Sunday, August 30, 2015

Chinese Triads and gangs

Chinese Triads and gangs


GangstersInc - September 29, 2006 02:46 PM (GMT)
Vietnamese gang in big Ecstasy bust

The Feds yesterday nabbed 19 members of a Vietnamese gang that smuggled more than $5 million worth of Ecstasy through Canada to New York streets.

The suspects were picked up in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Canada after an 18-month investigation - called Operation Triple Play - led to the seizure of 50,000 Ecstasy pills stamped "Versace," "Louis Vuitton" and "6-point star."

The drugs were stashed at self-storage facilities in New Jersey, in night clubs and a brothel in Queens, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.

The feds and NYPD teamed on the probe.

Thomas Zambito

Originally published on September 29, 2006

Nav - October 29, 2006 05:52 AM (GMT)
Mafia-style gang leader sentenced to death in Shanghai
October 25, 2006

The leader of a 20-member organized crime gang in China's business hub of Shanghai, Li Bin, has been sentenced to death.

According to a ruling handed down Tuesday by the No.2 Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai, Li was found guilty of drugs trafficking, masterminding an organized crime ring, assault and the illegal possession of weapons. He was stripped of his political rights for life and all of his property.

Other members of the organized crime ring were also given jail terms ranging from one year and three months to life.

The court was told that Li had already served six different prison sentences. His previous crimes included a string of thefts and possession of counterfeit money.

After his release from the prison in May 2001, Li made a fortune through drug dealing and an underground gambling business.

In early 2004, Li seized control of an entertainment business in Baoshan, a suburb of Shanghai, where he encouraged gambling and formed a mafia-style crime ring by hiring unemployed people and ex-convicts.

At Li's orders, the crime ring committed a range of violent acts and even clashed with the police between early 2004 and May 2005.

The court also said Li trafficked more than 1.16 kg of ecstasy, 0.36 kg of methamphetamine and more than 8 kg of the drug commonly known as 'ice' between 2003 and May 2005.

Li and some of the other convicted gang members, plan to appeal to a higher court.

Source: Xinhua

Hollander - November 8, 2006 12:32 PM (GMT)
Chinese police tackle 'rural mafia'

Mon Nov 6, 10:49 PM ET


BEIJING (AFP) - More Chinese police officers will be dispatched to rural areas amid government calls to crack down on mafia-style crime in the countryside, state media has reported. 

More than 30,000 new police stations were built in rural regions as part of an effort to spread police officers more effectively across the vast country, Xinhua news agency said.

The announcement of the intensified effort in the countryside came as the government's top leader in charge of public security issued a call to crack down on crime in rural areas.

Rural police should especially pay attention to the threat posed by "mafia-like evil forces", said Luo Gan, from the powerful nine-member standing committee of the Communist Party's political bureau.

He was not quoted as specifying what he meant by Chinese mafia. However, organized crime in the countryside is typically based on clan and family networks.

Luo, the top leader most intimately associated with police work, issued the call at a national meeting of officials discussing ways to improve public security, according to Xinhua.

The pledge to do more to fight rural crime came as Xinhua published statistics showing police investigated 3.3 million criminal cases in the first nine months of the year, down 1.2 percent from the same period in 2005.

Also in the first nine months, police recorded 17,900 incidents "involving mass participation" -- official terminology for protests, riots and clashes, typically over land rights -- down 22 percent from last year.


Macau beats Vegas to be world's favourite flutter
The East's glittering new betting palaces are attracting millions of players. Nevada seems isolated in comparison
By David Eimer in Beijing
Published: 05 November 2006
When US billionaire Steve Wynn opened the latest addition to his casino empire in Macau in September, he made sure the residents of the former Portuguese colony in southern China got a show they wouldn't forget in a hurry. A massive fireworks display erupted around the Wynn Macau hotel and casino on the stroke of midnight, while Frank Sinatra's "Luck Be A Lady" boomed out across the man-made lake in the front of the luxury resort.

Wynn, who is credited with pioneering the transformation of Las Vegas from a seedy haunt of gamblers and mafia-types into an all-American family destination, won't have to wait long to see a profit on his £628m Macau investment. Last week, the tiny territory overtook Las Vegas as the world's top gambling destination. Macau's 23 casinos generated £301.8m in revenue in September, £10.4m more than Las Vegas's 30 casinos, according to leisure industry consultants Globalysis.

Hollander - November 22, 2006 01:06 PM (GMT)
Feds raid human trafficking ring

By Rocky Mountain News
November 22, 2006
Federal authorities arrested three people Tuesday in connection with what they believe is an international human trafficking and prostitution ring that operated out of a home in Highlands Ranch, CBS 4 News reported.
Citing unnamed law enforcement sources, CBS 4 News said the raid disrupted the ring that allegedly has imported hundreds of Korean women into the United States and forced them into prostitution as a means to pay off their debts.

The women were charged up to $18,000 to get into the country, according to CBS 4 News reporter Brian Maass.

A spokeswoman for the FBI's Denver office declined to comment on the report.

According to CBS 4 News, federal agents had the Highlands Ranch home under surveillance for several months and routinely checked the trash.

The station reported dozens of the women were working throughout the metro area, advertising on adult Web sites and through word of mouth.

Hollander - December 21, 2006 10:48 AM (GMT)
'Chinese Triads’ in Kidnap for Ransom Scam

Chinese triads are involved in a kidnap scam in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam area, police say. Based on evidence that a bank account used in one of the cases is the same as one used in a tax demand scam, police suspect that Sanhehui or Chinese triads are behind both. The National Intelligence Service earlier warned overseas mobsters are making inroads in Korea.

Police said a man identified as Chung (45) from Samseong-dong, Seoul received phone call on Thursday demanding W10 million (US$1=W927) in ransom for his son. Chung said he did not have that much but paid W5 million into the specified bank account. Some 18 minutes later, the money was withdrawn at a bank branch in Seoul. By then, Chung had established that his son had not in fact been abducted and was fine and immediately asked the bank to suspend the withdrawal, so the hoaxers came away with only W2.8 million. The phone number left on Chung's mobile phone was from China, and the bank account used was held by a Korean.

Investigations revealed that it was one of 27 a Taiwanese tour guide identified as Chang had bought from their Korean owners for W70,000 each. Chang sold the accounts for W400,000 each to three other Taiwanese, who withdrew money at the orders of a Taiwanese who was in China at the time of the incident, police say. The tour guide and a Korean man identified as Kim (40) have been arrested. Police are also questioning three other Taiwanese suspects. Police believe that the man in China hired a Korean speaker to make the call to Chung and have asked Chinese police to cooperate. Police say some 31 such kidnap hoaxes were reported across Korea.

Police are investigating whether triads were involved since the scam resembles another thought to involve the Chinese mafia. In that scam, victims would receive phone calls from China from individuals who identified themselves as National Tax Service and National Health Insurance officials, who would demand victims pay outstanding taxes or insurance contribution into a bank account. That money too was instantly withdrawn from an ATM. Police have arrested four Chinese suspects in the scam. An officer says Taiwan saw a spate of similar cases 10 years ago. "It seems they’re now targeting Korea since it’s easy to set up bank accounts here and withdrawal limits are high,” the officer said.

