Chinese mobs and those fighting them focus on new Las Vegas

John L. Smith

As you've surely noticed, all roads lead to Las Vegas. Sooner or later, the celebrated and the anonymous, the famous and especially the infamous, find themselves sitting next to each other in a darkened lounge sipping cocktails and contemplating their next move.

Most of those moves are legal. Some are illegal. But in the shadows of new Las Vegas, the legitimate and illegitimate often mix and mingle and can be difficult to differentiate.

And so I had to smile when I learned that, of all the cities in all the world, starting Monday the Rio Las Vegas quietly will play host to the 8th International Conference on Chinese Organized Crime & Terrorism. Approximately 500 people from 16 countries, including some of the world's top Asian mob experts, are expected to attend.

The conference is closed to the public.

We are, after all, an international convention destination. But increasingly Las Vegas is also a favored crossroads for members and associates of Chinese organized crime to meet, party, and sometimes conduct business.

Some of those meetings make headlines. Most do not.

In January, law enforcement took down a Southern California-based organized crime crew known for specializing in home-invasion robberies and identity theft. Arrests were made in Clark and Los Angeles counties. Detectives and agents noted with interest the fact associates of separate organized crime groups had teamed up in pursuit of a score.

Nowhere is the specter of organized crime gaudier than in the local Asian massage parlor racket, which police authorities have proved is associated with prostitution and sex trafficking.

Nationally, multi-agency cases such as Operation Jade Blade and Operation Doll House have resulted in hundreds of arrests and the interruption of enormous prostitution rings that reached from China and Thailand to the shadow of Las Vegas Boulevard. In the sex trafficking cases, investigators commonly found teenage girls forced into prostitution and held against their will.

At Metro, no one has worked Chinese organized crime longer or more effectively than detective Jason Hahn of the Organized Crime Bureau and Criminal Intelligence section. In 24 years with the department, Hahn has spent 17 working organized crime cases and is a member of the Chinese Organized Crime Task Force that includes the FBI and Gaming Control Board.

"You will find Chinese organized crime everywhere," Hahn says. "From casinos to small businesses, Asian-owned restaurants, and even residences. There's casino cheating scams, identity theft, and bank fraud. It definitely affects small businesses, and credit card fraud and residences because of the home-invasion robberies that are occurring."

And on it goes.

When criminals trafficking in counterfeit currency known as "supernotes" went looking for a place to test their funny money, they came to Las Vegas. The FBI's supernotes investigation traced the counterfeit $100s from the loading docks of Long Beach, Calif., to a factory in North Korea.

When former Bank of China executives sought to conceal their $485 million fraud, they moved to Las Vegas. They were convicted along with their wives in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas in September 2009. Federal authorities found several million dollars in cash in Strip casino lock boxes.

Chinese and Eurasian organized crime cases have eclipsed traditional La Cosa Nostra investigations as a priority inside the FBI. And for good reason.

"This is why we need an international conference like this to share the information, networking, collaborating, and communicating within agencies," says Hahn, this year's conference co-chairman.

As if assembling solid criminal cases weren't challenging enough, Asian organized crime investigations are made complicated by cultural differences and language barriers. Hahn observes, "We have a lot of Asian victims of crimes who are still reluctant to come forward to law enforcement agencies out of a fear of retaliation from Chinese gangs."

In the shadows of the new Las Vegas, there's much at stake.