of all illegal raw spice mined in the spice mines of Kessel. Several months before the Invasion of Naboo^[1] in the year 32 BBY,^[5] the Pykes' network of alliances and double-dealing^[1] had allowed them to almost completely control the production of raw spice used to create a powerful drug,^[2] creating a crisis within the Spice Cartel that threatened to destabilize the Coruscant underworld.^[1] Facing a full-scale war beneath the surface of the galactic capital, Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum sent Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, an expert on the criminal underworld, to stabilize the problem by negotiating with the Pyke Syndicate.^[2]

Behind the scenes

The Spice Cartel was first mentioned in "The Lost One,"^[2] the tenth episode of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars' sixth season,^[6] which originally aired in Germany on March 1, 2014.^[7]^[8]