The Catalan Markets

The Catalan markets are infamous throughout known space as a den of crime and a safe port for pirates and slavers.  It is an asteroid colony of immense proportions.  The founding of the colony was reportedly over 2,000 Terran years ago.  Svesh freebooters were running rampant through the spacelanes near their home world and they drew the ire of the Quarn Hegemony.  Quarn are more renowned for their mercantile nature than militancy, but when their interests are threatened they can be implacable foes.  Quarn anti-piracy patrols swept the Svesh from the space lanes, or so they thought.  Instead they merely caused them to band together, they established secret bases from which to prosecute a vendetta against the Quarn, the greatest of which was Catalan. 

Even at the height of the Terran Federation, Catalan existed outside
human space, and so little is known for sure besides the critical role
it plays in the interstellar slave trade.

Once their preparations were complete the Svesh, now united under a single leader, unleashed a calculated pattern of attacks that specifically targeted only Quarn hulls.  This drove insurance rates for Quarn cargo carriers so high that they were forced to abandon operations in the area and therefore withdrew their patrol ships as well.

After the elimination of the Quarn, their only organized resistance, the Svesh broke down into their former pattern of internecine conflict and uncoordinated piracy.  The Svesh factions with an interest on Catalan flourished at the expense of regional trade and prosperity.  Residents of the local frontier worlds live in constant fear of the sleek raiders that descend from the sky to loot and kidnap.  Often worlds that lack the capacity for self-defense come to an arrangement were they provide money and a smaller contingent of criminals and outcasts to a particular faction in return for protection from the others.

Needless to say, the reputation of Catalan as a place were anything can be had for the right price is in no danger, and its remote location and connection to the powerful Svesh cartels almost ensures that it will be a blight on interstellar commerce for a long time to come.