A report by the NIS submitted to the National Assembly in October says 27 foreign gangs operate here, among them seven Chinese gangs including Fujian Sanchehui. "They’re hard to catch as they operate in a highly dispersed way, hide their true identities by using bank accounts set up in the name of others and operate primarily from China," a police officer said.


url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0612190014.html

Hollander - January 31, 2007 11:23 AM (GMT)
Beijing to Coopearate on Chinese Crime Investigations in Korea

A wave of crime attributed to Chinese criminals here has brought Chinese police to Korea. Four Chinese police officers including Zhou Tao from China's Ministry of Justice arrived in Jeju International Airport Tuesday. The officers are part of a joint investigation into a number of crimes committed by Chinese people in Korea, including fraud and murder.
They will first meet with the Jeju Provincial Police Agency to investigate several phone fraud cases that occurred on Jeju Island recently. On or about Feb. 2 the Chinese officers will travel to Seoul to meet with the National Police Agency to discuss cooperative action.
Ÿ Chinese Crime Syndicates Advancing into Korea
Crimes by Chinese in Korea have taken a turn for the serious. Not only has the number of crimes soared, the types and methods have become both more dangerous and more stealthy. Previously, Chinese residents arrested here were usually accused of forging documents for fake marriages, but lately Chinese criminals have been involved in felonies like murder and drug trafficking.
The suspect in the Ansan murder on Jan. 24 in which a female body was found in a subway toilet is a Chinese man in his 30s. An automatic response system (ARS) phone fraud that late last year deceived people by faking calls from prosecutors or the National Tax Service was perpetrated by a crime syndicate of six Taiwanese and one Chinese nationals.
While investigating the ARS fraud, the National Police Agency learned that the suspects were members of the United Bamboo Gang, Taiwan's largest crime syndicate. Another ARS fraud detected last November was also reportedly committed by the Triad in China, one of three major crime syndicates in the world.
Drug smuggling from China has also emerged as serious issue. It is estimated that over 90 percent of methamphetamines circulating in Korea are from China. According to the prosecutor's office, Chinese nationals made up 7,040 foreign criminals caught in 2005, representing more than half the 13,584 foreign criminals, a three-fold growth from 1,980 in just five years.
The numbers of Chinese criminals caught by Korean police are also on the rise. Between January and July last year, 5,698 Chinese criminals were arrested by Korean police, accounting for 70% of the 8,131 foreign criminals caught.
Police say that growing trade and travel relations between Korea and China are behind the rising numbers of Chinese criminals here. In particular, Chinese-Koreans fluent both in both languages and cultures are often implicated.
Ÿ Strengthened Cooperation between Korea and China
Since the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance between Korea and China became effective in March 2000, there have been only 46 cases of request for mutual legal assistance between the two nations. Most of them, 43, were made by Korean police. The prosecutor's office believes that with such a low level of cooperation, it is virtually impossible to seriously address an increasingly global and intelligent criminal problem.
In a police seminar on how to render mutual legal assistance between the countries held Tuesday at Kyunghee University, Han Seok-ri, a prosecutor from the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office, suggested expanding cooperation beyond the Chinese judiciary to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the highest agency at the national level responsible for prosecution in China.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Hollander - February 3, 2007 12:34 PM (GMT)
DEA: Wide-ranging drug ring busted
By O’Ryan Johnson
Saturday, February 3, 2007

Federal authorities said they seized 85,000 tablets of ecstasy and 100 pounds of marijuana when they dismantled what they described as an international drug ring with tentacles that reached north to Canada and across the Pacific to Vietnam.

Twenty-three defendants - all Vietnamese or Vietnamese Americans from Dorchester, Quincy, and Randolph - are accused of orchestrating the operation, distributing the drugs and laundering thousands in cash. Nineteen of them were arrested in a sweep Thursday and yesterday by federal agents. Arraignments are set for Monday.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating the operation for the past 15 months though surveillance, undercover purchases and “trash pulls” - or garbage searches.

All of the ecstasy and some of the greenhouse-grown marijuana came from Canada, agents said, and hundreds of pounds of marijuana were moved into the United States each week. The ring transferred the money it reaped in the United States to Canada and Vietnam.

Federal prosecutors now want the defendants to turn over hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and land purchases. The ring had more than $150,000 in Bank of America accounts, $16,000 in money orders and three pieces of property, one in Dorchester and two in New York state,federal court documents state.

Hollander - February 5, 2007 11:12 AM (GMT)
Bodies found in German restaurant
The bodies of six people - three men and three women - have been found in a Chinese restaurant in the town of Sittensen, in northern Germany.
German police say the victims had been shot dead and some had been tied up.

Police were alerted by the husband of one victim, who had gone to the Lin Yue restaurant to collect his wife.

A restaurant worker, critically wounded in the shooting, is now in hospital. Police say the victims have not yet been identified.

But a police spokesman said they were "in all probability Asian". There has been no official word on a possible motive.

The bodies were found on Sunday evening in several rooms in the restaurant, police said.

They appealed for anyone who visited the restaurant or passed by on Sunday to come forward with information.

Sittensen is a town situated south of Hamburg, in the state of Lower Saxony.

GangstersInc - February 5, 2007 07:28 PM (GMT)
Added a profile of 14K Triad leader Wan Kuok-koi to the site:
http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/BrokenTooth.html

Hollander - February 16, 2007 12:44 PM (GMT)
Ex-employee suspected in restaurant massacre
15 February 2007

Sittensen, Germany (dpa) - An ex-employee has come under suspicion as German police pursue an inquiry into the grisly shooting deaths of seven people at a Chinese restaurant in the peaceful small town of Sittensen, the weekly magazine Stern said Wednesday.

The ethnic Chinese owners of the Lin Yue restaurant, Danny Wing Hong Fan, 36, who lived in Glasgow, Scotland most of his life, and his Berlin-born wife Annie, 28, were buried Wednesday in the German city of Hanover.

A cemetery spokesman said family requested the media and general public to leave them alone in their grief. The British Foreign Office has confirmed both were British citizens. Their 2-year-old daughter survived the attack unharmed.

Staff hailing from Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were also slaughtered in the February 4 bloodbath. German police arrested two Vietnamese nationals the following day on suspicion of murder.

The website of the weekly magazine Stern said the latest suspect was a man who had been employed at the Lin Yue until about six months ago. His mobile-phone number was found on a piece of paper in the car used by the first two suspects.

Those men, picked up in a rental car on a country road, were carrying about 5,000 euros (6,500 dollars) in cash, the weekly said.

Police refused all comment.

"We are continuing this inquiry round the clock," said Frank Federau, spokesman for the Lower Saxony criminal investigation department, declining to disclose any findings so far.

Stern said the two Vietnamese under arrest, aged 31 and 33, had alibis, having been in a gaming parlour in the city of Bremen, south-west of Sittensen, on the night of the crime. Federau declined comment on this.

"There is a compelling suspicion. Nothing has changed," he said.

DPA

Hollander - May 8, 2007 09:40 AM (GMT)
South China Morning Post
May 2, 2007 Wednesday

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8

LENGTH: 443 words


HEADLINE: Anti-triad war targets officials who shield crooks

BYLINE: Ng Tze-wei

BODY:

Mainland prosecutors are determined to eliminate triads by removing their "protective shields" - the officials who collaborate with and shelter the criminal gangs, the People's Daily reported yesterday.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced at an anti-triad conference at the weekend that in the 12 months to April 1 prosecutors had investigated 54 cases of protection given to triads. In all, 62 public servants were investigated and 29 prosecuted.

"The success in removing protective shields will determine how far our fight against triads can go and demonstrate whether the procuratorates are fulfilling their legal responsibility," vice-chief procurator Zhang Geng told the conference.

Since a national initiative was launched in February last year to step up the fight against triads, about 17,600 people have been arrested and 10,100 prosecuted. The Supreme People's Procuratorate and all of its provincial counterparts have set up anti-triad offices to carry out the mission.

But the crackdown on protective shields has been highlighted as the most important measure of all.

"Once we have started investigating, we shall investigate to the end. No matter who is implicated, we must continue to investigate and never give in," Mr Zhang said.

Last month, Xu Xiaogang , a former vice-director of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Jiangxi province , was jailed for life for gun possession and taking about 5 million yuan in bribes.

The court said Xu had provided favours for suspected criminals between 1997 and 2005 in return for bribes.

Later, CCTV aired footage of a huge gambling ring involving tens of thousands of people betting in public in a city in Hunan province , saying that the protective shield was more frightening than the underground gambling ring.

The national anti-triads office said last week that since the initiative came into operation last year, 400 triad cases had been investigated and 3,000 triad groups busted.

Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang said the fight against triads would be important in creating a healthy social environment for the 17th Communist Party Congress this year and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"Our country's triads are still very active, and the fight against them has come to a critical stage. It is going to be a long-term mission," Mr Zhou said.

According to the PSB, the tentacles of mainland triads extends mainly to businesses in construction, transport, wholesaling, entertainment and, increasingly, mining and energy.

Last year the bureau said it used to be common for some local governments to refuse to admit that triads were operating in their jurisdictions, for fear of scaring away investors.

LOAD-DATE: May 1, 2007

Nav - June 14, 2007 01:47 PM (GMT)
Five persons arrested in anti-vice operation

Police today (June 11) arrested one man and four women in various locations across the territory in an anti-vice operation codenamed "Bayshelter". Acting on intelligence gathered, the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) conducted an operation against a number of local vice syndicates suspected of luring local girls to provide sex services in overseas countries since the end of 2006.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Police today ( June 11 ) arrested one man and four women in various locations across the territory in an anti-vice operation codenamed "Bayshelter".

