Jury convicts Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow of San Francisco Chinatown crimes

A one-time gang tough nicknamed “Shrimp Boy” who insisted he had changed his ways through meditation and become a role model for wayward youth was convicted Friday of racketeering, murder and scores of other crimes in a major organised crime investigation in San Francisco’s Chinatown that also brought down a state senator.

The conviction of 56-year-old Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow was largely the work of an undercover FBI agent who posed for years as a foul-mouthed East Coast businessman with mafia ties, as he infiltrated the fraternal group that Chow led. The group was among dozens of active tongs, or family associations, in Chinatown, one of the most popular and visible tourist attractions in the city.

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Authorities said Chow and some other members of the group engaged in drug trafficking, money laundering and the sale of stolen cigarettes and top-shelf liquors Johnny Walker Blue Label and Hennessey XO.

Jurors convicted Chow of all 162 charges against him, including racketeering, murder and conspiracy to commit murder. One of the victims was Allen Leung, the former leader of the fraternal group, who was shot and killed at his business in 2006 as his wife looked on.

READ MORE: Hong Kong-born ‘Shrimp boy’ ‘killed his way to top of Chinatown group in San Francisco’

Chow, sporting dapper suits and a beaming smile, told jurors at his trial he renounced his drug-dealing and gangster ways after leaving prison in 2003 and turning to meditation. He also was working on a biography, he said.

The smile disappeared on Friday, when he stared straight ahead and showed little reaction to the guilty verdicts that could bring life in prison when he is sentenced on March 23.