The secret life of a Chinese crime boss in Canada

The secret life of a Chinese crime boss in Canada

(Published in the The Asian Pacific Post Feb. 4, 2004)

When the communist tanks rolled into Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989 and violently crushed a pro-democracy demonstration, Kwai Ping Hun was barely thirty years old but well on his way to becoming a ruthless crime boss.

The Guangdong native was already on the radar of police in China and Hong Kong for a series of violent armed robberies and needed to find a safe refuge - a place where he could lie low and further his criminal ambition.

Canada quickly came into focus for Kwai.

After all thousands of Chinese were fleeing the communist crackdown and Ottawa was contemplating amnesty for those already there and did not want to return.

On April 14, 1991, Kwai Ping Hun carrying a Chinese passport declaring him to be Liang Jin Xiong, with a birth date of Nov 28, 1960, took a plane from Hong Kong and landed in Toronto.

An immigration officer processed his papers as a refugee claimant fleeing the fallout from the Tiananmen Square incident.

Kwai aka Liang gave his address in Toronto as 12, Claircrest Road, Markham, Ontario - a brick home on a middle-class street.

Here, Kwai did not wait long before hooking up with the local Triad boys. His criminal mind saw a huge opportunity in cigarette smuggling.

It was a time when police were struggling to check the beginnings of a multi-million dollar illegal industry which was breaking down traditional organized crime barriers.

Powerful outlaw motorcycle gangs began working with Chinese Triads and native Indians to smuggle duty-free cigarettes across the Canadian-U.S. border or ship them in from overseas.

Cigarettes were bought tax-free in the United States, then smuggled across the St. Lawrence River into Canada via Native Indian reservations and sold at enormous profit.

At the height of this illegal industry in 1992, criminals smuggled 4,000 cases of cigarettes with a street value of C$8 million into Canada every week.

Kwai by this time had become entrenched in Toronto's Chinese mafia and wanted to cash in on the lucrative cigarette trade.

But unlike other cigarette smugglers, he decided to do one better.

According to police and court records Kwai and his gang were among the first to set up a factory to produce counterfeit cigarettes in Canada with smuggled tobacco from the United States.

The gang is believed to have started its operations around June 1992, about a year after Kwai arrived in Canada claiming to be a refugee fleeing the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Between June and November of that year, police believe that Kwai and his gang had smuggled into Canada more than six tonnes of cigarette tobacco that could be turned into one million dollars worth of cigarettes on the street.

They were storing their tobacco at a warehouse in Scarborough, outside of Toronto.

On Oct 30, 1992, a police and customs teams raided the Apex Mini Storage on Metropolitan Rd. in the Warden Ave.-Highway 401 area and seized the stored tobacco.

Kwai, who was 32 at the time and staying at Markham, Ontario was arrested along with Lung Sang Hung, 37, also of Markham, and Kwok Wah Lai, 31, of Scarborough.

The three men were charged with possession of manufactured tobacco under the Canada Excise Act and released on bail.

The arrests, however, did not deter Kwai or his gang.

They continued to set up a multi-million dollar operation to produce thousands of cartons of phony, brand-name cigarettes.

At the same time Canadian police and customs were also tracking the group.

Almost a year after Kwai's initial arrest, another police and customs team swooped down on an industrial unit on Finchdene Square, in the Finch-Markham area of Ontario.

The joint investigation by RCMP Bowmanville and Canada Customs in Niagara resulted in the arrests of three people and the seizure of tons of tobacco, cigarette-making machinery and a .45-calibre handgun.

Among those arrested was Kwai.

Inside the warehouse police found 4,500 kilos of tobacco and a complete cigarette manufacturing operation. The cigarette-making machine was capable of turning out 1,200 cigarettes a minute. Police also found fake labels and forged packaging.

RCMP Corporal Ian Pole said after the raid it was the first fake cigarette factory found in Canada.

Pole said he believed the gang was illegally buying up to four tonnes of tobacco every three months and smuggling it into Canada using false documents.

Forty-five hundred kilos can be made into 34,000 cartons of cigarettes worth $1,500,000,h Pole said at that time.

Kwai and two others arrested at the time were again released on bail after being charged under the Customs Act.

Kwai ignored the charges and a bench warrant exists for him until today.

Realising that his criminal resume may come up at any attempt to get his refugee status formalized, Kwai, who was known to the Canadian authorities as Liang Jin Xiong, began using several other identities.

His aliases included Li Guo-hua, with a birth date of July 10, 1961 and Lai Kwok Wah, the name of a criminal accomplice.

To avoid arrest and deportation he began moving around switching addresses in the Scarborough area.

Among the places he lived included a 17-storey apartment complex at 5 Greystone Walk Drive in Scarborough, another apartment building at 2460 Eglinton Avenue East and a house at 11, Boxdene Avenue.

All the neighbourhoods were home to Greater Toronto's burgeoning Chinese community, a place where someone like Kwai could easily disappear.

On August 4, 1993, Kwai, using a Chinese passport numbered 2530842, applied for a 10-year U.S. visa at the American consular offices in Toronto.

