Striking a major blow against Asian organized crime in America and Hong Kong, federal officials have brought racketeering charges against the Bay Area leaders of two powerful crime syndicates and numerous members of violent youth gangs in San Francisco's Chinatown.
In a 48-count indictment unsealed Tuesday in San Francisco, two local kingpins - Peter (Uncle) Chong and Raymond (Shrimp Boy) Chow - and several of their top lieutenants were charged with running an international criminal enterprise whose activities stretched from the Bay Area to the East Coast and Hong Kong.The ethnic Chinese gang leaders formed an alliance with Asian crime syndicates in other American cities to commit crimes ranging from loansharking and drug smuggling to arson, robbery and murder, federal officials said.
All told, the indictment charges 19 reputed gang members - 16 men and three women - with crimes committed in several California cities as well as Atlantic City, N.J., Boston, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore.
This case "symbolizes the strongest blow we have witnessed in the Bay Area against Asian organized crime," FBI special agent Tony Lau told a news conference on Tuesday.
It marks the first time that federal officials on the West Coast have used the far-reaching Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to charge members of Chinese criminal societies, known as Triads. The RICO charge itself carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.