Why are there so many Junkers?

[Papa Oomaumau]

Or it just might be the fact that there are so few potential enemies for Junkers to have, that people just naturally want to trade on a faction that is less likely to be pirated.

Most Junkers smuggle.
For a REAL Junker, the Lawfuls ARE the pirates.
And there are more lawmen than pirates, by a long stretch.
So junkering is not without perils, unless you're doing it wrong.

Here's how it works - and it worked this way since long before Igiss retconned Junker Lore;
Junkers control the black market.
They do so under the "false front" of being scrappers - much the same way the NY Mafia hides behind shell companies like trash hauling and construction.
The pirates come to Junkers to offload their ill-gotten loot without questions.
The Junkers then haul that loot to the people who need it, hidden in loads of scrap that the law would rather not dig through.

So, that's a long way of asking Snak3 - why would criminals hunt Junkers? It should be the lawmen - but the veil of legitimacy hasn't broken -yet.
Liberty is trying to peek through it though

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