On the passport used for the application, he gave his name as Li Guo Hua alias Lai Kwok Wah with a birth date of July 10, 1961.

Background checks did not reveal the true identity of the applicant and Kwai was shortly later issued with U.S. visa number 05690686.

Three months later, Metro Toronto's major crime unit arrested Kwai aka Liang and his girlfriend Wong Chei-Ling and charged the duo with illegal possession of 60 rounds of ammunition and several guns.

The couple skipped bail and investigators believe it was around this time Kwai began using his different identities to move in and out of North America to commit and orchestrate crimes in Hong Kong.

He was now carrying HK Identity Card No. H104697(9) with a birth date of 18 March 1960.

Kwai by this time is believed to have had abandoned his refugee claim and is thought to be one of the 4,500 Tiananmen Square applicants who were ordered out of Canada.

Attempts by The Asian Pacific Post to determine if Kwai was actually deported were met with government officials citing privacy legislation and the need to protect an applicants identity.

Asian Organized Crime investigators in Ontario believe Kwai is one of the 36,000 illegals who have gone underground in the province. The government this year admitted that it has lost track of them.

After his arrest on weapons charges in Toronto, Kwai and his gang went on a major crime spree in Hong Kong. Kwai had recruited gang members in Hong Kong and in Mainland China to facilitate his criminal enterprise which had now grown to include money laundering and handling of stolen property.

Fung Kin-man, chief superintendent of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau in Hong Kong said police have pinned between 15 to 20 violent armed robberies in the 90's and the last few years to Kwai and his gang.

The total take exceeded US$5 million.

Kwai and his gang were ruthless using hand grenades and an array of weapons, including the Peoples Liberation Army issue 7.62mm Black Star pistols.

They did not hesitate to open fire.

About 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22, 2001, three plainclothes Hong Kong police officers were on patrol in the Kowloon City area where they noticed four suspicious males near the junction of Waterloo Road and Peace Avenue.

When the officers approached the group, two of them pulled pistols from their clothing and opened fire at close range. One of them, police allege, was Kwai.

Constable Sze Kwan-ming, 28, was shot between the eyes but escaped with his life because the bullet passed downwards, exiting through his jaw and leaving his brain unharmed.

Constable Lai Chi-wai, 38, suffered serious injuries after being shot in the shoulder.

Investigations identified the same group as being responsible for a daring heist one month later on a jewellery store in the Pioneer Centre on Hong Kong's Nathan Road.

Witnesses said the gunmen, one of whom was carrying a grenade opened fire but did not hit anyone.

The shooting of the police officers brought the entire weight of the Hong Kong police force to bear down on Kwai and his gang, who by now were the most feared criminal group in the territory.

The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau posted a HK$2 million reward for the capture and convictions of Kwai and his gang.

What we are dealing with is a group of dangerous criminals. They are heavily armed with firearms and will shoot people, without scruples, said Chief Superintendent Andy Tsang Wai-hung Tsang.

We will search every corner to hunt them down, he vowed.

Hong Kong police intensified their cooperation and intelligence efforts with Macau police and the Public Security Bureau in Guangdong, China, Kwai's home base.

On July 18, 2001, heavily armed police swooped down on 12 premises in Hong Kong and arrested 20 people on suspicion of providing support for Kwai and his gang.

Those arrested included 13 men aged 22 to 68 and seven women aged between 23 and 64.

Police seized bank account records, expensive watches and a jungle knife and asked Interpol to issue Red Notice appeals for international assistance to dismantle the Kwai Ping Hung syndicate.

Last Christmas eve, after a painstaking global search, Hong Kong police's elite Flying Tiger police commandos swooped down on a flat and arrested the territory's most wanted criminal, putting an end to crime spree that spanned three decades.

The pre-dawn raid which caught Kwai sleeping and one of his lieutenants Ng Chun-Keung, 46, also yielded a huge arms cache.

Police seized one AK-47 assault rifle, two shotguns, six 7.62mm pistols, one .45-calibre pistol and 882 rounds of ammunition. They also found three People's Liberation Army (PLA) Type 1 hand-grenades, two PLA Type 67 hand-grenades and two Russian F1 hand-grenades.

It was the biggest arms haul in Hong Kong in 20 years.

The duo was taken to court under heavy security on Christmas day, surrounded by shotgun toting policemen in helmets and bullet proof vests. Their next court date is scheduled for this month.

As Hong Kong police piece together evidence to put away Kwai and his gang for good, a Canadian MP is urging Ottawa to study the case and plug loopholes in the immigration system that is believed to allow the fugitive to travel freely around the world on bogus passports.

MP Darrell Stinson said the case of Kwai Ping Hun would provide valuable insight for Immigration Canada authorities on how to spot and quickly deport the criminals who are abusing the refugee system.

If what we are being told about his comings and goings in Canada is true, this case will help us stop others, he said, after Kwai was arrested in Hong Kong.

This type of refugee gives a bad name to all the others who really need a safe place like Canada to live said Stinson.