Acting on intelligence gathered, the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau ( OCTB ) conducted an operation against a number of local vice syndicates suspected of luring local girls to provide sex services in overseas countries since the end of 2006.

Following extensive investigations, Police identified six local vice syndicates believed to have close connection with a number of overseas vice syndicates. The local syndicates were suspected of arranging local girls for prostitution in various countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada. Investigation revealed that the Hong Kong syndicates had arranged accommodation and work places for the women and earned profits by charging handling fees to their overseas counterparts.

Australian Police, acting on intelligence provided by the OCTB, arrested a Hong Kong couple in Melbourne in an operation last week. The duo was suspected of luring and threatening Hong Kong girls to provide sex service in Australia. They have been charged by Australian Police with slavery offences and brought before the court.

Meanwhile, the OCTB operation turned overt today, resulting in the arrest of a man and four women aged between 35 and 45 in various locations across Hong Kong. They were arrested in connection with trafficking in persons from Hong Kong for sexual purpose. A number of exhibits including air tickets, documents and photo albums were also seized during the operation.

All arrestees will be detained overnight for enquiries. Investigations by OCTB are still ongoing.

Hollander - June 22, 2007 09:56 AM (GMT)
China sentences 14 gang members to death
June 22, 2007 - 2:09PMA Chinese court has sentenced 14 gang members to death for murder and other violent crimes, while another four received life imprisonment, state media says.

The Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court in the northern province of Hebei on Thursday handed down the sentence, one of the harshest in the country's recent history, Xinhua news agency said.

Ringleader Zhang Baoyi and his accomplices were convicted of 19 types of crimes, including running a gang, murder, mayhem, robbery and extortion, Xinhua said.

They had also been engaged in the gun trade and group fighting in public places, it said.

Four of the 14 death sentences would be suspended for two years, which could be normally commuted to life imprisonment on condition of good behaviour.

Several other members of the gang also received fixed jail terms, Xinhua said.

The gang controlled freight truck shipping lines from the provincial capital Shijiazhuang to nearby cities using violence as it forcibly raised fees.

Organised crimes have been on the rise in the country since market reforms started in the 1980s and local governments have been increasingly infiltrated by gangs as corruption becomes rampant.

Last year, a court in the central province of Hunan sentenced 11 members of a local gang to death - four suspended - for 23 crimes including murder, mayhem and drug trafficking spanning more than a decade.

Seven others were jailed for life and a total of 97 members stood trial. The scale of the trial forced the court in Loudi city to use a stadium to announce the rulings.

Hollander - July 11, 2007 10:32 AM (GMT)
Killer of HK tycoon sentenced to death
By Jonathan Yeung (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-11 06:51


Six of the eight people charged with the murder of Hong Kong millionaire Lam Hon-lit were found guilty yesterday at Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, a defense lawyer for the case said.

"According to the first trial verdict made by the court, hired assassins Yang Wen and Zhang Zhixin were sentenced to death and 13 years in prison, respectively. The alleged masterminds of the murder, Yeung Ka-on, Tse Bing and Lau Yat-yin were sentenced to life imprisonment," Wang Limin, Yang's defense lawyer, said.

"Wu Weiwu, Yang's former army colleague who was accused of providing shelter for Yang, was sentenced to three years in prison, while Yeung's nephew Ho Haw-foo and his driver Tsui Ming-yeung were found not guilty," Wang said.

"Overall the verdict is fair and the results are satisfactory," he said.

"Yang is the person who directly killed Lam, so the death sentence is fair."

As for Yeung, Tse and Lau, Wang said the life sentences were also fair.

"The three of them, especially Yeung, were the masterminds behind the murder but because they were not the ones who directly caused Lam's death it is understandable that instead of the death penalty they were given life sentences," Wang said.

Some of Wang's peers had previously said Yeung should also be given the death sentence.

Wang told China Daily he would soon go to speak with Yang at the Shenzhen detention center.

"We will find out whether Yang wants to make an appeal to the court," he said. "If any of them pleads not guilty in the next 10 days the court will have to proceed to a second trial."

He described the next 10 days as "critical for the case".

Fifty-four-year-old Lam, then director of Hong Kong-based Digger Holdings and an investor in Shenzhen's Mission Hills Golf Club, was murdered on November 30, 2002, with a single bullet to the head while at the Luk Yu Teahouse in Hong Kong's Central district.

His killer was 27-year-old Yang Wen, a native of Hunan Province, who was aided by his 22-year-old accomplice, Zhang.

A police investigation found that Yeung, then chairman of a Hong Kong business group and former actor in the popular TV kung fu drama series Huo Yuanjia, was "the man who wanted Lam dead", and so hired 47-year-old Lau Yat-yin to kill him.

Police said Lau, who is the former head of Hong Kong's "Hunan Gangsters", then gave HK$2 million ($256,000) and a picture of Lam to 47-year-old Tse Bing, his former subordinate, and asked him to "find people" to kill Lam.

Tse, who is also from Hong Kong, later hired Yang and Zhang in Shenzhen, paying them HK$400,000 to travel to Hong Kong to kill Lam, police said.

Lam's murder made headlines on both the mainland and in Hong Kong.

The two police forces worked together to apprehend the suspects, which they succeeded in doing at the end of 2005.

Media from the mainland and Hong Kong were refused entry to the courthouse yesterday for security reasons.


(China Daily 07/11/2007 page5)

Hollander - July 20, 2007 01:03 AM (GMT)
Faces In The News
Triad-Style Attacks On Tycoon's Interests Roil Hong Kong
Shu-Ching Jean Chen, 07.06.07, 3:24 AM ET

HONG KONG - Every now and then, Hong Kong residents are reminded of the existence of a parallel society usually seen only in the crime movies the former British colony is so adept at producing.

A series of unusual gangland-style attacks have been made over the last few days on properties of New World Group, the business empire of billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, a patriotic tycoon with connections to top leadership in Beijing whose fortune is estimated at $6.5 billion by Forbes.

On July 4, 16 stores in the CSL New World cellular chain were sprayed with red paint in the wee hours of the morning, a typical warning sign from Hong Kong criminal syndicates, known as triads, against targeted victims. At about the same time, a sedan rammed into the front door of New World’s Renaissance Hotel in the tourist district of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon.

At about the same time the next day, a van carrying seven gangsters slammed into the back entrance to New World’s headquarters in the central business district, followed a few minutes later by a vehicle, also with seven gangsters aboard, ramming into the front door of JW Marriott Hotel. That hotel does not belong to New World, but was reportedly wrongly identified as an affiliate because it is run by the same hotel management company that handles New World properties.

There were no blackmail notices, as are common in such cases, prompting speculations that the attacks were motivated by business disputes with the entire group, rather than with any individual.

Hong Kong’s security chief described the attacks as a direct challenge to the government and the police. The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau has set up a special task force to investigate. Cheng, who is ranked 113th on Forbes' global rich list, was said to be under the protection of the elite unit.

The case is being viewed with particular alarm as it comes just days after Hong Kong celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.

While the motives and mastermind behind the attacks are unknown, Hong Kong’s Mingpao daily said the 82-year-old Cheng, despite his deep connections in Beijing, is embroiled in at least three legal disputes, all involving ill-fated forays on the mainland.

The violence also took place in the middle of a 2.36 billion Hong Kong dollar ($302 million) IPO of the group’s mainland retailing spin off, New World Department Store China. Trading is slated to begin July 12.

New World won a lawsuit in a Santa Clara court at the end of 2006 for 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($705 million) in damages from American joint venture partner, Predi-Wave, for a failed interactive television venture in China.

New World is also pursuing a refund from an unnamed Chinese joint venture partner of a 2 billion Hong Kong dollar ($256 million) investment in a fiber-optics cable project. The venture failed to get off the ground due to restrictions by Beijing against outside investment in the national fiber optics networks, deemed an area vital to national security.

To top it all, Cheng himself has filed a fraud case in a Beijing Court for more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.64 million) involving a 45-year-old self-proclaimed god-daughter of a top People’s Liberation Army general who skimmed money from New World and other Hong Kong billionaires with her claims of political connections in Beijing and a business partnership with Microsoft.

Apparently, connections with Beijing can only go so far.

The New World group consists of New World Development, the city's sixth-largest property developer, and a diversified collection of businesses in Hong Kong container terminals, city bus services, and mobile and fixed-line telecom services, as well as growing property investments in China.

