From London to Liverpool, Britain’s Chinatowns pull in millions of visitors with their thriving food scenes and lively nightlife.
But a hidden menace looms over their bustling streets – its presence obscured by a code of silence that makes speaking about it a risk few are willing to take.
Chinese triad gangs may rarely hit the headlines, but they operate in many of Britain’s Chinatowns – while also exerting control much further afield.
One experienced detective described them today as ‘by far the most sophisticated and organised criminal gangs’ in Britain, with operations spanning the entire country.
The detective claimed that all the UK’s urban police forces have ‘huge issues’ with triad activity, namechecking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool in particular.
‘They have a huge influence and use fear and violence to extort, tax and control,’ he warned.
David McKelvey, who spent nearly 30 years with the Met, said there was an urgent need for police to recognise the threat they pose and clamp down on their activities.
So who are the triads, what crimes are they involved in, and where are they active?
The first clue may come in a surprising place – a quiet street in the trendy neighbourhood of Walthamstow in north London.
In recent weeks this area has become the centre of a bizarre crimewave that has seen homes splashed with red paint and daubed with the word ‘brothel’ in a series of mysterious nighttime attacks.
A suspected member of triad group Wo Shing Wo was arrested during a wave of raids on Honk Kong. The group is known to be active in Britain
Detectives say the triads wield considerable power over Chinatowns in cities like Manchester (pictured)
A group of 30 men believed to be affiliated with the triads were involved in a vicious brawl in Manchester’s Chinatown in 2010
Following intense speculation, criminologist Oliver Chan linked the incidents to an intimidation tactic used by triad gangs to enforce debt repayments – a theory seemingly supported by footage of some of the attackers speaking Mandarin.
Mr McKelvey, a former detective chief inspector specialising in organised crime who now runs his own private investigation company, TM Eye, believes they are a worrying sign.
‘This indicates triad activity and is a sign the gangs are involved in open warfare,’ he told MailOnline.
Originating in secret societies formed during the 18th- and 19th-century China, the triads first appeared in the UK in the early 1950s after the end of World War II.
Rivalling the Italian mafia and Japanese yakuza as one of the most powerful and feared of the world’s transnational organised crime networks, they now operate across six of the world’s seven continents – albeit splintered into rival factions.
Mr McKelvey said UK-based triads were now involved in a wide variety of illicit activities including cannabis manufacture, modern slavery and human trafficking, as well as the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Another specialism is tobacco smuggling, which led the former DCI to draw a worrying link between the recent events in London and the current gang war underway in Australia over the trade in illegal cigarettes.
‘This could potentially spill out into the public domain like in Australia, where we have seen firebomb attacks on tobacco shops and killings,’ he said. ‘These networks are very organised, very successful and operate across the whole UK.’
Liang Jie Chen was part of a gang – allegedly with triad links – that smuggled illegal tobacco into the UK
Xiaolong Lin and Ke Chen were also convicted as part of the plot – but they were all handed suspended sentences
Officers also intercepted fake pouches bearing the brand names Golden Virginia and B&H
Red paint daubed on a house on Chingford Road in Walthamstow, north London, as part of a suspected gang dispute
Several tobacco shops have been firebombed in Australia amid a gang war over the illegal trade
TM Eye recently secured the successful private prosecution of four members of a triad-linked crime gang who had been importing counterfeit tobacco from Hong Kong.
Despite the seizures being carried out by Border Force officers at Stansted Airport, neither the police nor HMRC decided to take on the case – prompting TM Eye to be brought in instead.
Mr McKelvey, who has been investigating the triads in a private capacity for six years, said their focus on crimes like tobacco smuggling – which are generally considered a lower priority than violent offences – meant they frequently fell under the police’s radar.
‘They go for high reward, low risk criminality,’ he said.
‘We haven’t seen any real violence up to date from the raids we’ve done, but that’s because they are all making vast amounts of money, most of which goes out to China via social media platforms.’
Mr McKelvey linked the tobacco network he investigated to 14K, an outfit based in Hong Kong. They are one of the most prominent triad groups operating in the UK alongside Wo Shing Wo – which also originates in the former British territory.
A rare public clash between the two rival groups took place in Manchester’s Chinatown in June 2010, when 30 men launched into a full-scale street battle that left five of them in hospital with serious stab wounds.
Jurors heard how the trouble began inside the K2 karaoke bar when the alleged leader of Wo Shing Wo is said to have challenged a rival by shouting: ‘I’ve run the streets of Manchester for over 10 years – who do you think you are?’
In a shocking incident that took place two years earlier, a group of them were involved in the kidnap of five young men from a house in Plumstead, south-east London, in 1998. This is the moment the men were rescued by police
Police in protective gear prepare to smash into the room to rescue the hostages
A backstreet in Birmingham’s Chinatown, where triads are also said to have a presence
London’s Chinatown has seen several triad-linked killings in recent decades. This is a general view of the area
Knives and other weapons were used in the ensuing violence, while one man was hit by a passing 4×4.
Five of the combatants were later sentenced to prison terms of up to eight months, with a judge suggesting the incident could have been part of an ‘old-fashioned turf’ war between the two gangs.
Another group of organised Chinese criminals are the Snakeheads, who originate in Fujian province and are involved in human trafficking – including the deaths of 58 illegal immigrants left to suffocate in a lorry at Dover in 2000.
In a shocking incident that took place two years earlier, a group of them were involved in the kidnap of five young men from a house in Plumstead, south-east London.
This came to the attention of the Met when a neighbour called 999 to describe how an armed gang had broken into a nearby house before dragging out a group of hostages at knifepoint and bundling them into cars.
They then demanded massive ransoms from their families, prompting a lengthy hostage incident that only ended when police used mobile phone data to track down the gang’s location and free the hostages.
The investigation was assisted by an FBI interpreter, who was able to decode the local dialect the men were speaking in.
Police went on to arrest 35 suspected Snakeheads in relation to the kidnap. The ringleaders were jailed for 14 years and some – without the prior knowledge of British officers – were executed after they returned to China.
Triad leader Huang Hongfa wearing a face mask and full body protective suit before being sentenced to death in 2020
A regional high court found the former triad leader guilty of 17 charges including organising and leading an organization of a gangland nature, intentional assault and offering bribes
A senior member of the police team who helped track down the badly beaten hostages spoke anonymously to warn of the dangers groups like the Snakeheads posed.
‘We were dealing with a highly secretive, impenetrable criminal subculture embedded deep within the Chinese community – it was a black economy based around people smuggling, extortion and racketeering,’ he told MailOnline.
‘Because the workers were smuggled into the UK, they were in no position to report matters to the authorities. They were therefore open to the worst forms of abuse and exploitation.’
The former Detective Chief Superintendent said that the Snakeheads were not formally part of the triads but often worked with them.
‘In my view the words Snakehead and triad are interchangeable – they often relate to the same groups of people. They exist in a culture that often communicates in dialects that cannot be understood by westerners.’
Some triad gang turf wars have spilled over into murders, including the fatal shooting of a Chinese man in the BRB bar in Gerard Street, London, in June 2012. Five years before, another man was hacked to death nearby by a gang with machetes.
We can only hope this time will be different.
