149
Macau’s casinos became the
epicentre of the 14K Triad’s criminal
activity in the late 1990s following
the police crackdown on the 14K’s
activities in Hong Kong in 1997.ORGANIZED CRIME
and ousted the warlords in an
attempt to reunite China. However,
the two former allies then turned on
each other and fought for political
control of the country.
The Green Gang entered the
battle in 1927, when it was recruited
by Kuomintang leader Chiang-kai-
shek to fight the Communists. In a
bid to protect their opium monopoly,
the Green Gang sided with the
democratic Kuomintang. On
12 April 1927, they conspired with
the Kuomintang to perpetrate the
White Terror Massacre, in which
they stormed Shanghai’s Chinese
section and butchered 5,000
Communists. To reward the Green
Gang for securing the city, Chiang-
kai-shek made Du a general. Du
later became an influential member
of the chamber of commerce, and
ironically, head of the opium
suppression committee. Naturally,
Du used his position to maintain
the Green Gang’s fortune by
reselling the opium confiscated by
the committee.
Du and the Green Gang suffered
a major blow in 1937 when the
Japanese invaded Shanghai. Du
fled, but returned when Shanghai
was liberated in 1945. However,Wan “Broken Tooth”
Kuok-koiWan Kuok-koi was born in 1955 in
a Macau slum. As a teenager he
formed a street gang. He earned
his nickname “Broken tooth” for
an injury sustained crashing a
stolen car. He was initiated into
the notorious 14K Triad and rose
through the gang’s ranks until he
controlled the city’s underworld.
He gained a reputation for his use
of extreme violence. By the 1990s,
10,000 men were at his command.
Obsessed with his image, the
snappy dresser spent $1.7 million
(£1.3 million) to produce Casino,
a film about his life as a gangster,
starring Hong Kong actor SimonYam. Wan Kuok-koi was arrested
on 1 May 1998 as he watched
an advance screening of the
film. He was charged with the
attempted murder of Macau’s
Chief of police, Antonio Marque
Baptista, as well as with loan
sharking, money laundering, and
operating a gang. Sentenced to
15 years in prison, Wan Kuok-koi
continued to run his operations
from behind bars. He was
released in 2012 having served
his time, and in 2015, he joined
an important political advisory
committee along with other
powerful Macau businessmen.his influence was significantly
reduced. When the Communists
seized power in 1949, Du fled again,
leaving his gang to their fate.Modern activities
Because the Triads had supported
the Kuomintang when the
Communists seized power in 1949,
Chairman Mao Zedong began to
implement measures that drove the
Triads to the US, Taiwan, Canada,
and British-controlled Hong Kong.
Hong Kong in particular became
a hotbed for Triad activity, with
around 50 gangs operating on the
island. But in the 1970s, the British
government clamped down on the
Triads, and by 1997, the year in
which the island was transferred
back to Chinese rule, the number
of reported crimes perpetrated by
Triads in Hong Kong had been
reduced to 5–10 per cent of the
total. Many gangsters subsequently
moved their operations to Macau
and to southern China.
In the 1950s, the Triads
practically created the global market
for heroin, selling it to US soldiers
serving in Vietnam. However, in
more recent decades, they have
concentrated on human trafficking.Poor Chinese families, who know
that they can earn up to 10 times
as much money in the US, make a
down payment to “Snake Heads” –
traffickers of illegal aliens – to
smuggle young males into the US.
These men are then forced to work
off the rest of the fee – typically up
to $40,000 – by labouring in
kitchens or in sweatshops for next
to nothing. Failure to do so
inevitably results in bloodshed. ■146-149_Triad_Gangs.indd 149 13/01/2017 15:10