While Hong Kong has a thriving criminal underground engaged in drug trafficking, illegal gambling and extortion, violence is usually limited to disputes within and between gangs. The murder rate in Hong Kong is among the lowest of any city in the world.

In the dying days of British colonial rules in the 1990s, there were frequent instances in which gangs kidnapped billionaires’ family members for ransom.

Such large-scale organized crimes have subsided since China’s resumption of sovereignty in 1997.



antimafia - August 17, 2007 06:12 PM (GMT)
2 Dead, 6 Injured in Chinese Restaurant in Vancouver

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...hub=CTVNewsAt11

Manhunt on for gunmen in Vancouver shooting
Updated Thu. Aug. 9 2007 9:38 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

In one of the worst acts of violence to ever hit Vancouver, two people were killed and six injured in a brazen early-morning shooting spree inside a Chinese restaurant.

Two masked gunmen opened fire inside the Fortune Happiness restaurant, apparently targeting a table where the eight victims were seated.

Witnesses said one of the shooters entered from the front, and the other from the back. When the shooting had stopped, two people lay dead while one of the injured was critically hurt.

"This is one of the most heinous (shootings) we've ever come across," said, Dep. Const. Bob Rich. "But it fits with the kind of proliferation of weapons in our city."

The two slain men were aged 19 and 26 and known to police, but none of the victims have been named. Four of the injured were women.

Police believe the shooting may have been gang related.

"All of the people that were shot were sitting at one table," Const. Howard Chow said. "The early part of the investigation is telling us this was not a random attack."

The shooting happened at 4:30 a.m. local time. No one has been arrested and police have no leads. But surveillance footage may have caught the shooting.

"The suspects took off, they are still at large," Chow told CTV.ca.

At an afternoon press conference, Rich said guns and gangs have become a serious issue in Vancouver....

Hollander - October 10, 2007 12:27 PM (GMT)
Chinese cops wipe out 4,000 mafia gangs
24 Sep 2007, 0000 hrs IST,AGENCIES


BEIJING: Chinese police have cracked nearly 500 criminal cases and busted over 4,000 gangs since it launched a crackdown against mafia-style crimes in February 2006, the state media reported on Sunday. The police had so far referred 340 cases of alleged gang crimes for prosecution, a spokesman of the office for national campaign against organised crime said.

More than 4,000 criminal gangs were wiped out during the campaign, he said. Thanks to the crackdown, the number of serious crimes including homicide and robbery has dropped in the first half of this year, he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

However, the spokesman noted that the one-year-strong campaign shows that criminal activities of mafia-like groups are in “the high occurrence period” in China and more efforts must be made to win the “protracted, complex and tough” struggle.

Some of the criminal gangs involve “protecting umbrellas” from government officials. The spokesman also highlighted the existence of these “umbrellas” and said they are a crucial part for cracking gang crimes.

In 2002, police in southern China warned that activities by mafia-style criminal gangs were widespread. The police chief of the Guangdong province Liang Guoju told the local legislature that out of some eight-thousand criminal gangs broken up over a five-month period this year, more than two-hundred had mafia-type structures.

Hollander - October 11, 2007 10:52 AM (GMT)
Burma sees upsurge in opium production
By Harvey Morris at the United Nations

Published: October 10 2007 18:03 | Last updated: October 10 2007 18:03

This year has seen an “alarming upsurge” in opium production in Burma, once the apex of the notorious south-east-Asian Golden Triangle that supplied most of the illicit heroin on the streets of western cities, United Nations officials said on Wednesday.

Despite a decade-old programme of crop eradication, military-ruled Burma is still the world’s second-biggest producer, although its former hold on the illegal market is now dwarfed by Afghanistan, the UN’s office on drugs and crime says.

“Over the past years, Myanmar [Burma] was priced out of the opium market by much higher yields and cultivation in Afghanistan,” said Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN agency. But a sharp increase in Burmese production this year “undermines progress towards a drug-free south-east Asia”.

The Golden Triangle – which includes Laos and Thailand – produces only 5 per cent of the world’s supply of the drug. But in Burma, the opium crop shot up almost 30 per cent this year to 27,000 hectares, while higher yields boosted production by almost 50 per cent.

Mr Costa said production was now concentrated in the south and east Shan states where he blamed corruption, high-level collusion and weak border security for encouraging a resurgence of the drugs trade.

Equally worrying was the fact that a decade of reduced opium cultivation had been offset by the emergence of a more lucrative methamphetamine trade. Calling for greater international efforts to counter the upward trend, Mr Costa said that “neglecting the greed and corruption that enable Myanmar’s drug trade will fuel crime, instability, addiction and HIV”.

Mr Costa said poor farmers had suffered most from the programme of eradication, while criminals and their cronies were continuing to profit from drug processing and trafficking. Income had shifted away from the farmers to criminal gangs, which focused on producing synthetic drugs.

Former Burmese poppy farmers have also been provided with little assistance to grow alternative crops – pushing many families deeper into poverty. Concerned over malnutrition and hunger among these farmers, the UN World Food Programme plans to increase its assistance.

A report released on Wednesday from the UN’s drugs and crime office indicated 163,000 Burmese families were involved in producing opium with a potential value of $120m (€85m, £59m) this year, an increase of 67 per cent in value on the previous year.

At the end of the 1980s, production in the Golden Triangle exploded, mainly due to the dislocation caused by a number of rebellions in isolated regions of Burma against the military regime. Burma alone produced more than 2,500 tonnes in 1996, pushing supplies of the high-grade China White heroin on to the streets of the US and other western countries.

The UN report estimated 2007 production at 460 tonnes, 46 per cent higher than last year.

The warning on Burma came after a US scientist met Afghan officials this week to try to allay Afghan government health concerns over an airborne herbicide spray the US plans to use to kill opium crops. Afghanistan produces 93 per cent of the world’s opium.

antimafia - October 21, 2007 09:48 PM (GMT)
2 Million Ecstasy Pills Worth Up to $40 Million Seized in Toronto, Canada

Link to article about this topic, along with part of the article itself, appears below:

http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2...593301-sun.html

The references to Scarborough are to the east end of the city of Toronto.

October 21, 2007

2M Ecstasy pills seized
Scarborough home raided

By ROB LAMBERTI, SUN MEDIA

An Ecstasy ring has been smashed after police raided a Scarborough home yesterday, seizing 2 million pills in a massive drug haul that could be worth up to $40 million.

The seizure from the Pipers Green Ave. home in the McCowan Rd.-Finch Ave. E. area is almost equal to all of the Ecstasy that Toronto police seized last year.

The RCMP-led operation stems from a vehicle stop Friday which led to the seizure of 125,000 Ecstasy pills, police said.

A neighbour said he saw a handcuffed man escorted out of the home Friday.

The massive quantity of drugs in the house suggests the scope of the ring's distribution is international, RCMP Det.-Insp. Rick Penney said. The house was only being used to press powder MDMA and a binding agent into pills, police said.

The pills, police said, sell for between $10 and $20 each, making this operation worth at least $20 million and as much as $40 million.

[snip]

Shi Yan, 31, Ma Wei Qion, 29, Jian Yao Quan, 20, Wu Shu Qiang, 37, all of Toronto, and Ling Wan Shan, 50, of Brooklyn, N.Y., face numerous narcotics-related charges.

Hollander - December 8, 2007 10:19 AM (GMT)
Chinese police stage huge gang crackdown


· Dozens arrested after year-long operation
· Senior officers sent away before raid to stop tip-offs

Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Thursday December 6, 2007
The Guardian


Hundreds of police with semi-automatic weapons raided a hotpot restaurant and rounded up dozens of gangsters in one of the biggest crackdowns on crime syndicates seen in mainland China, the domestic media reported yesterday.
The alleged gang boss, Lin Guoqin, a local politician and senior figure in the local business community, was among those arrested in the operation, which has highlighted the growing problem of organised crime in China.

Such were the concerns about mob collusion with local police that senior officers were replaced or sent on holiday before the raid in Yangjiang city, Guangdong province, last month. Even those who took part were told it was a training exercise until a few hours before the operation so they could not tip off the suspects, according to the Beijing News.


