Sex, Violence and Triads: Dark Side of Hong Kong
They've ditched the tattoos and secret signs—the city’s crime syndicates are changing, but they're still going strong.
What’s the most attractive part of gangsters coming to recruit you on the basketball court?
They don’t ask you to study for your TSA exams.
In fact, triads like the Sun Yee On and Wo Shing Wo—at first—are ready to accept you just as you are. It can be pretty refreshing for an angry adolescent who just wants to find approval, and maybe make a little bit of quick cash.
On the city’s massive housing estates, such as in Tin Shui Wai and Tuen Mun, triad recruiters look for young boys who are emotionally stunted by years of bullying, poor grades or bad lives at home. They look for the drop outs, the hate-filled kids and the visibly disturbed because they’re easier to mold. IQ doesn’t matter: Those with low IQ become expendables.
And it’s not just boys, either. Young girls, most trying to grow up early, stick to triads by becoming their so-called “girlfriends.” As early as 11 years old, they drop out of school and are conditioned into treating sexual abuse as normal before getting a full-time boyfriend protector. They then often move into prostitution or compensated dating, or solicit other girls to do so, with their earnings going to their boyfriends.
Read More: The Secret Sex Life of Hong Kong
“When you build big housing estates, you build potentially big areas for recruitment for triads,” says Jeff Herbert, an ex-policeman who now runs a private investigation and security company called Centinel. Centinel, which works through China and Southeast Asia, is manned mainly by ex-Hong Kong police officers and carries out work requiring varied police skills, conducting investigations, inquiries and studies, as well as security reviews, audits and computer forensics.