Abstract
An analysis of police high-risk investigations conducted in the early to mid-1990s, such as in Projects Dragon and Edition, showed the resistance and insulation of heroin market properties provided by peripheral and mid-level players as effective defence mechanisms. These adhered to Bouchard’s framework in showing low vulnerability in the system to shocks since the dispensable players were apprehended without significantly affecting the market. The Chan siblings’ clique was one of the two dominant groups, the other clique was run by Lee (and his uncle remotely). The Chan family network in Project Eider, although small, exclusive, and efficient, was also insecure for the same reasons. The kin-based financial pawns did not provide any effective insulation against attacks. Lee’s clique was more compositionally diverse and discreet by comparison, which made it more secure. Project E-Congee also showed the extent of the Big Circle Boys network connections.
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Notes
- 1.
As the data was extracted from court documents, a partial rather than a comprehensive picture is represented here.
- 2.
A very limited amount of data was extracted from the court files in relation to this investigative project; not much evidence was available from the police files either. There were many obstacles during the attempt of gathering information on Operation ‘Luen Hop,’ partly due to the sensitive nature of the case.
- 3.
The project name of the police investigation was not identified. The reason was that the investigation was aborted due to information leak on the primary targets after a police vehicle containing that information was stolen.
- 4.
Of those larger shipments for which data is absent, and thus are not included here, are the following drug seizures: a 42 kg shipment seized at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport in 1997 secreted inside the wall panels of six washrooms of the plane, which corresponds to a seized shipment mentioned in the Project E-Page files; a 43 kg shipment seized from a sea transport container along with brown sugar which originated in China and was destined to Burnaby, BC, in 1999 (Lafreniere and Spicer 2002).
- 5.
Note the missing data on heroin prices for the year 2001 from Table 3.1. This is to be addressed later with respect to the historical heroin shortage that occurred in Canada.
- 6.
A six-month police investigation named Project Poison that took place in 1997 was selectively excluded, as the target Mok Siu Hung who was a distributor for Lee was not a significant player in the heroin trade (despite having been one of the earliest BCB pickpockets in Vancouver in the 1980s; IRB 1997: Siu Hung Mok). Therefore, his removal from the BCB network had very limited impact on the overall structure.
- 7.
Note that except for 1996, for the years of 1991, 1995, and 2001 where the price data is absent, there were a consecutive series of major arrests and seizures which occurred in the year preceding in all three instances. The police apprehensions in those periods took place near the end of the calendar years, and the price data were either exceptionally high (1990, 1994) or were on the rise (2000).
- 8.
The lead officer was one of the most senior and experienced investigators who specialised in Asian organised crime and drug-related investigations. R1 (2008) frequently referred to his work and his views on the BCB during personal communications.
- 9.
The lead officer realised from the calls that a cocaine transaction was being prepared. Kim Nang and Yuk Wah had discussed how they were going to purchase cocaine from ‘John’ in Los Angeles and import them into Vancouver. In addition, Yuk Wah was found to be the subject of two other ongoing investigations—Project Chase and Broker—which involved heroin trafficking and illegal immigration. The investigation into the cocaine transaction was terminated halfway due to potential interagency complications, as it would have required cooperation by US law enforcement which could have jeopardised the Canadian heroin investigation already in progress. To protect evidential integrity of Project Bugs, investigators decided to focus solely on the evidence pertaining to the heroin investigation.
- 10.
Kim Nang was also convicted on numerous counts of conspiracy to traffic and import heroin and was sentenced to a total of six and a half years in prison.
- 11.
Gould’s (2004) biographical account of Steven Wong describes his background and disappearance at length.
- 12.
From a prosecutorial stance, it would have been more straightforward to establish culpability of the accused when building their case, through separating the facts of the case according to evidence from two distinct rather than intertwined cases. Otherwise, complication could occur during voir dire, when the evidence admissibility is determined during pre-trial, due to the extensive amount of intercept data and the difficulty in defending against claims of procedural errors in the application of wiretap authorisations.
- 13.
The data available was insufficient for the purpose of conducting further network analysis.
- 14.
The family members of the Chans including Ah Fung, Chheun Chhai Phing (Kwok Yung’s wife, also known as Chung Choi Ping), and Chheun Yen Phing (Chi Hang’s wife, also known as Chung Yin Ping) are not included in the illustrations. Jian Ping (Kwok Keung’s wife) is included as she played an important role in assisting her husband.