Planned a year in advance, the round-up reportedly started with a single warning shot as police swooped on the mobsters, who had gathered in a VIP room to celebrate the purchase of a five-storey house by their boss. Soon after they finished their first round of drinks, the police moved in. "Suddenly the restaurant was surrounded by police, armed with submachine guns," a security guard told the Guangzhou Daily. "They moved very quickly, as if they had come out of the sky."
They arrested Lin and another alleged mob boss, Xu Jianqiang, along with several dozen underlings, who were led away with black bags over their heads. In coordinated raids in four cities police detained 45 suspected gangsters and confiscated eight guns.

In the state media police described the gangsters as triads - the term usually associated with criminal organisations based in nearby Hong Kong and Macau. They are suspected of murder, assault, operating illegal casinos, loan sharking, abduction and extortion.

"The crackdown on the two triads has dealt a heavy blow to the secret societies that used to be active in the western part of the prosperous Guangdong region," Xiao Shengxian, a spokesman for the Guangdong provincial bureau of public security, told the China Daily.

Lin was reportedly a member of the local People's Congress - the Communist-controlled council - as well as being vice-chairman of the chamber of commerce, a travel association and a group of leading entrepreneurs. He is said to have used intimidation to expand his business to 20 companies, covering cement production, dredging, seafood distribution and petrol sales.

The last People's Congress representative arrested for gang membership was executed in Shenyang, northern China. In August a former police official who became a gang boss was sentenced to death in Kunming.

China does not disclose statistics on organised crime, although public security officials have acknowledged that this is a "huge-occurrence period". Since the opening up of the economy there has been a rise in drug use, prostitution, counterfeiting, smuggling and intimidation. Many gangs are in league with officials. With no independent judiciary or media in this one-party state, there are few channels to expose their activities.

According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, 4,000 gangs have been broken up since February 2006. Among them was a 34-strong gang in Beijing described by police as the capital's first criminal syndicate since the Communist party took power in 1949.

Mafia-like groups are far more established elsewhere in east Asia. Last month bosses from Japan, Korea and the US joined senior local politicians in Taiwan at a memorial service for Chen Chi-li, founder of the Bamboo Union gang.

Additional reporting by Chen Shi

Hollander - December 31, 2007 02:00 AM (GMT)
INTERPOL media release
23 November 2007



INTERPOL helps smash illegal soccer gambling networks across Asia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Equipment and cash seized by officers in Hong Kong as part of Operation SOGA targeting illegal soccer gambling in Asia.

LYON, France – More than 400 people have been arrested across Asia following a five-month operation co-ordinated by INTERPOL that targeted illegal soccer gambling controlled by organized crime gangs.

Police officers across the region identified and shut down a total of 272 underground gambling dens which were estimated to have handled more than 680 million US dollars worth of illegal bets worldwide.

'These significant results demonstrate the impact that national law enforcement can have on organized crime in their own country when their efforts are co-ordinated through INTERPOL’s global network and resources,' said INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.

'Illegal soccer gambling is not only a crime in itself, but is often linked with other serious offences such as corruption, money laundering and prostitution, which generate massive profits, all too often at the cost of public services and the safety of hardworking people.'

Codenamed SOGA – short for soccer gambling - the operation was launched in June 2007 when officers from INTERPOL’s National Central Bureaus and other law enforcement agencies across China (including Hong Kong and Macao), Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam met to exchange intelligence at an operational meeting held at INTERPOL’s liaison office in Bangkok.

Following a second meeting, held in Dongguan, China in August which included a training workshop for officers involved in the operation, it was agreed that each region would take action at the beginning of the football season.

'This operation has not only seriously affected the activities of organized crime gangs throughout Asia, but also served as an excellent test of national, regional and international police co-operation ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games,' added Mr Louboutin.

Conducted throughout October and November, SOGA is the first INTERPOL co-ordinated operation to combat illegal soccer gambling and resulted in a total of 423 people being arrested and the seizure of more than 680,000 US dollars worth of cash and assets including computers, bank cards, mobile phones and cars.

Specialists at INTERPOL’s Criminal Analysis units, both at the Liaison Office in Bangkok and at the General Secretariat in Lyon, will now review the results from the operation to determine if there are any established or potential links with other international criminals or organized crime groups.

Hollander - March 20, 2008 12:03 PM (GMT)
Organized Crime Gang Stands Retrial in NE China
2008-03-04 16:43:56 Xinhua

Retrial of a 23-member mafia-style crime ring began at Jilin Provincial Higher People's Court on Monday.

The organized crime gang was led by Xu Wei, also known as Xu Dawei. Xu's father, Xu Fengshan, also being retried, used to be vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yushu, a county-level city within the jurisdiction of Changchun City, northeast Jilin Province.

Monday's hearing didn't produce any result as it would take days to go through all the verdicts against the massive organized crime gang, said a spokesman from the Jilin Provincial Higher People's Court.

Before he was promoted as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yushu, Xu Fengshan, 58, used to serve in a host of other official posts including vice mayor of Yushu city between 1995 and 2005.

The court heard that during his tenure as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yushu, the senior Xu took advantage of his post and secured the right for developing a patch of land for Liang Fawen, a real estate developer, in March 2001.

In return for Xu Fengshan's favor, Liang gave Xu free of charge three apartments which could easily be renovated into business premises when the real estate development project was finished. The three flats were worth 680,000 yuan (about 93,151 U.S. dollars). Liang has been convicted of giving bribes.

Xu, together with his son Xu Wei and daughter-in-law, was accused of accepting properties worth of 470,000 yuan from another real estate developer surnamed Chen in 2003.

While serving as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yushu, Xu was put in charge of the investment promotion work and construction of a hotel being built with Hong Kong investment.

When the Hong Kong investor pulled out, Xu took over the project himself, without informing the local government.

Using the construction of the hotel as an excuse, Xu repeatedly asked the local government to add more favorable policies to the project, and managed to cheat the local government in garnering land allotment free of charge. He succeeded and pocketed 23.8 million yuan from the hotel project alone.

Xu Wei, 41, who used to serve as deputy manager of a local heat power company, formed a mafia-style crime organization in Yushu as early as 1989.

To make the most of the influence exerted by Xu Wei's father, the organized crime gang set up a company specialized in building materials speculation and profited by doing so.

Protected by Xu Fengshan, Xu junior and his gang committed about 30 crimes or misdemeanor which left two dead and 13 others injured, and blackmailed people to the tune of 500,000 yuan.

Xu Wei was arrested by the police in June 2005 under charges of manslaughter, robbery, extortion, and illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. His father was put under police custody one month later for allegations including bribe taking.

The Intermediate People's Court of Changchun City handed down a ruling through a first-instant trial on Sept.28, 2007. In accordance with the ruling, Xu Fengshan, who was convicted of crimes ranging from graft, bribe-taking to harboring an organized crime ring, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

Xu Wei, the son, was also convicted of crimes including manslaughter, operation of mafia-style crime organization, and was sentenced to death.

A further 21 members of the organized crime ring, including Xu Wei's wife, Feng Qiuyan, were given sentences ranging from an exemption of criminal penalty to life imprisonment. Feng, who had been in charge of financial affairs for the ring, was found guilty of obstructing verification and given a jail term of two years with a two-year reprieve.

Both Xus appealed their cases shortly after the ruling of the first-instant trial was announced.

The result of Monday's retrial will be announced later.



Hollander - April 19, 2008 10:39 AM (GMT)

Appeal in pension fund case
By Staff Reporters 2008-4-19

-- Advertisement --

ZHANG Rongkun, a key figure in Shanghai's pension fund scandal, has appealed his 19-year jail term at a Jilin court, Tianjin City's portal Website reported yesterday.

Zhang was sentenced and had 1.6 billion yuan (US$229 million) of assets confiscated on April 8 for bribing officials and company executives, manipulating stocks prices, issuing fraudulent bonds and illegally withdrawing capital contributions, the Songyuan Intermediate People's Court ruled.

Zhang's two companies were also fined a total of 300 million yuan.

Wang Yongde, Zhang Jun and Zhou Weiming, three subordinates of Zhang, also said they would appeal their sentences, the report added.

Zhou, a shareholder in Zhang Rongkun's Fuxi Investment, was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspension.

Wang, chief operating officer and board member, was given a two-year sentence.

Zhang Jun, investment supervisor, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison with a two-year reprieve.




Hollander - May 6, 2008 09:01 AM (GMT)

Chinese police cracked 874 mafia-style crimes
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-05 23:56


BEIJING -- Chinese police have cracked 874 mafia-style crimes and removed 9,662 criminal gangs since a campaign aimed at eradicating the country's serious gang crimes launched in 2006, according to government figures released here on Monday.

