Triads becoming more active in Glasgow?
At first glance, the feudal undercurrents of ancient Chinese dynasties would appear to have little in common with the blunt horrors of inner-city crime in Scotland. But they form the roots of one of the world's biggest and most feared organised crime networks - the Triads. The highly secretive nature of Triad dealings makes it difficult to filter myth from reality in judging the full extent of their activities. What is certain is that they carry out a range of criminal work with brutal effectiveness.A similar degree of uncertainty must be applied to the origins of the Triad underworld. The first "official" Triad group goes back to 9AD feudal China, when secret societies offered protection to families. The name "Triad" is supposed to represent the harmony between heaven, Earth and man.
Triads sprang from the principles of earlier secretive societies, which had been founded on the lines of clan alliance, personal indebtedness and mutual protection. They existed for centuries as quasi-cultural institutions, but by the 19th Century the imperial authorities had decreed membership to be punishable by death. Ironically, while communist China under Chairman Mao was busy stamping out Triads as part of a wider crackdown on its ancient hierarchical history, they were flourishing under the gaze of UK authorities.
Thrived in Hong Kong
In British-ruled Hong Kong, Triads were treated as just another cultural institution and as a consequence were able to flourish. Triad activity achieved a global spread with the 20th Century Chinese Disapora.
Gangs now have a foothold in countries as far apart as the Holland, Malaysia, Australia, the United States and South Africa. In the UK they are active in urban centres - mostly London, Manchester, Glasgow and Hull.
Recently there were an estimated 50 Triad gangs operating in Hong Kong. Britain is thought to be home to four major gangs, including the renowned 14K, which is arguably the biggest in numbers. Their spread has been mirrored by a growth in the range of their criminal enterprise. They now profit on a mix of drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, kidnapping, illegal immigration, counterfeiting, video piracy, loan sharking and gambling.
Heroin dealing
According to one estimate, Triads are responsible for 90% of the heroin trade. Some are loose-knit groups of criminals while others have a more official structure. Yet in general, modern Triad groups have simplified their structure to make operation easier.
The secretive nature of their dealings and the fact they operate mostly just within the Chinese community, mean police have fought an up-hill battle against the underworld. Victims are often too scared to even report incidents while witnesses will sometimes give a statement only to withdraw it as the trial approaches.
SCOTS cop warns kids they are dicing with death as Chinese crooks flood our streets with potentially-lethal pills made up of dangerous cocktails of new compounds.
SCOTS clubbers are facing a new drug danger every week, and ruthless Triad gangsters are to blame.
The Chinese crooks run secret labs in their homeland where their chemists create a constant stream of new, untested, mind-altering compounds that could kill.
The Triads then play a major role in supplying the drugs to dealers in Europe, who put them in the fake ecstasy tablets made on the Continent and sold in our clubs.
Kids who buy them think they’re getting ecstasy, with its active ingredient of MDMA.
But in fact, they are swallowing potentially-lethal mixtures of drugs they have never heard of.
Tablets from the same brand will often contain wildly different – and totally unpredictable – combinations of these so-called legal highs.
The Chinese and other crooks churn out new compounds at the rate of one per week.
And with youngsters continuing to die from fake ecstasy, police are desperate to convince kids at risk that they are “rolling the dice” every time they take a pill.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Record, Police Scotland drugs expert Detective Sergeant Michael Miller said: “Any of these pills can contain anything. Any one of them could kill you.
“Drug dealing is about making money.
“People will sell the cheapest product they can to make the maximum profit.
“If dealers can take out some of the more expensive MDMA, and add in something cheap instead they will do it.
“We are seeing the new substances they are bunging into pills and selling on the street.
“A lot of them are made in China. Dealers can easily go and buy them – and mix them.
“There are so many of these drugs now. It’s estimated they could be producing as many as one a week.
“Nobody knows the effects and the dealers don’t care. It’s about maximising profits.”
Families across Scotland will spend the rest of their lives paying the price of the dealers’ greed.
Schoolgirl Regane MacColl, 17, from Clydebank near Glasgow, died last month after apparently taking a red Mortal Kombat tablet at the city’s Arches nightclub.
And last summer, 18-year-old Demi Campbell, of Alexandria near Dumbarton, became the seventh victim in Scotland of a form of fake ecstasy known as Green Rolex.
Demi’s uncle said her death had “destroyed the family”. The pills also killed 13 youngsters in other parts of the UK.
DS Miller said kids pay attention to press warnings about lethal drug batches. When names such as Mortal Kombat and Green Rolex appear in headlines, the clubbers stop buying them.
But they move on to other pills, believing they are safe, when in reality they can have no hope of knowing what they’re taking.
DS Miller said: “Last year, we were asked to find pills called Yellow Rockstars. We found six different types at the one time – same logo, same colour, totally different chemical make-up.
“Brand names are just marketing ploys. Just because it has the same symbol doesn’t mean it’s the same pill.
“Someone could take one pill one week and be fine, then take it again the next week and it’s a completely different pill, off a completely different press, with completely different drugs.
“It’s like mixing your drinks. People know not to do that.
“But if you buy an ecstasy tablet, there’s a high possibility the manufacturers are mixing their drugs.
“When you mix two drugs that aren’t supposed to go together, your risk is increasing. You’re gambling, rolling the dice.
“And I’ve encountered a tablet that had four different drugs in it.”
DS Miller works for the specialist Police Scotland unit who keep track of the array of substances hidden in “ecstasy” pills.
They do whatever it takes – even sweeping nightclub floors.
DS Miller explained: “A lot of pills are dumped on the floors of clubs. We collect these and we analyse them.
“And if one of them, even if it hasn’t caused a problem, contains something we know is dangerous, we will get the message out there. Our priority is keeping people safe.
“We’re constantly evolving and we’re pro-active.
“We’re working far better with health and addiction services and drug charities and the formation of Police Scotland has made communication and information- gathering easier.
“Intelligence that perhaps wouldn’t have reached me in the past will reach me now.
“It’s like a jigsaw. We’re seeing more of the bigger picture.”
DS Miller’s Statement of Opinion (STOP) unit also give evidence at drug trials and issue press warnings about danger drug batches.
He said: “If there is an immediate risk, we have to get the message out there about the dangers of a particular pill.
“But the bigger picture is that we can’t focus in on one pill. They are all potentially dangerous.”
DS Miller said most pills sold in Scotland are made on the border between Holland and Belgium.
It’s rare for Scots dealers to make their own tablets, and DS Miller has never heard of MDMA being manufactured in this country.
The Green Rolex deaths last year were linked to a substance called PMA, which is cheaper than MDMA, more toxic, and can kill at lower doses. It also takes longer to work, meaning users endanger their lives by taking more pills in a bid to get high.
DS Miller said police were also seeing wide use of benzocaine – a dental anaesthetic usually made in China – to bulk out ecstasy pills.
MPs heard in February that Chinese crooks were trawling the internet for old pharmaceutical research papers to help them produce legal highs.
Drugs minister Norman Baker said he would ask the Beijing government to help curb the labs activities.
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