Almec

Almec is a recurring antagonist in Star Wars: The Clone Warsserving as a bigger bad of the second season and later as one of the major supporting antagonists of the fifth season. Born during the final years of the Galactic Republic, Almec served as Prime Minitser of Mandalore under the administration of Duchess Satine Kryze of the New Mandalorians during the Clone Wars. As the war progressed, Almec turned to the Black Market to smuggle in the needed goods to support Mandalore and was later imprisoned for his actions. Sometime alter, Satine was overthrown and Almec was reinstated as Prime Minister by Darth Maul and his Shadow Collective.

Mandalore's Neutrality
Almec was born on Mandalore at some point in time prior to the outbreak of the Clone Wars. He joined the New Mandalorian faction which ruled over the government of Mandalore and eventually rose to the rank of Prime Minister under Satine's administration as well as the head of the Council of Ministers of Mandalore's government. During the war, the Jedi Council had Obi-Wan Kenobi sent to Mandalore to investigate the rumor that Satine was secretly building up an army for the Confederacy of Independent Systems to which Almec refuted by saying that Mandalore had been neutral and would never turn its back on the Republic.

Kenobi was guided to meet Satine, an old friend of his, where he showed the two of them a hologram recording of an unidentified Mandalorian warrior who was responsible for leading an attack on a Republic cruiser before he ultimately commited suicide to avoid being taken into Republic custody. Almec stated that Mandalore had abandoned its warrior past and Satine informed Kenobi that all of Mandalore's warriors were exiled to the moon of Candordia, which was governed by Pre Vizsla at the time. After some time, it was revealed that Vizsla was the one leading the Death Watch, a Mandalorian splinter faction who was responsible for a series of terrorist attacks on Mandalore, and was bent on assassinating Satine and restoring Mandalore's warrior past.

Eventually, the revelation of Vizsla as the leader of Death Watch shocked Satine and forced her to travel to Coruscant where she was to make her case in the Galactic Senate that the Death Watch were only a fringe movement and didn't represent the needs of the Mandalorian people, thus making it unecessary to send Republic troops to occupy the planet. Almec remained on Mandalore during this time and was informed by a scout that the Death Watch were amassing an army and were planning a hostile takeover of Mandalore. While they both agreed that the Death Watch would need popular support to take over the planet, a Republic military occupation would make them liberators in the eyes of the people and all he could do was trust that Satine's efforts would prevent an occupation, which came true in the end.

Creating a Black Market
While Satine's actions kept Mandalore free from the horrors of the Clone Wars, it came at a cost as the planet was left without vital food and supplies that the Galactic Republic would normally supply them. As a result, Almec established a black market network that would smuggle in the needed supplies to Mandalore and ensure that all needed supplies came to the planet even without the Republic's aid. During this time, Senator Padme Amidala of Naboo was sent to Sundari to reassure the New Mandalorian government that the Senate would provide Mandalore the needed aid, when she and Kryze came across illegal smuggling and trade that acted as a replacement of the forme rRepublic aid and soon began endangering the lives of Mandalorian children. It was then revealed that Moogan smugglers were sneaking in a chemical known as slabin via inside tea with the intent to give poison to its customers. The issue was brought to Almec who blamed Death Watch for the actions and after the smuggling ring was busted, the issue of corruption in the Mandalorian government wsa brought up to Almec's office who vowed to create a committee to investigate such allegations.