Nearly 60,000 suspects of gang crimes were arrested and 77,000 criminal cases were cracked during the past two years, according to a meeting of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The country's procurator agencies has sued 753 mafia-style crimes and the courts have tried 512 such cases, says the Committee.

Serious crimes including murder, robbery and injuries were all down about four percent over the past two years, it says.

Meng Jianzhu, deputy secretary of the Committee and Minister of Public Security, urged the country's police to address the safety issues that concern people the most.

The police should crack "big" cases such as solving the mafia-style crimes and cracking down serious violent crimes. They should at the same time deal with "smaller" cases that affect people's sense of security, including thefts and pick-pocketing cases, said Meng, who is also a State Councillor.

Through the campaign, "social order has apparently improved, and the people's sense of security has been enhanced", the Committee says.

The campaign also rooted out some gangs and evil forces in rural areas and exposed corrupted officials, which is conducive to regime building at grassroots level and the construction of a clean government, says the Committee.

The meeting also decided to tighten security during the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

To safeguard the national peace and social stability and curb the spread of mafia-style gang crimes are also in line with the need to ensure a sound social environment for the Olympics, says the meeting.

The meeting also decided to intensify efforts to further crack the evil and underground forces, remove the "umbrellas" that protect the mafia-style gangs, and mobilize the masses to provide help in this effort.



Hollander - June 4, 2008 09:22 AM (GMT)
Hong Kong tycoon with Triad links backs Bush film
http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/c1...sh_film.do.html

Hollander - June 14, 2008 01:56 PM (GMT)
38 triad suspects arrested during overnight raids in Tin Shui Wai
Clifford Lo
Jun 14, 2008
Police arrested 38 suspected triads during raids in Tin Shui Wai in an overnight operation that ended at daybreak yesterday. ...


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5. Five held for suspected triad killing


Hollander - June 16, 2008 01:53 PM (GMT)
June 13, 2008
Crime


2 bookmaking syndicates shut down

Hong Kong and Shenzhen police have shut down two Shenzhen-based illegal horseracing and soccer bookmaking syndicates, arresting 16 people and seizing $34 million worth of betting slips.

The syndicates have been operating since last year. They allegedly opened websites and bank accounts to take bets while the syndicate members received bets from Hong Kong gamblers.

Hong Kong Police arrested five men and three women aged 29 to 52 on June 11 for bookmaking and money laundering. They seized $30 million worth of betting slips, $50,000 cash, five computers and a large amount of bank slips.


Shenzhen officers arrested seven men and one woman aged 32 to 71 for bookmaking and drug offences, seizing $4 million worth of suspected betting slips, five computers and a small amount of drugs.



Hollander - July 27, 2008 11:33 AM (GMT)

Hollander - July 31, 2008 10:22 AM (GMT)
Anti-crime campaigner changes tune on triads
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story....jectid=10524469

Hollander - October 19, 2008 08:34 AM (GMT)
Ex-Beijing official gets death sentence
BEIJING, China (AP) -- A former Beijing vice mayor in charge of overseeing Olympic construction projects has been given a death sentence for corruption, a court clerk and his lawyer said Sunday.

The Intermediate People's Court in Hengshui, a city outside Beijing, ordered the death sentence Saturday after finding Liu Zhihua guilty of taking bribes, said a court clerk who would only give his surname, Ma.

However, the sentence was "suspended" for two years, Ma said. The reprieve means if Liu shows good behavior, his sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.

The government squelched all reporting on Liu's prosecution in the months leading up to the August Olympic Games to avoid tarnishing its image on the global stage.

Officials said Liu's misdeeds had nothing to do with Olympic projects, but his dismissal put a cloud over preparations for the games and prompted authorities to ratchet up anti-corruption efforts.

Liu was elected to his post as vice mayor of Beijing in 1999, and dismissed and kicked out of the Communist Party in 2006.

Liu faced 10 charges for accepting bribes totaling about 7 million yuan ($1 million) and gifts in return for favors to property development companies while vice mayor, his lawyer Mo Shaoping said.

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Mo said some of the allegations were dubious. "Liu will probably appeal the verdict, and the final decision will be made soon," Mo said.

China reportedly spent $38 billion on urban renewal and infrastructure construction for the Olympics. Many officials have been charged with corruption in construction and real estate deals in the rapidly growing capital.

Hollander - December 7, 2008 03:14 PM (GMT)
NBI nabs alleged Taiwanese drug trader

By Tina Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:48:00 12/05/2008


MANILA, Philippines—An alleged member of a big-time Chinese syndicate involved in illegal drug trade was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation during a raid in Makati City.

Chen Tsung Hsing, alias Salute Chen, 53, a Taiwanese and resident of Room 2135, Cityland Condominium, Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City, admitted that he was a member of the international Chinese mafia, said Roland Argabioso, head of the NBI-Field Operations Division which conducted the operation.

"We have already coordinated with Taiwanese authorities through the Interpol and records showed that the suspect has other pending drug cases," Argabioso said.

He said the suspect also failed to show documents to prove that he was legally staying in the country.

"He appears to be an undocumented alien, so we will coordinate with the Bureau of Immigration for proper action," Argabioso added.

During the raid, the suspect, who was also engaged in the automotive parts trade, yielded several firearms and ammunition as well as illegal drugs.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Thelma Ponferada of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, bureau agents swooped down on the suspect's apartment where they found several 9mm pistol magazines, dozens of assorted bullets.

Also found in the suspect's residence were plastic sachets containing shabu, small bottles containing a liquid substance, yellow tablets, weighing scale and other drug paraphernalia.

When frisked, the suspect also yielded one Desert Eagle Pistol 9mm with fully loaded magazine, the NBI said, adding that the suspect failed to produce documents for his firearm.

Charges for violation of Presidential Decree 1866 as amended by Republic Act 8294 (illegal possession of firearms) and RA 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act) were filed against the suspect at the Makati City Prosecutor's Office.


GangstersInc - December 30, 2008 05:37 PM (GMT)
China readies for crackdown on organized crime
Dec 21, 2008

BEIJING (AP) — China plans to set up a special unit to crack down on organized crime, which is on the increase as the country's economy slows, state media said Monday.

The Ministry of Public Security is creating a new division that will focus on gang-related crimes such as organized prostitution, gambling, drug production and trafficking, the official China Daily quoted a senior ministry official as saying.

"In the foreseeable future, gangs will remain active as the country undergoes dramatic social and economic change," said the official, who declined to be named for security reasons. "Gang-related crimes have become a threat to our social stability and the economy."

Security officials will also keep a close eye on possible crimes stemming from unemployment amid the ongoing financial downturn, the report said.

Liang Huaren, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, was quoted as saying that the large numbers of laid-off migrant workers as well as the widening gap between rich and poor has helped fuel an increase in gang-related crimes.

China's court system reported that 337 gang crimes were prosecuted in 2007, marking a 161 percent increase from the previous year.

The ministry official said that gangs are expanding their reach into more areas and industries, such as construction, transportation and mining.

He said the Public Security Ministry will also focus on rooting out corrupt government officials who shelter gangsters.

Hollander - February 20, 2009 01:36 PM (GMT)
Updated Wednesday, January 21, 2009 10:28 am TWN, dpa
HK triad gangsters resort to recruiting in playgrounds
HONG KONG -- Police in Hong Kong were Tuesday questioning 27 suspects after smashing a triad gang operation that recruited young members in school playgrounds. The arrests came after dozens of cases in which youngsters were approached in playgrounds in Hong Kong schools and threatened with violence if they did not join triad gangs. Youngsters acted as recruiters and teenagers signed up for gangs in school playgrounds and games arcades were made to pay 3.60 Hong Kong dollars (46 US cents) as a joining fee. Around 70 per cent of the 27 people arrested were youngsters and one was just 14, police said. They were arrested for suspected triad gang membership, a criminal offense in the city of 6.9 million. More than 100 police officers raided dozens of flats across Hong Kong to make the arrests from early Monday onwards.

GangstersInc - April 16, 2009 02:32 PM (GMT)
According to the Bureau of Prisons former Wo Hop To boss Peter Chong has been released from prison a year ago. He is 65 years old now. I hope I can publish a profile of him soon. Chong was a Tong boss in San Francisco during the 1980s and 1990s until his arrest on racketeering charges. His underboss Raymond Chow would testify against him, and is rumored to have since come back to California and become the new Tong boss.

