Asian Gangs: ‘Crime Problem of the Future’

If a geothermal map of areas plagued by Asian organized crime were laid over Southern California, one of the spots glowing red would be the San Gabriel Valley.

With its eight cities and three suburban areas containing populations more than 20% Asian, some investigators consider the valley the heart of Asian criminal enterprise.

Indeed, the region earned mention in a U.S. Senate investigation released last year that called Asian organized crime “a major new threat confronting law enforcement around the globe.” Asian gangsters represent a “new breed of international criminal” against which current U.S. law enforcement efforts are clearly inadequate, the report said.

The report’s findings are echoed by local authorities who say Asian organized crime members routinely outnumber, outmaneuver and outspend police.

Experts say Wah Ching members are the dominant Asian organized crime group in the San Gabriel Valley and in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Some estimate up to 300 Wah Ching leaders are active here. But close rivals are the Hung Mun, or “Red Door,” who may have equal numbers. Taiwanese crime groups such as the United Bamboo and the Four Seas each have only about 50 leaders here, experts say. The ranks of these organizations, however, swell considerably when other members are factored in.

“It’s clearly the crime problem of the future for the organized crime sector,” said James P. Walsh Jr., who heads the U.S. Attorney’s Organized Crime Strike Force in Southern California. “But there’s not a comprehensive plan or program to deal with the problem of Asian gangs.”

Part of the reason is historical.

On San Gabriel Valley’s busy commercial streets, with their thriving Chinese-owned businesses, Chinese organized crime figures preyed on their own, quietly gaining ground since the late-1970s, police say. In those years, Wah Ching members openly held yearly conferences in Chinese restaurants, handing out T-shirts and key chains, inducting new members and electing officers, said Monterey Park Police Detective Jones Moy, an Asian crime investigator for 16 years.

Their activities were virtually ignored for more than 15 years by most small suburban police departments not equipped and not inclined to investigate Asian crime, experts say. Lack of Chinese-speaking officers and the reluctance of Asian victims to report crimes against them caused police and prosecutors to feel such cases were not worth the time and effort.

“Unless the investigator knows the culture and has an awful lot of patience, most investigators give up,” said Detective William Howell, an investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Asian Organized Crime Unit.

Not surprisingly, the number of Asian organized criminals has increased, along with the complexity of the cases. And the crimes have spread to other geographic areas and ethnic groups, police say.

Reseda in the San Fernando Valley and Lancaster in the Antelope Valley are now reporting Asian gang crimes. Victims include American-born Japanese, Americanized Chinese and a smattering of Latinos and whites targeted for burglaries, robberies, carjackings and loan-sharking.

“They’re not just picking on their own,” Moy said.

Authorities estimate more than 100 Asian gangs with more than 10,000 members operate in Los Angeles County alone. Pitted against this are small two- and four-person Asian gang task forces in the Sheriff’s Department and in a handful of city police departments.

Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney’s office here began focusing on Asian organized crime only 2 1/2 years ago and the FBI three years ago despite more than 15 years of Asian gang activity in Southern California.

“Only 20 guys in the county know what Asian gangs are doing and only 10 of them really know what they’re doing,” Howell said.

Those investigators are hampered by language problems that still pose monumental problems. With 28 different Chinese dialects, the search for a translator can stall investigations and bring trials to a crawl, Walsh said.

Further, local police are simply outclassed by suspects who jump international borders after committing local crimes. Police and even federal officials lack the money to hop on planes to trail suspected criminals. And without such traditional investigative tools as mug shots or fingerprints, police have no way to identify these high-rolling suspects.

Even statistics on Asian crime are hard to come by. Street gang crime tallies, which many police departments only recently began collecting separately from other crimes, generally lump together Latino, black and Asian gang crimes.

Finally, much of the crime still goes unreported as victims, particularly newer Asian immigrants, remain reluctant to report it for fear of reprisals or fear of police.

Meanwhile, the list of criminal activities engaged in by Asian organized crime is spreading and growing in sophistication, experts say.

A recent sampling in the San Gabriel Valley includes:

* Credit card fraud

On April 12, sheriff’s deputies were called to a Rosemead area stereo store after a customer presented a California driver’s license that the clerk believed was altered. Deputies questioned the man, Simon Yin Wan Lee, and found 10 credit cards in his possession. Each card bore a phony name on the front, but the magnetic strip on the back was keyed to a valid, open bank account.

