Shui Fong

Shui Fong is one of seven triad groups documented as being active in the Benelux countries.[4]

Lai Tong Sang, the alleged "dragon head" (boss) of the Shui Fong in Macau who arrived in Canada on October 28, 1996 on a permanent resident visa, was ordered deported from the country in August 2013 after he was deemed not admissible due to his ties to organized crime.[5] Lai was the target of a drive-by shooting at his Vancouver home in July 1997. A 14K member in Hong Kong had asked the 14K in Canada to kill Lai in relation to the conflict between the rival groups in Macau at the time.[6] Documents filed with the Federal Court of Canada show that Lai laundered millions of dollars in Canada as immigration officials waited over a decade for access to police wiretap information that allowed them to move to have him deported.[7]

The Shui Fong operates in Dublin and Belfast.[4] Reports of Shui Fong activity in Ireland date back as far as at least 1983.[8]

The Shui Fong is active in London, Southampton, Glasgow and Belfast. The group established itself in the United Kingdom shortly after the Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984), when news of Hong Kong's return to China caused many gang members to flee to the UK. In comparison to other triad groups in the UK, the Shui Fong engages in lesser crimes such as video piracy, counterfeiting and illegal gambling, although also carries out extortion on the Chinese community.[9]

Restaurant owner and alleged Shui Fong "white paper fan" (business adviser) Philip Wong was murdered by a gang of contract killers armed with machetes in Glasgow on 9 October 1985. It is believed Wong was murdered after refusing to do business with the Wo Shing Wo who wanted a share of his lucrative Chinese video rental business.[10] Three men wanted for the murder have never been traced.[11]

In the first British court case in which a member of a Chinese criminal society gave evidence, five alleged Shui Fong members – Jason Shui Cheung Wan, Tak Kam Chow, David Chong Chi Chan, Danny Wai Yuen Liu, and Wai Wan Ho – were acquitted at the Old Bailey in London in December 1992 of plotting the shooting of Hong Kong businessman Ying Kit Lam. A sixth man, Clifford Wai Ming Tang, was discharged after the jury could not agree on a verdict. George Wai Hen Cheung, who pleaded guilty to shooting Lam, had named the six men as accomplices. Georcge Cheung himself had been initiated into the Triad in the basement of the Princess Garden Restaurant on Greyhound Road, Fulham earlier that year.[12] Lam, who was allegedly attempting to take control of the Shui Fong in the UK, was left crippled after being shot four times in Chinatown, London on 7 September 1991.[13]