GangstersInc - June 16, 2009 10:07 PM (GMT)
China braces for trial of alleged mob kingpins accused of building an underworld empire
WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
9:20 AM PDT, June 16, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...1,4835090.story

YANGJIANG, China (AP) — Scores of police gripping black clubs guarded a courthouse in southern China on Tuesday — the first day of a trial for two alleged gangster bosses, the "Hammerhead" and "Spicy Qin," accused of using violence to build an empire that included everything from underground casinos to cement factories, truck lines and poultry markets.

The case has further exposed the dark side of Chinese society, where crime experts say gangs are thriving amid a weak legal system, corrupt government and policies that seem to value economic growth over almost everything else.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse in the small southern coastal city of Yangjiang, hoping to get a glimpse of the alleged mob kingpins — who arrived under tight security in a police bus with black ski masks over their faces to protect them from attack and publicity.

The defendants Xu Jianqiang, known as the "Hammerhead," and his partner, Lin Guoqin, or "Spicy Qin," were arrested in November 2007 in Yangjiang, which calls itself the country's knife and scissors capital because it boasts a big industry churning out sharp tools.

Court clerks said there were no open seats in the courtroom for an Associated Press reporter, and officials refused to provide copies of the indictment against Xu, Lin and 41 of their alleged henchmen.


But a notice taped to a courthouse wall said the men were accused of leading a gangster, or "black society," organization that engaged in fraud, tax evasion, armed robbery, illegal detention, malicious injury and gambling, "among other crimes."

If found guilty, they could be sentenced to death for such a long list of offenses. The court hasn't said if they've entered a plea yet, and their lawyers haven't made public comments.

One court spectator said the defendants were known to have owned casinos all over the city.

"I gambled in one once. It had baccarat, everything," said the middle-aged man, who only gave his surname, Li, because he feared the police and gangs. "These guys were so big and powerful, the police didn't dare touch them for a long time."

Xu, according to state-run media accounts, was a Tony Soprano-type of gangster — a burly guy with a flat bulldog face who liked to brawl and muscle his way into deals. One photo shows him in a white undershirt with a crew cut and dark sunglasses.

The local reports suggest Lin was more like Michael Corleone from "The Godfather," a suave operator who sought to cover his criminal tracks with legitimate businesses. Pictures have shown him in a natty dark suit or smiling in a gray tweed blazer over a cranberry crew neck.

Before his arrest, Lin held high-ranking posts in several business groups and had a seat in Yangjiang's local legislature.

The way gangsters — or triads in local slang — have been joining forces with business leaders and officials to create powerful syndicates is a serious problem in China, said Dennis Wong, head of the criminology department at City University of Hong Kong.

"The reason organized crime groups are so prevalent in mainland China is that China has yet to establish rule of law and people do not respect law," he said. "It is still a country ruled by people, so it's easy for triad gangs to exist."

Wong added that the problem is compounded by the government's policy of fixating on economic growth. Officials often turn a blind eye to gang-controlled casinos and brothels because they provide a service demanded by the businessmen who stoke the economy, he said.

"Chinese police fully understand this fact, so they rarely crack down on prostitution and entertainment parlors," Wong said.

China's top leaders have repeatedly pledged to take a harder line on corruption, and they have targeted several high-ranking political and business leaders in recent years, including the former mayors of Shanghai and Shenzhen.

One of the hotbeds of triad activity has long been wealthy Guangdong province, where Yangjiang is located. In many ways, Guangdong is China's New Jersey, a gritty industrial region next to a big glitzy financial center — Hong Kong. Guangdong also shares a border with the booming casino city of Macau.

Macau and Hong Kong have long-established, sophisticated triad groups that have penetrated deep into Guangdong, said Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. These partnerships with mainland gangs are growing because organized crime has become more fluid and flexible, based on friendships and the common interest of chasing profits, he said.

"A bad economy may squeeze the economic income of triads and crime groups, but they can adapt easily by engaging in various types of criminal activities like extortion, loan sharking, underground gambling, drugs trafficking," said Lo, author of the new book, "The Politics of Cross-Border Crime in Greater China."

In good times, Lo said, the triads engage in legitimate activities, like investing in property, stocks and restaurants.

That's what Xu and Lin were known to have done before they were arrested, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily, a state-run daily that has provided the most detailed coverage of the case. Citing court documents the paper has described the defendants' rise and fall.


Xu, who had a reputation as a street fighter, and Lin, who was a small-time gambler, met in an illegal casino in 1990 and quickly started working together, it said, with Lin using the younger Xu as his muscle against possible gambling cheats.

The two began stockpiling guns for a gang, and the turning point in their careers came in 1992 when a major Yangjiang crime boss lost a large sum of money to Lin while gambling, the paper said. Xu beat the crime boss up and had to go into hiding.

Two years later Xu invited the boss to a meeting so they could discuss reconciliation. At the meeting, the report said, one of Xu's henchmen shot and killed the crime boss. The killing had a shock-and-awe effect on other gangs, catapulting Xu and Lin to the top of the crime community.


In 1994, they began building their casino network in hotels, resorts and health clubs. Two years later, they moved into Yangjiang's lucrative fishing and ice-making industries. By the time of their arrest in 2007, they controlled 43 companies, dealing in poultry, trucking, sand, cement, among other things, the paper said.

Their arrests came amid a corruption sweep in the province that has taken down several top politicians, but it is unclear if Xu and Lin were targeted as part of this operation.

Some at the courthouse Tuesday had a simple explanation for their arrests.

"They had their hands in everything in this town. They got too big," said one spectator, a housewife who would only give her surname, Chen.

"But now that they might be going to prison, I don't really feel that much safer," the 32-year-old woman said. "Once the big ones get knocked down, the little ones will pop up and take over."

Giuseppe - July 3, 2009 08:44 PM (GMT)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8132608.stm

Floral tribute to cockle-pickers

A Lancashire council has commissioned a floral tribute to the Chinese cockle-pickers who died in Morecambe Bay five years ago.

At least 21 people drowned when they were cut off by the tide in treacherous weather at Hest Bank, Lancashire, on 5 February 2004.

Lancaster City Council has been working with a local artist to design a display for the Tatton Park Flower Show.

The work will depict a cockle-picker's cart and rake stranded on the bay.

Local artist Chas Jacobs has designed the display, which will go on show at the National Flower Bed Competition in Tatton later this month.

'Deadly nature'

It will depict the same scene which confronted the rescue workers the morning after the tragedy.

Councillor Jon Barry, of Lancaster City Council, said: "Morecambe Bay is one of our district's greatest assets and an extremely important site for wildlife.

"But at the same time its tides and sands are notoriously treacherous and have claimed many lives over the years.

"This year's Tatton display reflects the beauty of the bay at the same as recognising its deadly nature."

Gangmaster Lin Liang Ren, who was based in Liverpool but originally from China, was found guilty of the manslaughter of 21 cockle pickers in March 2006.

It is thought that bodies of two victims have not been found.

The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) was set up by the government after the Morecambe Bay tragedy.

Hollander - August 6, 2009 02:43 PM (GMT)


Slaying of triad boss fuels fears of bloodbath

Nickkita Lau

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Police have stepped up vigilance in Tsim Sha Tsui and other sensitive areas to avert a bloodbath following the brutal killing of a triad leader outside the Kowloon Shangri-La.
Lee Tai-lung, 41, a prominent member of the Sun Yee On triad society, was first hit by a car and then hacked to death by at least three knifemen around 4am on Tuesday.

The attackers fled the scene in two stolen cars which were later found abandoned and torched.

An autopsy yesterday showed Lee died from severe loss of blood as one of his main arteries was severed twice in the attack.

"We found more than six cut wounds. Two through his main artery which led to an immense loss of blood. He also had a deep wound to the head. The initial finding is that these wounds caused his death," Kowloon West anti- triad unit senior inspector Wilson Yung said.

No one has been arrested so far.

Yung said police are gravely concerned that Lee's death may trigger more clashes.

Without going into details, he said police are taking "corresponding action" to prevent a bloodbath.

A man believed to be one of Lee's henchmen drove Lee's elder brother and a woman to the Kwai Chung Public Mortuary around 9am yesterday.

They stayed for only five minutes and left immediately after identifying the corpse.

Lee was hit by a car as he stepped out of his silver Mercedes-Benz parked outside the hotel.

As he struggled to get to his feet, another car arrived and three men jumped out and attacked him with knives.

Lee was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly before 6am.

