San Francisco Chinatown underworld

[chud]

FBI sting shows San Francisco Chinatown underworld
Associated Press
By Garance Burke

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Beneath the strings of red paper lanterns and narrow alleyways of the nation's oldest Chinatown lies a sinister underworld, according to an FBI criminal complaint that has stunned even those familiar with the neighborhood's history of gambling houses, opium dens and occasional gangland-style murders.

The federal charges, which allege a California lawmaker accepted money and campaign donations in exchange for providing official favors and helping broker an arms deal, cast harsh light on Chinatown's tight-knit network of fraternal organizations and one of its most shadowy characters, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow.

Investigators say Chow is the leader — the dragonhead — of one of the most powerful Asian gangs in North America. Chow's gang is said to have lured state Sen. Leland Yee into its clutches through money and campaign contributions in exchange for legislative help, as Yee sought to build his campaign coffers to run for California secretary of state.

Born in Hong Kong in 1960, Chow came to the United States at 16 and was reportedly nicknamed "Shrimp Boy" by his grandmother, in part due to his small stature.

After dropping out of high school, Chow rose within the ranks of the local Hop Sing Tong gang after he and his crew survived a 1977 shooting at a Chinatown restaurant that left five dead and about a dozen people injured.

Chow then spent a few years inside San Quentin Prison for a robbery conviction, and after his release, he started working with the Hong Kong-based Wo Hop To triad, one of numerous Chinese underground societies linked to organized crime. Chow has admitted that as a gang leader, he ran prostitution rings, smuggled drugs and extorted thousands of dollars from business owners in the 1980s.

"He was given like an unofficial position of being a leader, but to say he was sophisticated, no. He was more like a forceful brute," said Ignatius Chinn, a former California Department of Justice agent who spent years investigating Chow in the early 1990s. "If he didn't get his way, he would just beat the door down and that was how we put cases on him."

Although he ultimately was convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years to life in the 1990s, Chow cut a deal to win release and returned to Chinatown several years ago, pledging to stay straight. His work with at-risk youth soon won accolades from prominent politicians. But the complaint alleges that Chow used his position as the dragonhead of the Ghee Kung Tong to launder money, receive and transport stolen property and traffic in contraband cigarettes during a FBI sting.

Longtime residents and observers said the startling allegations revealed the continued presence of organized crime in the popular tourist attraction and home to one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia.

"Chinatown is a very safe place and usually the crime you hear about there is just robberies and people being taken advantage of," said Joseph Leung, editor for the San Francisco edition of The Sing Tao Daily, the largest circulation Chinese newspaper in the U.S. "That's why this is all so shocking."

The pre-dawn FBI raid Wednesday at the Ghee Kung Tong's office, next to a massage parlor and across from a benevolent society where elderly people play mahjong, also brought into focus its centuries-old history. The tong was founded in the late 1880s to support immigrants from Hong Kong and elsewhere in the Pearl Delta region.

Amid morning rain showers Wednesday, federal agents and fire crews stormed the building armed with a circular saw and Jaws of Life to crack a safe that authorities say was at least a century old.

The organization is among dozens of active tongs, or family associations, in Chinatown, and Chow assumed control when its former president, Allen Leung, was shot to death by a masked gunman at his import-export store in 2006, said David Lee, director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee.

"He kind of became like a gangster celebrity. He was on parole, he had an ankle bracelet and he became a fixture at political events for a while," said Lee, who also teaches political science at San Francisco State University.

The 137-page complaint, whose many twists are reminiscent of "American Hustle," does not reveal whether Yee had any connection to Chow before the FBI got involved.

Yee, a progressive Democrat born in China, built his political fortune partly through Chinatown connections and had never lost a race until his failed bid for San Francisco mayor in 2011.

A few years before that, Chow's own political star began rising. Around 2008, he began meeting with at-risk youth to talk with kids about how to stay on the straight and narrow, said Rudy Corpuz Jr., executive director of the youth-led violence prevention organization United Playaz.

"He wasn't just the average guy on the street corner when he had that life, he was somebody you wouldn't mess with. And he's little so people were like, 'Damn, that little guy had that much power?" said Corpuz Jr., who said Chow's redemption story helped change hundreds of young lives for the good.