Lee, an Asian immigrant who authorities suspect was smuggled into the United States, faces trial next month in Pasadena Superior Court.

More than 50 similar cases have been filed in Alhambra Municipal Court in the past five months, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Yablons, who suspects Asian organized crime may be involved. wan.

* Loan-sharking

On July 8, police ended a 1 1/2-year investigation with the arrest of Mark Chen, a suspected loan shark who operated out of San Gabriel and Alhambra. Chen, who investigators believe has ties to the Wah Ching, allegedly specialized in small loans of up to $3,000 with interest rates of between 42% and 100%.

Although authorities allege that Chen victimized more than 200 Asians, blacks, Latinos and whites, charges have yet to be filed against him.

“It’s real hard to get people who will complain,” said Alhambra Police Sgt. Judy Pohl, who helped investigate the case. Victims “can’t get loans from legitimate banks, they are immigrants, or they don’t know that usury laws protect them.”

Chen was released from custody pending further investigation.

* Extortion

On May 14, Janet Mar of San Gabriel allegedly received a phone call from a woman in Hong Kong, a stranger named Way Poon. The woman demanded payment for a $100,000 business debt owed by Mar’s uncle. When Mar, 23, refused to cooperate, the woman phoned again a few days later, this time from New York.

Finally, police say Poon showed up on Mar’s doorstep, accompanied by Howard Lee, who claimed to be a Wah Ching gang member. The pair moved into Mar’s home and lived there until Mar finally contacted police. Poon and Lee have since pleaded guilty to extortion. As a condition of probation, they were required to publish an apology to the victims in Chinese newspapers.

“It’s difficult to get victims to come forward,” prosecutor Yablons explained, echoing the familiar theme. “We felt it would have a good effect on the Chinese community.”

Although the Mar case is unusual in some respects, it exemplifies the persistence with which Asian gangs pursue extortion. Typically, an Asian nightclub or restaurant owner is approached by a group of five or six youths who ask for money to provide a small service, such as washing a tiny window. The sum requested can range from $500 to $5,000 monthly.

Owners who refuse get revisited by the youths, who tie up several tables during rush hour. Or, the youths come back at 1 a.m., argue and vandalize the place, then flee.

Faced with these tactics, most owners usually yield to avoid further problems.

* Home invasion

On July 18, five armed Asian males broke down the door of an apartment in the 300 block of Clary Avenue in San Gabriel after a male resident peered out a peephole and refused to open the door. Once inside, the man was forced to lie face down on the floor. Other gunmen searched the apartment and shot and wounded a woman as she emerged from the shower. They stole a small amount of cash.

Two days later, the apartment was raided again, this time by five men who got in by breaking a bedroom window. This time, the robbers made off with credit cards, jewelry and cash from four people visiting the apartment.

Because of a traditional belief that bad luck happens to those who do not plan ahead, Asian street gangs often conduct surveillance of home invasion targets, police say. Street gang members will befriend the son or daughter of a well-to-do shop owner for information about when parents bring home cash from the store. Or, older Wah Ching members provide home addresses for a fee, typically around $5,000.

The family is then observed for hours to determine their habits and schedules. To gain entrance to the family’s home, sometimes girls are sent to the door on the pretext of returning a video borrowed from someone inside. Once the door is opened, gun-wielding robbers rush in. Because some Asian immigrants distrust banks and keep cash at home, a home invasion can yield tens of thousands of dollars.

* Prostitution

On Feb. 16, Arcadia police were called to a house in the 700 block of Sharon Street where a home-invasion robbery was believed to be occurring. Instead, officers found several adult men, scantily clad women and bedrooms equipped with a mattress on the floor and a lamp, ashtray, condoms, lubricating gel and tissues next to each.

The women, who had bought their passports in Malaysia, told immigration officials that their passports were being held by the homeowner in a safe. Immigration officials suspected the women were being forced to work as prostitutes to pay off their smuggling fee into the United States.

Immigration officials finally deported six women and the man believed to have been operating the house of prostitution. Meanwhile, possible locations of similar operations were identified and the investigation continues, said Arcadia Police Lt. Ed Winter.

Police have busted similar prostitution rings run out of homes, massage parlors, nightclubs, beauty salons and barbershops. Some barbershops in the San Gabriel Valley are modeled after Hong Kong versions, with a tiny space provided for the shop, but most of the space allotted for private rooms where customers can retire with women who lounge in the shop waiting for customers.