Spice Cartel

The Spice Cartel was a criminal organization that controlled the spice trade from within the underworld of the planet Coruscant, capital of the Galactic Republic. The Pyke Syndicate was the main faction of the cartel that controlled the production of all illegal raw spice mined in the spice mines of Kessel. Several months before the Invasion of Naboo in the year 32 BBY, the Pykes' network of alliances and double-dealing had allowed them to almost completely control the production of raw spice used to create a powerful drug, creating a crisis within the Spice Cartel that threatened to destabilize the Coruscant underworld. 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.

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