“Although there is evidence that gang members provide services to the heroin traffickers and human smugglers, the extent of their involvement, especially as a group, seems to have been exaggerated (Chin, 1990, p.163).”

 

             Individual members of criminal organizations might participate in distribution and retail; however, the entire process of investing, networking and trafficking is separated from the organizations (Chin, 1990). In fact, the established criminal organizations, such as the Triad and Tongs, actively express disapproval towards drug trafficking for bringing attention and unnecessary risk to the organization. Rather, traffickers normally hire individual travelers who are not part of the organization as carriers.

             During separate interviews I conducted recently with high-ranking officials from the Hong Kong Customs and the Hong Kong Police, the same conclusion was reached. The officials suggested currently drug trafficking from Asia operates mostly as individual enterprises. The major established criminal organizations no longer have control over trafficking networks. These organizations are typically reluctant to engage in trafficking for the heightened risk and escalated surveillance from local and international law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, drug trafficking was scattered into small operations during the Nineteen Sixties due to major efforts made by the Hong Kong Government to end organized corruption in the police department and other law enforcement agencies. The officials expressed the low level of organization involvements provides much secrecy and security for traffickers, rather then a vast network involving a hierarchical structure. They admit these operations are increasingly difficult to detect and intercept.

             In another interview, a former Asian gang member in Southern California claimed that although there are indications that Asian gang members in Southern California do get involved in drug retail, the nature of the activity is again more similar to an individual enterprise model. There is no evidence to suggest a vast network of well organized and hierarchical Asian criminal network controls the trafficking and sales of drugs in Southern California. Also interestingly, the individual claimed recently much of the activity has switched from hard to soft drugs or Rave drugs, most notably Ecstasy. According to the source, the profit margins for Rave drugs is considerably higher than that of hard drugs.

 

Human Smuggling

             Another major illegal activity linked to the AOC conspiracy is human smuggling. In recent years immigration has become a controversial and politically profitable subject under an ultra-conservative political climate. Immigrants once again are accused as the source for numerous social problems.

             Under the Department of Homeland Security, The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) has invested much effort in constructing the connection between terrorism and human smuggling. The BICE intelligence assessment again attributes human smuggling from China to nonspecific Chinese organized crime groups. The Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, Russian, Albanian, Ukrainian and other nonspecific criminal organizations are regarded as the major operators of these smuggling rings from Asia. Thomas Homan, the Interim Associate Special Agent in Charge of San Antonio BICE office, testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims in the subject of terrorism and human smuggling. During the testimony, Homan claimed that international terrorists and human smugglers may collaborate in the near future to create a clear and realistic threat to national and international security. Homan further asserted several factors are present for the connection to occur: the growing volume and sophistication of criminal organizations, public corruption, and lax immigration control in source and transit countries (US Department of State, 2003). As a caution to the committee, Homan proposed that major effort and resource to be devoted to investigate and prosecute these nonspecific crime groups and human smuggling rings to prevent terrorism.

             Sheldon Zhang and Mark Gaylord (1996) produced one of the first criminologically informed study on illegal human smuggling from China. Contrary to the claims of law enforcement agents, although human smuggling groups are highly differentiated in functions, roles and tasks, these groups are very limited in their hierarchical structure and share little affiliation with any criminal organizations. A core group might coordinate the major stages of the process, yet there is no indication the Triads, the Tongs, local Asian gangs or other established criminal organizations maintain any direct control over the networks.