Soon, the awards started coming. Chow was lauded by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California for his work as a former offender who had become a community role model, and praised by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for his "willingness to give back to the community." He posted pictures of himself on Facebook with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

All the while he was running a criminal operation, according to court documents.

Several years ago, undercover FBI agents assigned to Chow infiltrated the organization, and ultimately snared Yee and his campaign consultant Keith Jackson.

The three were arrested Wednesday during a series of raids in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area that also netted additional members of the tong.

Yee, free on $500,000 bail, withdrew Thursday from the race for secretary of state. Chow was denied bail because he was deemed a flight risk and a danger to the public. Jackson was denied bail, too.

"This is a very active criminal enterprise, and we won't see this one very busy for the near future," Chinn said.

Yee's allies, however, questioned why the senator had been targeted in the elaborate sting and cautioned that he was innocent until proven guilty.

"Leland always told me to be careful about taking money from the family associations, because you never know where the money is coming from. This kind of flies in the face of what he has told me," said Wayne Lee, a Yee protege who is mayor of the nearby suburb of Millbrae. "He's always been a champion for the downtrodden. I am hoping that he will be vindicated."

http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-sting-shows-san-francisco-chinatown-underworld-201940947.html;_ylt=ApxPaunTvdK5uNNlNpX_9FbQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBsbzR0bHJyBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHNlYwNzcg--

[grzegorz]

There was a Gangland on the Triads in SF.

[shawnsegler]

Yeah, you beat me to it grzegorz. I saw it too.

Here it is:

[klonk]

If the charges against Leland Yee prove to be true, it is colossally ironic that he was a big supporter of gun control laws of all kinds...

Prominent gun control advocate California Senator Leland Yee pushes for laws the law-abiding obey, but says he doesn't care about criminals getting guns

[grzegorz]

Dude obviously lived the double life of a politician and a gangster.

He should embrace what he did and run as a Republican. With the NRA backing he could be president.

The real irony is that the laws he broke were put there by Ronald Reagan.

[shawnsegler]

If the charges against Leland Yee prove to be true, it is colossally ironic that he was a big supporter of gun control laws of all kinds...

Prominent gun control advocate California Senator Leland Yee pushes for laws the law-abiding obey, but says he doesn't care about criminals getting guns

Yeah it sure is ironic. It's like a one of version of the dozens of Conservatives who've fought against gay rights and ended up chugging jizz in some mens room stall.

yup..mighty, ironic.

S

[chud]

Except that Leland Yee is a DEMOCRAT.
Nice try.

Anyway, the point here is that almost all POLITICIANS are hypocrites.
It's too bad y'all are so partisan that you have to twist yourselves into pretzels and start bashing the other party as a means of defending your psyches from realizing that yours contains scum too.
You are playing right into the hands of people like Leland Yee.

[edededed]

Is it just human nature to abuse power one you have it? I don't think I would... but then again, I don't have it and so don't know.

[wiesiek]

It is very human to quickly became the God

[Michael]

Nice ganglands video. You could perhaps see the essence of the plot lines of some films made since the late 70's. "Year of the Dragon" with Mickey Rourke maybe.

[shawnsegler]

Except that Leland Yee is a DEMOCRAT.
Nice try.

Anyway, the point here is that almost all POLITICIANS are hypocrites.
It's too bad y'all are so partisan that you have to twist yourselves into pretzels and start bashing the other party as a means of defending your psyches from realizing that yours contains scum too.
You are playing right into the hands of people like Leland Yee.

Did you really miss what I was saying there?

Sigh....

S

[klonk]

It is not a useful defense of anyone to attack someone else.

[shawnsegler]

If you think I was defending that guy...well, it's pretty obvious why you guys didn't get what I was saying. I guess it's just useless to try.

S

[gimpster]

Shawn

You are still attacking others to save a criminal's ass. Fact is if it was you(or any other working class schmuck) and not a well connect machine politician like Yee, you'd be bent over in a Federal lockup getting introduced to bubba and crew.

The fact is you liberals ought to be happy that the Fed's nailed this scumbag and crew.

And BTW not supporting Gay marriage isn't a crime. So no real comparison,

[Dajenarit]

Your good shawn. I got it. It was funny too.