Police later found two burnt-out vehicles in Tai Po.

Lee, also known among triad members as Thai-lung, was a red pole fighter - a senior rank - of the Sun Yee On society and was active in the Tsim Sha Tsui area.

Police have appealed for witnesses, or persons with information regarding the attack, to call 27133777 or to contact any police station.


Hollander - August 14, 2009 12:40 PM (GMT)

From Times Online

August 14, 2009

Police chief and businessmen arrested in triad crackdown
Jane Macartney, China Correspondent



A senior police chief, three multi-millionaires and more than 100 gangsters have been arrested in a crackdown on gangs in a huge city in western China.

The arrests in the sprawling metropolis of Chongqing are a dramatic illustration of the growing links between government officials and triad gangs in many Chinese cities.

The detention of Wen Qiang, deputy police chief in Chongqing for 17 years and head of the city’s prison system since early this year, came as little surprise to his colleagues. One police officer said: “I heard a lot of rumours about his ties with gangs as early as 1999, when I joined the police force.”

The arrest of the powerful official removed an important protector of gangs operating with increasing openness in the city of 32 million people. Police have arrested 19 triad bosses and about 100 gangsters.

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Among the ringleaders were three influential city figures, all of whom are multi-millionaires. Li Qiang, a property tycoon, was also a representative on the city’s People’s Congress. After his arrest his mobile phone was found to contain text messages urging him to flee before he could be caught. Chen Mingliang, the chairman of the board of an industrial company, had a seat on a district People’s Congress.

The breakthrough came with the appointment in June last year of a new police chief in a city where gangs earned an estimated 30 billion yuan (£3 billion) last year from loan sharking alone – a sum equivalent to one-third of the city’s annual fiscal revenue.

Wang Lijun, who arrived with a reputation for fighting organised crime, ordered the arrest of more than 20,000 gang members between June and December last year. The sweep underscored the protection the gangs had enjoyed while Mr Wen held office.

Mr Wang recently told a meeting of businessmen: “Some gangs hide behind a legal business and fund their illegal activities with its earnings. [Gang members] have also entered into many industries through blackmail, extortion and usury.”

The gangs were involved in illegal casinos, loan-sharking and extortion as well as manipulation of land prices. They had appeared to operate with impunity. Video footage posted online showed about 20 young men armed with clubs and pipes viciously beating several victims in public in Chongqing while uniformed security officers watched.

The Chinese Government claims that police have broken up 1,221 triad-style gangs since a crackdown was launched in 2006. More than 87,300 suspects have been arrested.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle6796124.ece

Hollander - August 15, 2009 11:05 AM (GMT)
International
China Collars 100 Crooks in Chongqing
Vivian Wai-yin Kwok, 08.14.09, 6:06 AM ET

HONG KONG - In an unprecedented campaign against crime and corruption in China, police arrested more than 100 people who had plagued residents of Chongqing for years.

Powerful local officials, tycoons and criminal gangsters were among those arrested during the course of a two-month investigation centering on Chongqing, China's largest municipality, with a population of 32 million. The grimy industrial city has pulled in immense foreign investment and government infrastructure projects, particular in the past decade, as Beijing pushed its "Go West" investment campaign.

Over a two-month period, the Chongqing Police busted up 14 organized gangs, arrested more than 100 mobsters and three well-known businessmen who had built fortunes there. The Chongqing Police caught 19 mobster bosses. They confiscated 37.7 tons of explosives, 1,521 firearms, bullets, and many other weapons.

Police cracked down on 14 triad societies after judicial officials protecting them and rich tycoons backing their crimes were taken away, while corresponding assets were frozen by the authorities, China's official Legal Daily reported Friday.
Zhou Bo, spokesman with the municipal government of Chongqing, said at a press conference held Thursday that social security in Chongqing has greatly improved. Murders dropped by 14.7% from the previous year to its lowest level in five years. Solved murder cases reached 91.4%, about 3% higher than China's average, Xinhua News Agency said.

The Chongqing government announced the details of its anti-organized crime crackdown a few days after the detention of Wen Qiang, vice Party chief of Chongqing's Public Security Bureau and head of the Judicial Administrative Bureau. He was put under internal Communist Party investigation last Saturday for alleged connections to gangsters.

Wen was suspected of providing a "protective umbrella" for local gangs, the spokesperson told the press conference, without providing further details. But he stressed the case indicated the Chongqing government is determined to break up the dangerous nexus of power, crime and money.

The spokesman refused to confirm reports that more than 200 local property developers were also detained by the Police, saying the government would release more details later.

According to Legal Daily, the three tycoons involved in the investigation include Li Qiang, Chen Mingliang , and Gong Gangmo. Both Li and Chen are members of National People’s Congress, the highest legislative body in China.

Li Qiang owns more than 20 companies with businesses ranging from property development to public transportation. To win contracts for running more public bus routes, Li was said to have used illegal strategies to fight off his competitors.

Chen Mingliang is the President of Chongqing Jiangzhou Holdings. Founded in 1988, Chongqing Jiangzhou initially had an electronics factory that build heads-up displays, and later extended its business into real estate and stock trading in 1996. Legal Daily said Chen was also allegedly involved in gambling and drug smuggling at Chongqing World Traders Hotel.

Motorcycle tycoon Gong Gangmo reportedly set up Chongqing Wanguan Finance Company with gangster chief Chen Kun-zhi. The company was regarded as a "legal" entity to coordinate illegal activities.

Besides linking up with the gangsters over the years, all three tycoons also developed close ties with the detained former judicial head Wen Qiang.

Since the government announced about two months ago that it would set up a special unit to tackle organized crime, the police received 7,700 leads from the public. Wang Li-jun, the Police chief in Chongqing, is widely credited by netizens as a crime-fighting hero. Zhou Bo, the official spokesman, said the city government had support from 98% of netizens polled.


Hollander - August 21, 2009 10:18 AM (GMT)

Mafia busting takes down senior cops and robbers
Tania Branigan in Beijing
August 21, 2009 .
MILLIONAIRES, police chiefs, illegal casinos, loan sharks and a mafia-busting cop in hot pursuit of hundreds of gangsters.

No, not the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, but a crackdown on organised crime and its ''protective umbrella'' of rich and powerful contacts in Chongqing.

This week police said they were looking for 469 suspects from 14 gangs - on top of the 1544 they have already detained. They are holding 19 alleged leaders and issued the photographs of 67 more for whom they have warrants.

Scores of police officers were accused of protecting gangs, and three millionaires were under investigation, Xinhua news agency reported.

A former Chongqing police chief, and current director of the city's judicial bureau, Wen Qiang, is among those under internal investigation, suspected of protecting criminals.

His successor as deputy police chief, Wang Lijun, is a reputed ''mafia buster'' and was promoted to the top job this year amid an anti-crime drive. launched by Bo Xilai, who became the top official two years ago.

Mr Wang said gangs had run illegal loan businesses worth as much as 30 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) - equivalent to a third of the city's annual revenue. The 40-year-old police chief has 20 scars from knife and bullet wounds, and was once in a coma for 10 days due to his long-term battle with the triads, The South China Morning Post reported.

Last month he told a conference that organised crime was hiding behind businesses and had entered many industries through blackmail, extortion and illegal loans.

Gangs in Chongqing were known for ''having a long history, wide coverage, deep connections, huge membership, high quality and vicious influence'', he said.

Police say they have seized 48 guns, frozen or confiscated assets worth 1.53 billion yuan - including those held overseas - and received more than 9000 tip-offs. Local media said murders had fallen to their lowest seasonal rate in five years.

A professor of public security at the Chinese People's Public Security University, Chen Tianben, said organised crime was a problem in many Chinese cities, and some senior officials offered a ''protective umbrella''.

''I think the police action in Chongqing must be related to the recent political change of the local authority,'' Professor Chen said. ''But it is hard to say whether the change of the officials led to the crackdown, or the crackdown on the gangs dragged down more officials.''

❏ More than 1300 children have been sickened by lead poisoning in Hunan province, the second such case involving a large number of children in the last month, Xinhua reported yesterday.

The children lived near a manganese processing plant in Wenping township, it said, where 1354 children were diagnosed as having excessive lead in their blood. Local authorities had shut the smelter and detained two of its executives.

In Shaanxi province, in the country's north, at least 851 children in two villages near a smelter in Changqing tested positive for lead poisoning, which can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and memory loss.

Guardian News & Media,

Associated Press

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