Zerek Besh

Around 3 ABY, Director Sliro Barsha established the covert intelligence network Zerek Besh as part of the Imperial Security Bureau. This undercover division rapidly evolved into one of the most significant crime families in the galaxy during the reign of the Galactic Empire. While Barsha essentially ran Zerek Besh as his personal criminal fiefdom, his loyalty to the Empire remained unwavering, and he was committed to hunting down the Alliance to Restore the Republic, believing his initiative would secure victory in the Galactic Civil War. Operating from within the criminal underbelly, Zerek Besh actively sought out Alliance agents and successfully extracted intelligence from various syndicates.

Following the Hutt Clan's attacked on the Executor, Darth Vader's flagship, sometime between 3 ABY and 4 ABY, Crimson Dawn approached Zerek Besh. Crimson Dawn asserted that Emperor Palpatine desired an end to the Empire's alliance with the Hutts due to their attack, and that Zerek Besh could gain Palpatine's favor and establish a partnership with the Empire. Accepting this proposition, Zerek Besh engaged in the Syndicate War against the Hutt Clan, Droid Gotra, Pyke Syndicate, and Black Sun. Subsequently, a contact within Zerek Besh informed Barsha that Crimson Dawn had fabricated the entire story.

Later that year, Zerek Besh unwittingly apprehended a rebel, Asara Deyn, who was attempting to infiltrate Westhill Palace. Barsha, however, mistook him for a spy from a rival syndicate. Consequently, he invited emissaries from the Hutt Cartel, Crimson Dawn, and the Pyke Syndicate to a dinner, where he accused and then executed them all. A rebel cell, led by Dennion, then launched a rescue operation to free Deyn, inadvertently leaving behind their hired Cantonican thief, Kay Vess. Barsha, assuming her connection to the Rebel Alliance, attempted to interrogate her, but she managed to escape Westhill Palace aboard his personal freighter, the Trailblazer. This prompted him to place a death mark on the thief, which was subsequently picked up by the bounty hunter Vail Tormin.

Waka later tipped off Zerek Besh that Vess was on Toshara, leading them to pursue her into the wreckage of the Castellan. Vess eliminated the initial team before being held at blasterpoint. The Zerek Besh agent was determined to kill her to claim the Trailblazer, only for Tormin to intervene and kill him instead. Vess escaped by triggering the reactor of the unstable wreck, and, despite the efforts of other Zerek Besh agents, made it out with the aid of BX-series droid commando ND-5. Subsequently, Barsha's brother, Jaylen Vrax, recruited Vess to attempt another heist of Westhill Palace, supposedly to steal 157 million credits worth of unmarked beskar ingots to pay off her death mark. However, Vrax's true objective was Sliro's Codex, which contained blackmail information on his fellow Imperials.

Jabba Desilijic Tiure eventually discovered a Zerek Besh mole within his organization and manipulated Vess and Tormin into cooperating to infiltrate Fort Sunfire to identify the mole. During the infiltration, Tormin encountered a Zerek Besh agent in the base and confronted him. Unaware of Zerek Besh's true allegiance, Tormin attempted to question why the agent was working with the Empire but was rebuffed, forcing her to kill him. Simultaneously, Vess extracted the mole's identity from the base's computers before she and Tormin made a dramatic escape from Fort Sunfire. Afterward, Tormin allowed her bounty a head start. Barsha later met with Bib Fortuna, revealing that he had anticipated his mole's discovery and offered to assist Fortuna in seizing Jabba's throne in exchange for information on Vess.

On Akiva, a male Human Zerek Besh bounty hunter traveled there to interrogate Temmin Wexley about Vess's location, only for his target, accompanied by ND-5 and Gedeek Obaz, to enter Temmin's shop. A Zerek Besh agent pursued the group into the droid factory beneath the shop, but Vess killed all the agents before they could discover the rebel Kivo Base. Vess later collaborated with the cell's leader, Asara Deyn, to rescue rebel prisoners captured by the Hutts before the Empire could purchase them. Zerek Besh dispatched a squad in the Empire's place, but all their agents were killed in the ensuing confrontation, leaving Vess puzzled by the syndicate's presence instead of the Empire.

Barsha later visited an ISB station to receive an update on Tormin's pursuit of Vess. After revealing his knowledge of her fortune on Niamos to discourage her from abandoning her assignment, Barsha was confronted by Darth Vader, who conveyed the Emperor's dissatisfaction with Zerek Besh, branding both the syndicate and its director as failures. Barsha attempted to defend Zerek Besh, arguing that they had successfully infiltrated the underworld and achieved more in weeks than the Imperial Army, reminding Vader of their failure to stop the rebel fleet at Hoth. However, Vader quickly lost patience with Barsha's posturing and threatened him to capture some rebels to prove his worth. Kay Vess, who had infiltrated the station with her mother Riko to steal Barsha's passcodes, witnessed the confrontation, leading them to uncover Zerek Besh's true nature.

Despite the thieves copying Barsha's passcodes and covering their tracks, Zerek Besh anticipated another heist on Westhill Palace. Despite their heightened security measures, Vess's crew managed to reach the vault and eliminate two waves of agents sent after them. Barsha, accompanied by Tormin, confronted Vess and ordered his bounty hunter to eliminate her, only for Tormin to betray him in exchange for a share of Vess's score, killing his agents and knocking him unconscious. The crew then escaped into the sewers and into the Canto Casino. Zerek Besh evacuated the civilians from the casino and attempted to prevent Vess's crew from escaping with Sliro's Codex but failed.

Later, Vrax contacted the Sith Lord Darth Vader, requesting control of Zerek Besh and the authority to do as he pleased with his brother. Vrax hoped to seize the empire his brother had built after his actions had cost their family a fortune following the Clone Wars. In exchange for the syndicate and Barsha, Vrax offered the Empire the location of a rebel base on Akiva and the return of sensitive information Barsha had lost. Vader agreed to Vrax's terms, and Vrax promptly executed his brother using ND-5, only for his own droid to kill him soon after Vess removed its restraining bolt. Nevertheless, the syndicate survived the deaths of both brothers and came under the control of a new leader. Months after the Syndicate War had started, the criminal organizations involved in the war were contacted by Palpatine, who informed them that they had been lied to by Crimson Dawn. He then instructed the groups to stop fighting each other, and instead turn their attention to fighting Crimson Dawn and its leader, Lady Qi'ra. The Emperor then informed them that whichever of the criminal organizations brought him her corpse would rise high in his estimations.