- 15.
Ying Chuck had a criminal history of threatening and violent behaviours.
- 16.
Ying Chuck was a known BCB to R1 (2008); see Appendix B for a list of BCB and their associates.
- 17.
Two days after Kou Kee was arrested, and on the night Ying Chuck was arrested, Yuan Chang personally handed around CAD 30,000 to Lam in the afternoon. Lam was later arrested and the money was seized from his vehicle (PCBC 1997b, Dec 9: 29).
- 18.
During the early to mid-1990s, the BCB travelled and relocated frequently between Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal (R2 2008). They also changed their names when on the run or relocating, which made it difficult for the police to track them. Due to the name changes, it was often not until when an officer saw a photograph sent from agencies in other jurisdictions that they identified a BCB whom they already knew (R4 2008).
- 19.
It is worth noting that the cases examined only represented failed trafficking schemes. Since these only accounted for a portion of all BCB schemes, and given that the police disruptions had very limited impact on the upper-level BCB traffickers at the time, the market showed low vulnerability to police attacks.
- 20.
Where individuals were mentioned in an ambiguous way regarding their criminal involvement, or where one’s identity could not be established through corroborating documentation, they were excluded from the analyses to ensure the data’s internal validity.
- 21.
Although Tze Jai was linked to heroin suppliers in Thailand, he was known to the authorities as a distributor for Kwok Keung, Yeu Wing, and Hong Chian—and thus he was technically not an importer. Also, as Tze Jai was the only connection between Hong Chian and the core segment, Hong Chian became an orphaned node after Tze Jai was removed and was therefore excluded from the importation network diagram.
- 22.
The calculations of the network density of the 9 nodes with 18 dyads are as follows: 9 × (9 − 1) / 2 = 36, which is the maximum number of possible ties; 18 / 36 = 0.50 when converted into a percentage is 50%.
- 23.
Chi Lap was particularly well connected with major heroin syndicate members in Guangzhou, which was a personal feature emphasised in the police intelligence that set him apart from the others (SCBC 2001c: Nov 27, informant information from January 1997).
- 24.
Chi Lap was bailed out shortly after his arrest, but upon being sentenced he was imprisoned in the US until at least after 2008 (R1 2008; SCBC 2001d: Dec 18).
- 25.
Kwok Keung lived in Toronto since at least 1988 and moved to Vancouver in the early 1990s. He fled Canada in July 1994 after he was charged with conspiracy to traffic in heroin. Subsequently, he operated residential properties in Vancouver remotely and used them as ‘stash site’ for narcotics (SCBC 2000a: Jun 5).
- 26.
The authorities can legally intercept private communications as part of background investigation, but the content is inadmissible in court unless an authorisation has been granted by the court prior to conducting the interception.
- 27.
It is possible that more than 11 family members were involved. In the police summary of the telephone intercepts, the conversation revealed the amount of monies that was still owing to the Chan brothers by six actors. Their nicknames as mentioned by Chi Hang stood out from the rest of the individuals. They represented numerical digits in Cantonese, which translated into ‘first brother,’ ‘second,’ ‘third brother,’ ‘sixth,’ ‘seventh,’ and ‘ninth.’ While it is common to use numerical prefix in Chinese nicknames among friends, when applied to more than two or three individuals, it could potentially indicate relationship of siblings or cousins.
- 28.
The financial aspects of the schemes included a trip Lee took with Vongvilay and others to Vietnam to set up a legitimate joint venture company. Lee also got Ho’s wife to courier a substantial amount of cash to Hong Kong, where he received it in person and conducted banking transactions to move the funds between accounts.
- 29.
In Fig. 3.7, Wong Hoi Wah was the only orphaned node in the non-trafficking segment of Eider phase two. Yen Phing and Chhai Phing, though only shown to be connected dyadically, were in fact part of the larger clique in the graph. They were sisters, where one was married to Kwok Yung and the other to Chi Hang.
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Chung, A. (2019). Heroin 1: Market Resilience and BCB Network Evolution. In: Chinese Criminal Entrepreneurs in Canada, Volume II. Transnational Crime, Crime Control and Security. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05135-8_3
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