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This promotional image, often given the caption, "All Hail the King," is representative of Walt establishing himself as an undisputed drug lord with absolute authority over the market.

"You asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither. I'm in the empire business."
Walter White to Jesse Pinkman.[src]


Walt's Drug Empire is an American drug business operation based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, founded by cancer patient and former chemistry teacher Walter White.

After the destruction of the Juarez Cartel and the collapse of Gus' Drug Empire (following the death of Fring at Walt's hands), Walter White decided to establish himself as the only major drug kingpin left in the Albuquerque area. However, Walter had been manufacturing and selling crystal methamphetamine for a period of time prior to the formal establishment of his "empire". After White's retirement from the business, his "empire" continued on without him, albeit in a highly fragmented and diluted organizational structure. Eventually, White returned to New Mexico, and destroyed what was left of his 'empire', killed all the remaining major players in it, and permanently dismantled the organization he once built and led.

History

Foundation

File:5x1-mike-walt-jesse.jpg

Walt and Jesse convince Mike to join their side in "Live Free or Die"

Walt and Jesse spent several weeks self-distributing before working with Tuco Salamanca and later Gus Fring in his drug empire.

In 2009, after Walter White had Gustavo Fring murdered, he pitched an idea of a three way partnership between himself, Jesse Pinkman and Gus' second-in-command at the time, Mike Ehrmantraut. Mike handles all business matters while Walt and Jesse handle the production of their signature Blue Sky. The lawyer Saul Goodman would continue to act as legal counsel. ("Madrigal")

Vamonos Pest Control

Without an RV or superlab to use as a cook site the group had to build a new meth lab. After investigating several options Walt decided for the group to build a mobile lab that would be built inside houses being bug bombed by Vamonos Pest Control, a cover company the three decided to purchase. They receive three huge stacks of cash—$367,000 each, the gross from their first 50-pound batch, but this steadily dwindles as Mike allocates cuts to the other parts of the operation. The "mules" (drivers) get a flat 20 percent, which elicits Walt’s first objection: “What did Gus pay his mules?” Mike explains that Gus didn’t need mules because he had his own distribution network of Pollos trucks ("Hazard Pay").

Jesse gets back the $120,000 he fronted the group. Ira, the owner of Vamonos Pest, gets $45,000 out of each share. Ira’s crew get $10,000 from each. Saul gets $18,000 from each. Walter is further enraged to learn that a portion of the proceeds from every cook would go to the Gus Fring's nine men in prison as hush money. With a final warning that Walt needs to make peace with these ongoing expenditures (including the methylamine, which would not be free next time), Mike leaves Walt to count his depleted stack of cash, which amounts to $137,000 ("Hazard Pay").

Train heist

File:5x3 Hazard Pay (08).jpg

Walt and Jesse in the mobile lab in "Hazard Pay"

After coming across issues getting methylamine, the group decided to rob a train of 1,000 gallons of methylamine and replace it with water. With the help of Todd Alquist, the men pulled off the heist but were witnessed by an innocent bystander who was shot and killed by Todd. ("Dead Freight") After the murder, Mike and Jesse decided to retire and sell their share of the methylamine to a rival organization in Arizona run by Declan. ("Buyout")

Rather than giving in to Mike and Jesse's plan, Walt decided rather to sell Mike's 34% share in the organization to Declan and would continue to cook his 99.1% pure blue meth, making everyone involved more money in the long run. Jesse, however, decided to leave without a penny because he was tired of the violence and terror. ("Say My Name")

Distribution

Setting up a moveable lab in houses tented for fumigation by Vamonos Pest, Walt and Todd would cook batch after batch of blue meth. While Todd drops meth off with Declan's driver to sell in Arizona, Lydia Rodarte-Quayle would label meth bag-filled oil drums in the Madrigal warehouse bound for Europe and then see that the barrels would be shipped overseas to be sold in the Czech Republic via Madrigal's shipping resources("Gliding Over All")

File:Gliding Over All.jpg

Walt and Skyler examine the empire's success in "Gliding Over All"

Success

After Mike Ehrmantraut was murdered by Walter White in a burst of rage, Walt decided to have Gus's ten former associates murdered in jail in order to eliminate any risks of them making a deal with the DEA. Since all former members of Gus' Drug Empire were dead and the DEA had lost the trail of Heisenberg, Walt and company enjoyed a three month period of prosperity, making tens of millions of dollars. When Skyler showed Walt the true extent of his success in the form of a giant pile of cash, he decided to end his involvement in the meth business, thus ending the empire. ("Gliding Over All")

Post-Heisenberg retirement

When Walt retired from the meth business Declan took over control of the operation, and partnered with Lydia. He initially worked with Todd for two cooks but returned to his previous cook after Todd accidentally started a fire during his third cook. Lydia, upset with the poor quality, tried to get Walt back to cooking but Walt refused. ("Buried")

After that Lydia tried to convince Declan to give Todd another chance but Declan refused. Lydia then had Todd and his uncle's gang take out Declan's crew and take over control of the meth operation. ("Buried")

With Declan out of the way Lydia took charge of the empire and had Todd and Jack's White Supremacist Gang take the meth cooking operation back to New Mexico. ("Confessions")

Following Hank and Gomez's deaths at the hands of the gang, Walt fled New Mexico and Jesse Pinkman was taken prisoner by the gang and forced to cook for them. Pinkman's meth was of a dramatically higher quality than Todd's and for many months, business continued as before, with the white supremacists selling Blue Sky in the Southwest and Lydia selling it to her buyers in the Czech Republic. ("Ozymandias") ("Granite State")

Destruction

After several months in hiding, Walt returned to Albuquerque to destroy the empire he had once built. He interrupted Lydia and Todd's regular meeting, under the auspices of pitching them a new meth cooking process that did not require methylamine. Lydia and Todd agreed that Walt should meet with the white supremacist gang that night. During their meeting, Walt had slipped ricin into Lydia's Stevia packet that she then poured into her own tea. Later, Walt launched an assault on the Nazi compound with a remote-controlled M60 machine gun. He saved Jesse Pinkman from the gunfire, but in the process was shot himself. Shortly after the M60 ran out of bullets, Jesse broke Todd's neck with his own chains, and Walt executed Jack with a single gunshot to the head. When Todd's phone rang, Lydia was surprised to hear Walt's voice on the other end. He informed her he had poisoned her with the ricin and said goodbye.  Jesse drove off into the night and Walter died from his gunshot wound in the Nazi compound lab, which was built from his old empire's equipment. Thus, all the remaining figures in the empire, on both the manufacturing and distribution sides, had died, with the exception of Jesse. ("Felina")

Empire figures

File:5x5 Dead Freight (05).jpg

Mike, Jesse, and Walt in "Dead Freight"

Partners

Management & Finance

Hazard Pay (08)

The Vamonos crew in "Hazard Pay"

Enforcement

File:5x8 Gliding Over All (04).jpg

Walt and Jack in "Gliding Over All"

  • Jack Welker, white supremacist gang leader
    • Todd Alquist, employed as Vamonos Pest Control fumigator, Walt's second assistant and later the primary cook
    • Kenny, white supremacist gang member
    • Frankie, white supremacist gang member
    • Lester, white supremacist gang member
    • Matt, white supremacist gang member

Employees

Distribution

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Jesse and Lydia in "Fifty-One"

  • Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, supplier of methylamine, manager of the distribution of the Blue Sky overseas to the Czech Republic and third boss
  • Declan, manager of the distribution of Blue Sky in Phoenix, Arizona and second boss

Empire's Victims

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