Big Circle Gang
Tai Huen Chai (大圈仔), Big Circle Boys; For centuries, emperors and warring factions aligned themselves with the various triad groups. The British tried to expel, imprison or kill many triad members during their reign of Hong Kong. In the early 1970s, a new player, the Big Circle Boys. They were given the moniker (大圈仔). The Big Circle Boys originated in China’s paramilitary Red Guards,[1] and after clashing with China’s army in the late 1960s, members were sent to prison in southern China. But some gang members escaped and infiltrated Hong Kong, where they “turned their military prowess to crime,” according to Canadian court records. The gang now thrives among the unregulated factories and underground banks of Guangdong, and especially in the city Guangzhou, also known as Canton, and nicknamed the “Big Circle” after a drawing on a map indicating in which part of China they operated. [2]
Founded | 1970s |
---|---|
Founding location | United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada |
Years active | 1970s-present |
Territory | Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Malaysia, United States, Canada, Australia |
Ethnicity | Chinese |
Membership | 5000-10000 |
Criminal activities | Racketeering, Murder, drug trafficking, intimidation, extortion, money laundering, contract killing |
Rivals | Bloods, 211 Crew, Soldiers of Aryan Culture, Aryan Nations, Lynwood Vikings, Aryan Circle, Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi Lowrider, Crips, Piru Street Boys, East Side Longos, 14K Triad |
They spread rapidly across Canadian cities in the 1990s, and confidential informants say Big Circle Boys are trusted bonding agents among many actors in fluid networks of Asian drug-trafficking.
They controlled much of the Heroin trade in central China and now control a vast percentage of the Heroin and Fentanyl distribution business in the United States and Canada.
The Big Circle Boys are a Transnational Organized Crime syndicate.
On 22 January 2021, as part of Operation Kungur, Dutch police arrested Tse Chi Lop, alleged to have assumed the leadership of the organisation and having taken it to higher levels as Sam Gor (The Company), with the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime putting the larger syndicate's turnover at $8-18 billion in 2018.[3]
References
- Chinese Organized Crime and Illegal Alien Trafficking: Humans as a Commodity (US Department of State)
- Big Circle Boys were involved drug trafficking and credit card fraud. A dozen people tied to the group were arrested after the RCMP uncovered a “credit card factory” operating out of Vancouver homes. Police estimated it had the potential to bring in $200-million, Global News
- One of Asia’s biggest crime bosses is arrested: Tse Chi Lop’s drug-trafficking syndicate has spread across the world, The Economist Jan 30th 2021
External links
- High-ranking Big Circle Boy killed in Vancouver (Global TV)
- Raid revealed extortion gang's strength (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Askmen
- 2 Men Charged in Chinatown Gang Death New York Times (December 30, 1995)
- Woman loses deposit on US$11 million Vancouver mansion, after abandoning purchase because Big Circle Boys triad boss Raymond Huang was murdered there. Ian Young.