Dwess was a male Rodian who worked as a spice merchant in Mos Eisley during the Galactic Civil War. He was a con man, offering to sell spice at a discounted rate to smugglers who could then sell the spice to any number of dealers. In reality he would take a good faith deposit, set up a meeting where the spice was to be delivered and the remainder of the payment made, and then take the deposit money and run. While Jabba Desilijic Tiure normally was quite harsh with those who sought to sell spice on Tatooine without working through him, he considered those scammed by Dwess much more useful hunting down the con man.