N-W-G (New World Gangsters)

N-W-G (New World Gangsters) focuses on confronting the drug epidemic exploiting low income communities around the world. The story follows the exploits of protagonist J.T. who as a preteen witnesses his parents murder at the hands of a crack drug kingpin, compelling him to seek the truth once he matures. As his father was a prominent well known marijuana dealer, J.T. inevitably follows in his fathers’ footsteps inheriting his business, reputation and legacy under the guidance of his uncle as he matures to adulthood. They run a tight crew and just as his fathers’ prominent reputation preceded him the kingpin eventually sees J.T. as a threat to his crack empire.

The circumstances of J.T.’s life change forever when he crosses paths with a hard-nosed judge who has a vision to stem the tide of what he sees as the systemic injustice represented by the school to prison pipeline of primarily young brown faces flooding his courtroom on a daily basis to be prosecuted. To that end he creates the N-W-G Learning Academy.
Teaching young people who haven’t become too entrenched in gang life yet, technical skills and creative arts training to help them become productive citizens on the academic side of the house, and to secretly conceal using the street savvy fighting skills of hardcore gangsters to secretly fight crime on the covert side of the house.

The judge’s profile for recruits are those who find themselves facing any ten plus year prison sentence as the sweet spot. Knowing if the recruit were to chance a trial will likely be found guilty he has little trouble convincing them to join his program of covert crime fighters. And, since the recruits know if they violate the terms of their contracts they will in all likelihood be tried and found guilty on their original charges as well as any violation, there is little incentive for them to violate the terms. Pitching that any seized assets of their criminal targets go to help self fund the program as well as rid the community of high value criminal targets the judge’s covert program has a high percentage success rate of approval.

The recruits work their way up the ladder to finally land on the elite sanctions list, (targeting ever bigger and badder criminals of all ilk, and/or social status), selected for sanction by the judge and his field proxy. J.T. and his crew find themselves in the judge’s sweet spot when a warehouse drug deal goes awry and are forced to eliminate a crew of Colombians sanctioned by the kingpin and his main distributor to eliminate J.T. and his crew. As the double cross ends in failure J.T.’s crew is snitched out as those responsible for a warehouse full of corpses. Meanwhile, a snitch reveals it was the kingpin and his distributor who set them up, and J.T. and his crew begin a mask clad covert war against their crack enterprises. Although, unaware who the masked assailants targeting their operations are, when J.T. in his search for answers is forced to kill the distributor’s younger brother during a card game dispute instigated by J.T., he wages a revenge war on J.T., causing irreparable harm to both sides. J.T.’s uncle becomes a casualty, and his pregnant singing star girlfriend a pawn in a plot to lure J.T. to his death.

Inevitably, their progress lands them on the elite sanctions list officially targeting the kingpin. Once he becomes an official target and things heat up, he enlists the help of corrupt political allies to help reveal who the mask clad newcomers targeting him are, uncovers the truth, and launches a political campaign to sabotage New World Gangsters. The judge is blindsided, and pulls his own political strings to uncover the source of the leak in insuring New World Gangsters will survive the apparent corruption.

In between his search for answers, J.T. keeps his crew on track cruising the streets in their black classic muscle cars racking up successful street crime interventions satisfying their program objectives, and moving them closer to their possible release from the program one day.

During operations, an inside op at the Kingpin’s mansion reveals to J.T. and his handler’s that it was the kingpin who killed J.T.’s parents, before he himself is found out and eliminated. Having finally arrived at the truth, when the time comes J.T. has to struggle with revenge, or follow orders and bring him in so they can follow the money to the top of the cocaine pipeline overseas testing his integrity to abide by the program rules. Displaying growth and constraint, and knowing this isn’t over yet if the memory of his parent’s will receive the justice they deserve, he chooses to follow the money and their next chapter sees them embark on their first international mission to capture or eliminate the Colombian cartel drug lord at his jungle compound. Feared by many, but loved by many more, the new mask clad N-W-G mystery saviors of their community are born. Predators find no sanctuary as they partner with international New World Gangster counterparts in countries around the world, searching out criminals from the bottom to the top bringing them to justice wherever in the world the trail may lead. Whoever, wherever, whatever it doesn’t matter, it’s on!

  • John Snell
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    102
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Coverfly Ranking

    March 15, 2023
    Coverfly Red List Top 20
  • WeScreenplay rating

    May 8, 2023
    WeScreenplay Top 8%
  • Page Turner Screenplays Genre Competition

    October 16, 2023
    Quarter Finalist
  • Page Turner Screenplays Genre Competition

    August 12, 2024
    Quarter Finalist
  • Santa Barbara Screenplay Awards Diverse Writers Outreach
    Santa Barbara, California
    October 18, 2025
    Quarter Finalist
Writer Biography - John Snell

I'm an Oakland, California native, retiree from telecommunications companies and an army veteran. When I was discharged from the army in 1982, coming home to the changes presented by the crack cocaine epidemic my idea for my screenplay first began to surface.

While attending acting school at the Jean Shelton School of Acting in San Francisco Ca., a classmate suggested I write a screenplay detailing my views on the affects of crack cocaine on the brown community. She gave me some material to get started, and after more research I did.

I primarily lean towards watching and writing action feature scripts. I'm also working on an action feature thriller that lands in the Action/Thriller/Sci/Fi genre. I am moved to write stories that shine light on social injustice told in an entertaining way, with an inference towards possible solutions.

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Writer Statement

As a brown man in America I have a front row seat at the table of social injustice in America, and feel I'm well suited to narrate a story targeting social injustice in America at a time when social injustice and hate in America are vying to rear their ugly heads more than ever. N-W-G (New World Gangsters) and the ensuing sequels is that story.

I continue to receive coverage, polish my scripts and enter competitions. I am a member of Stage 32 where I am learning written and verbal pitching, taking classes on giving and receiving notes, and various other classes and webinars to enhance my knowledge of the industry.

I have completed three action feature scripts titled "N-W-G (New World Gangsters)", "New World Gangsters 2 : Latin Tangle", and "N-W-G 3 : Rogue Force", all aligning in the vein of a new original Action feature film franchise targeting the many pressing social issues of our times.