The Triads of China and the Yakuza of Japan

Organized crime isn’t just a local problem, but a worldwide issue. Usually when we think of organized crime we recall such movies as “ The Godfather” and well known Mafioso’s such as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, and overall the Italians. Before these people were even born or the movies thought of, there were already two powerful and dominate organized crime groups on the other side of the world. Recently they have come in the United States and have received a reputation of fear and respect. These groups have been around for over 100 years, The Triads of China and the Yakuza of Japan. They have both dominated any other group of organized crime in their native lands and are now slowly making their threshold here in our nation.

The Triads have been around since the early seventeenth century (Lo 851). They were strictly found on the fundamentals of loyalty, righteousness, secrecy, and brotherhood (lo 851). When they were first founded they had a purpose, to help overthrown the Ch’ing dynasty and bring back the Ming Dynasty (Lo 851). Studies have shown that the Triads are linked to many normal street crimes such as vice, gambling, prostitution, and also include more gruesome crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, weapons trafficking and the Sale and export of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy (Hayes, 2011).

As stated earlier, the Triad gang has a strong foothold in its homeland of China. One city that was affected the most by this organized crime group is the city of Hong-Kong. The Chinese department of justice estimated that there are 50 known Triad gangs operating in the city. The Triads history in Hong-Kong can be traced as far back as the founding of the city itself. Whi...

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... measures to get the Yakuza off the island. Now we must wait and see if the Japanese can fight off and help bring to extinction one of the worlds most notorious, and oldest organized crime groups.

Works Cited

Bruno, A. (2009). Tru tv. Retrieved from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/gang/yakuza/1.html

Hayes, J. (n.d.). Triads and organized crime in china. Retrieved from http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=300=8=50

Bertz, B., & , (2010, April 30). Organized-crime triads targeted. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/30/organized-crime-triads-targeted/?page=all

Lo, T. W. (2010). Beyond social capital: Triad organized crime in Hong Kong and China. (Master's thesis, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom)Retrieved from http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/5/851.full.pdf html