V.I.L.E.
Carmen Sandiego's criminal syndicate — the Villains' International League of Evil — and the antagonist organisation of every game.
V.I.L.E. stands for the Villains' International League of Evil, the worldwide crime ring led by Carmen Sandiego. Its operatives stage the thefts that drive every case: they steal landmarks, treasures, and pieces of cultural heritage, then scatter across the map for the player to chase.
In gameplay terms, V.I.L.E. is the pool of suspects. Each case assigns one of its members as the crook; the player tracks them city to city using witness clues and identifies them by their personal traits. Carmen, as the organisation's leader, is the hardest and last suspect a detective is assigned.
Across the series
The organisation is the connective tissue of the franchise. Its roster is reshuffled for each setting — geographic crooks in the World, USA, and Europe titles; time-travelling thieves in Where in Time and America's Past; and Carmen's "henchthings" in Where in Space. Against them stands the player's employer, the ACME Detective Agency.