A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series, and video games.
Sun Yee On, or the New Righteousness and Peace Commercial and Industrial Guild, is one of the leading triads in Hong Kong and China. It has more than 25,000 members worldwide. It is also believed to be active in the UK, the United States, France, and Belgium.
Wo Shing Wo or WSW is the oldest of the Wo Group triad societies, and is the triad with the longest history in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong police, the triad is involved in extortion, drug trafficking, gambling and prostitution.
The United Bamboo Gang, also known as the Bamboo Union, is the largest of Taiwan's three main criminal Triads. They are reported to have roughly 20,000 members. The membership consists largely of waishengren and has had historic ties to the Kuomintang; they are said to be motivated as much by political ideology as by profit. They are known to simply call themselves "businessmen", but in reality, are also involved in organized killings and drug trafficking. The gang gained global notoriety when it became directly involved in politics in the early 1980s.
Shui Fong, also known as the Wo On Lok (WOL), is one of the main Triad groups in Southern China, operating especially in Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese communities abroad.
The Golden Triangle is a large, mountainous region of approximately 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) in northeastern Myanmar, northwestern Thailand and northern Laos, centered on the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. The name "Golden Triangle" was coined by Marshall Green, a U.S. State Department official, in 1971 in a press conference on the opium trade. Today, the Thai side of the river confluence, Sop Ruak, has become a tourist attraction, with an Opium Museum, a Hall of Opium, and a Golden Triangle Park, and no opium cultivation.
The Flying Dragons, also known as FDS, was a Chinese American street gang that was prominent in New York City's Chinatown from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Formed in 1967, by immigrants primarily from Hong Kong, they are affiliated with the Hip Sing Tong. Throughout the 1980s, the gang often engaged in bloody turf wars with the newer Ghost Shadows gang. Their activities have included extortion, kidnapping, murder, racketeering, and illegal gambling. The gang moved heavily into heroin trafficking after the Italian-American Mafia lost the trade as a result of the Pizza Connection prosecutions in the mid-1980s.
Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits, drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.
Crime in Toronto has been low in comparison to other major cities. In 2024, a ranking of 60 large cities by The Economist ranked Toronto as the 6th safest major city in the world, and the safest major city in North America. In the same year, CEOWORLD magazine, which includes some major medium-sized cities, ranked Toronto as the 160th safest city in the world, running behind several other major cities including Taipei, Munich, and Jerusalem, as well as, in Canada, Quebec City and Ottawa, but safer than most cities in the United States.
Gangs in Canada are mostly present in the major urban areas of Canada, although their activities are not confined to large cities.
The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the largest triad.
Ah Kong was an organised crime and drugs syndicate that used to extensively control the European heroin trade in the 1970s to 1990s. Originating from Singapore, it was one of the world's largest drug syndicates, having been mainly based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Bangkok, Thailand, where they received their drug supplies. The production of heroin was at an area known as the Golden Triangle formed by Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. Ah Kong was not a triad but a fearsome organized crime gang that was renowned all over Asia and Europe.
Turning Point is a 2009 Hong Kong action crime thriller film directed by Herman Yau and starring Michael Tse in the title role of "Laughing Gor" and co-starring veteran actors Francis Ng and Anthony Wong. Released in Hong Kong on 13 August 2009, this is the first film to be produced by Shaw Brothers since 2003's Drunken Monkey.
A triad is a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate based in Greater China with outposts in various countries having significant overseas Chinese populations.
Indo-Canadian organized crime is made up predominantly of young adults and teenagers of Indian ethnic, cultural and linguistic background. Collectively, these groups are among the top 5 major homegrown organized crime hierarchy across the nation in Canada coming in 3rd place, after the Asian Triads and White biker gangs. The 2004 RCMP British Columbia Annual Police Report ranked them third in terms of organization and sophistication in British Columbia, ranked behind outlaw motorcycle clubs and aforementioned Chinese criminal organizations such as the Triads drug clans.
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy is a 2018 Chinese martial arts film directed by Yuen Woo-ping and produced by Raymond Wong and Donnie Yen. It is a spin-off of the Ip Man film series, and takes place after the 2015 film Ip Man 3. This film stars Max Zhang, Dave Bautista, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Jaa, and Liu Yan, and was released on 21 December 2018.
Sam Gor, also known as The Company, is an international crime syndicate, based in Asia-Pacific. The organization is made up of members of five different triads: 14K, Bamboo Union, Big Circle Boys, Sun Yee On and Wo Shing Wo. Sam Gor is understood to be headed by Chinese–Canadian Tse Chi Lop, who was arrested in January 2021 in the Netherlands. The syndicate is primarily involved in drug trafficking, earning at least $8 billion per year.
Tse Chi Lop is the alleged kingpin behind Asia-Pacific based international crime supersyndicate Sam Gor, also referred to as "The Company", and former member of the Hong Kong, Toronto and Vancouver-based triad crime group the Big Circle Gang. Aliases used by Tse include Tse Chi Lap, Brother No. 3, Sam Gor, T1, Ah Lap, Dennis and Xie Zii. Some police forces refer to Tse as "T1". A Reuters report in 2019 stated that Tse was a "Canadian national" but did not specify the location of his residence; as of June 2020, he held a Canadian passport. At that time he was said to be 56 years old.
Organized crime in Taiwan refers to the activities of criminal syndicates in Taiwan. The organized crime societies, often referred to as Taiwanese triads or gangs, are involved in racketeering, drug trafficking, assassination, and various other illegal activities. The three largest triads in Taiwan are Bamboo Union, Four Seas Gang, and Heavenly Way Gang.
Xã hội đen, or hắc xã hội, is a Vietnamese term used to describe criminal forces, whose goal is to make money from illegal and overall immoral activities. The term is believed to have become widly used thanks to Hongkong's TV series and movies about the Chinese secret society Heishehui.
