Aggressors may deliberately recruit, bribe, or ideologically motivate ordinary members of the local population, marginalized groups, and criminal elements to create a covert network of loyal operatives in the target territory. Forming a controlled agent network, including provocateurs, street militants, informers, and saboteurs, allows the colonizer to organize artificial mass riots, exert physical pressure on civilian activists, gather intelligence, and destabilize the socio-political situation within the colonized society before the start of an open intervention.