Warlords' Chronicle of Crime

Hole of Justice
by Peter G. Jimenea


Warlords' Chronicle of Crime


When I started writing about illegal drugs in 1994, nobody inquires as they don't have the faintest idea what it's all about. But after the return of Hongkong to Mainland China in 1997, they do, only after illegal drugs have become a global crisis.


The story of notorious criminals and their prime activities based on the books of investigative US journalists Anthony Summers and Gerard L. Posner have more linkages to drugs and prostitution compared to any other form of underworld business by crime-syndicates.


In 1985, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prepared report concludes that the Southeast Asian heroin constitutes one-half of the street-level consumed in the United States but more higher in Europe which is dominated by Chinese drug-traffickers known as Triads.


The Federal Bureau of Investugation (FBI) for the first time in 1986, listed the Chinese Triads as a priority target. In front page story of the New York Times in 1987, it stated that Chinese criminals have taken over the dominant role in New York City's heroin industry from other crime groups.


Before the Chinese criminals, US law enforcement had already been festered by the operation of the Italian mob - the Sicilian Mafia (La Cosa Nostra). The difference is that the Chinese Triads are more sophisticated and armed with much more money than the Mafia.


In 1800s, Britain became the first Western largest organized drug trafficker in history, targetting China's million of inhabitants as the most profitable market. They eventually transformed the country into a nation of addicts. Today, the Chinese Triads are returning the favor to the West with a vengeance.


The Golden Crescent in mountains of Iran, Pakistan and Afhaganistan is the second largest source of opium.  But in the underworld, the number one producer is the Golden Triangle, situated in the rugged mountains of Laos, Burma and Thailand. It has the best heroin called "China White."


Since 1985, the Chinese have already the Mafia, the Cocaine cowboys of America and Auguste Joseph Ricord of the French Connection as clients for drugs supply. The Triads were reported in control of drug-supplies of most night clubs in London and in the US.


They are also remorseless drug traders. For only few hours delay of promised payment for  their merchandise, two young Chinese teenagers murdered Chicago Mafia boss Anthony Turano who came out to greet them in front of his apartment in 1988. 


But Triads cannot operate under a totalitarian regime as they can in a free democratic country like ours. Thus, in 1997, before the return of Hong Kong to Mainland China, the 14K Triads migrated to the West and to some Asian countries bringing their wares with them.


Due to our notoriety as a country with easy to corrupt government officia, illegal drugs soon flourished and we noticed its proliferation everywhere. It's true, drug money can buy judges, prosecutors, police, the military, national and local government officials and even hoodlums.


Add the growing economic disparity, the jobless are easily swayed by drug lords to engage in this trade to survive. In fact, some of our policemen and law-enforcers are fighting each other as if fighting criminals on the streets because of drug money


As we see it today, war on drugs is a battle-in-eternity. All the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) can do is make the drug lords more careful, spend more for security, sacrifice some pushers, but stop them - never!


(Next issue: The Opium War and how Hong Kong became a British Colony)