How Macau's gang war spilled over to Vancouver

The leafy suburbs of Vancouver are a world away from the tough streets of pre-handover Macau.

But on a summer's night in 1997 those worlds collided when triad gunmen sprayed a luxury home on the Canadian city's east side with bullets. The owner of the home and apparent target, Lai Tong Sang, was not hurt.

The shooting was a footnote to the Macau triad war that played out from 1996 to 1998 between the Wo On Lok, supposedly headed by Lai, and the 14K gang of "Broken Tooth" Wan Kuok-koi.

The war over the casino junket market reached its zenith on May 1, 1998, with the attempted car-bomb assassination of Macau's then police chief, Antonio Baptista. Hours later, the hulking Baptista (nicknamed "Rambo") arrested Wan at the Lisboa Hotel as Wan and his cohorts were watching a self-funded movie about his criminal exploits starring Simon Yam Tat-wah as Wan.

According to contemporary accounts, the principals in the war were Wan, Lai, and Wan's former boss of the 14K, Ng Wai. Wan is said to have turned against Ng, who in turn joined forces with Lai's Wo On Lok gang.

In the weeks leading up to Wan's arrest, at least six murders of police and other people were linked to the warring triads. When Wan was arrested, his gang launched dozens of shopfront arson attacks and firebombed almost 100 vehicles. A government prosecutor and his pregnant wife were gunned down but survived.