Van de Kamp Warns of Growth in Asian Gang Activity

Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, predicting a dramatic increase in Asian gang-related crime in the next 10 years, said Wednesday that a coordinated state and federal effort will be needed to combat the problem.

Van de Kamp tied the prediction partly to the steady growth in the Asian population, saying also that the situation in Hong Kong, where the city will revert to Chinese government control in 1997, could trigger an unprecedented increase in Chinese gang activity in California.

In his annual report to the Legislature on organized crime, he noted that the largest and most violent Hong Kong gang, the Triads, has already stepped up activities in this country. According to the President’s Commission on Organized Crime, the Triads started moving assets and people to the United States last year.

Van de Kamp’s report, which documents the actions of crime syndicates, prison gangs and terrorists, noted that Vietnamese, Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean gangs have made Los Angeles and the Bay Area centers for criminal activity. The gangs, which prey primarily on members of their own ethnic groups, are active in robbery, burglary, prostitution, extortion, gambling, narcotics trafficking, auto theft and contract murder, he said.

Although the other forms of organized crime stagnated or declined last year, Asian gang activity appeared to increase, the report says. Van de Kamp said no reliable estimates are available on the increase in gang members or activities. He added that the anticipated increase in Asian gang activity should not reflect on the “millions of other law-abiding Asian citizens.”

Stage Set ‘for Disaster’

Van de Kamp said the exodus of crime figures from Hong Kong could beget an influx of crime in California, similar to what happened in Florida when Cuban leader Fidel Castro allowed thousands of his country’s undesirables--the Marielitos-- to emigrate in 1980.

“The stage could be set for our own Marielito -style disaster here in California,” he said. “Miami is still struggling to recover from that catastrophe.”

Besides the Triads, the report names three other highly organized Asian groups operating in the state. The Taiwan-based United Bamboo has been especially active in the drug trade and contract murder, the report says, and the Wah Ching gang, another Chinese organization, runs much of the pai gow gambling in the state’s gambling parlors. Also operating in the state is the Japanese gang, Yakuza, which has an estimated 100,000 members worldwide and smuggles pornography, guns and drugs into Japan, the report says. A 10-agency task force of police agencies was formed in October to provide the intelligence information and training needed to combat the problem. But even with this coordination, Van de Kamp said, the Asian gang problem could prove overwhelming.

Because of the size and sophisticated structure of the gangs, many of which cross international boundaries, the federal government’s help will be needed in any successful effort, he said.

“We not only welcome federal cooperation, but we need it to meet this challenge,” he said.