Vietnamese criminal underworld
Xã hội đen is a Vietnamese term used to describe the criminal underworld. The term is believed to have become widely used thanks to Hong Kong TV series and movies about the Chinese secret society of Heishehui. An individual who participates in these criminal activities can be called a giang hồ, găng-xtơ, côn đồ, or tội phạm; while a criminal organization is known as băng đảng or băng nhóm, depending on its scale. They are those whose goal is to make money from illegal and overall immoral activities.
Crime in Vietnam
According to the law of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, under Clause 1, Article 8 of the 2015 Criminal Code:Joining a criminal organization is considered to be a "very serious crime" in Vietnam. For example, a person who illegally transported goods or money across the border could "face a penalty of up to 2 years community sentence or 3–24 months' imprisonment;" but the same crime if committed by a member of an organized group would be liable for "a penalty of 2–5 years' imprisonment."
Although the law would also make political groups, such as Việt Tân and DTVNCH, criminal organizations, they are not part of xã hội đen as their stated aim and genesis is ideological rather than commercial.
Structure
A small group of criminals, băng nhóm, has a simple structure. It is organized loosely with a small number of members. The leader is called đại ca or băng trưởng. They act aggressively and mostly commit crimes such as murder, robbery, theft, and fraud. These small groups may band together to form a larger syndicate or find protectorate from an already existed one.A larger criminal syndicate, băng đảng, has a clearer, more sustainable organizational structure with long-term operational goals. The leadership can have one or multiple people, but there is one individual at the top known as trùm. Below them is the command level with people who would be in charge of smaller groups within the syndicate. Ordinary members, known as đàn em, are those who directly carry out criminal acts, as well as all tasks assigned by the leaders.
For example, during the 1960s in South Vietnam, there was a powerful gang led by the infamous Đại Cathay, the trùm of his gang and the "Brother of all brothers". Along Đại were several members that assisted his leadership: cánh tay trái "H đầu bò", cánh tay phải "Lâm chín ngón", and quân sư "Hoàng guitar". The gang bosses that submitted to Đại Cathay were Huỳnh Tỳ and Ngô Cái, who were respectively known as "Second Brother" and "Third Brother".
In Vietnam
Vietnamese drug lords control territories in the northwestern provinces. Because Vietnam is located near the Golden Triangle, its heroin trade is concentrated along its borders with Laos and Cambodia. Since 2019, Vietnam has not only become a drug market but also a transit port that criminals use to traffick drugs to other countries.Meanwhile, Vietnamese illegal trafficking groups control areas in Hồ Chí Minh City. Their networks have been linked to the human-trafficking and human-smuggling markets, the ivory and pangolin-trafficking markets, illicit logging operations, arms trafficking, and drug-trafficking markets.
| Name | Active | Operating in | Founder's ethnicity |
| Black Flag Army | 1860s–1885 | China–Vietnam border | Zhuang |
| Bình Xuyên Army | 1945–1960 | Southeastern Vietnam | Vietnamese |
| Gangs of the Four Great Kings | 1960s–1966 1960s–1975 | Sài Gòn-Chợ Lớn | Vietnamese |
| Tín Mã Nàm's triad | 1960s–1975 | Chợ Lớn | Chinese |
| Năm Cam's gang | 1962–2001 | Hồ Chí Minh City | Vietnamese |
| Bạch Hải Đường’s robber band | 1970–1982 | Long Xuyên | Vietnamese |
| Lâm chín ngón's prison gang | 1970–1988 | Chí Hòa Prison | Vietnamese |
| Khánh Trắng’s so-called "Đồng Xuân Labor Union" | 1989–1996 | Hà Nội | Vietnamese |
| Phúc Bồ’s gang | 1990s–1996 | Hà Nội | Vietnamese |
| Phước tám ngón’s gang | 1990s–1996 | HCM City | Vietnamese |
| Dung Hà's gang | 1990s–2000 | Hải Phòng | Vietnamese |
| Hải Bánh's group | 1990s–2001 | Hải Phòng, later HCM City | Vietnamese |
Foreign-based gangs such as the Korean mafia and the Japanese yakuza are also reported to be active in Vietnam.
Brief history
In 1865, the China-based brigand Black Flag Army crossed the border from Guangxi into northern Vietnam to create a profitable extortion network along the course of the Red River. The group later joined forces with the Qing and the Nguyễn to fight against the French.In 1945, various groups of gangsters unified into an organization called Bình Xuyên, led by Ba Dương. In the 1920s, Ba Dương had previously been the leader of a coalition of river pirates. In 1949, Bình Xuyên became a legitimate military organization. In 1954, Bình Xuyên controlled nearly the entire supply of opium of Vietnam. In 1955, Bình Xuyên was defeated in the Battle of Saigon and was disbanded.
Saigon in the 1960s saw the rise of four powerful Vietnamese gangs whose leaders are known as the "Four Great Kings", and were behind almost all of the criminal activities and rackets within the city:
- Lê Văn Đại was the son of Lê Văn Cự, a member of the Bình Xuyên gang who died in 1946. At the age of 14, he ran away from home and made a living by shining shoes and selling newspapers near a Cathay cinema. He quickly built himself a loyal gang group, defeated his rivals, and became the top of the "Four Great Kings" of Saigon's criminal underworld before 1975.
- Nguyễn Thuận Lai used to be a gentle and hard-working student who loved poetry. After grade 10, he went out to work and became involved in criminal activities. He rose up to become the most powerful gang boss until 1964, when he and his gang had to submit to Đại Cathay.
- Ngô Văn Cái was known for his skillful martial art. He was considered to be the "Third Brother", after Đại Cathay and Huỳnh Tỳ. He later married and became less involved in criminal activities. Thus, managed to stay out of trouble with the government.
- Nguyễn Kế Thế was known to be the person that kicked Đại Cathay down the stairs, provoked a war between the then Tỳ-Cái-Thế kings and Đại Cathay.
In 1964, Đại Cathay's gang and Tín Mã Nàm's triad clashed in a bloody fight. Although Mã Nàm won, the battle caused many people to avoid his casinos and his business sharply declined. Tín Mã Nàm was then forced to call for a negotiation with Đại where he and many of the Chinese gangs in Chợ Lớn decided to give up away the areas between the Nancy market and District 1 to Đại Cathay's gang.
In 1966, Tạ Vinh, a Chinese businessman, was arrested due to some conflicts with the government. Triads in Chợ Lớn and Hong Kong tried to intervene by sending a petition to the embassy of the Republic of Vietnam in Taipei, Taiwan, but failed. Tạ Vinh was publicly executed on March 14.
In November 1966, Đại Cathay was arrested and placed in Phú Quốc Prison. On January 7 1967, Đại and his men escaped from the camp, but when he passed through the front gate, the alarm sounded, alerting the guards surrounding the prison. After being spotted, Đại was chased to the northern part of the island, but the guards never found him and he was never heard from again.
Following 1975 and the reunification of Vietnam, the era of the Four Great Kings of Saigon came to the end. However, this allowed Năm Cam, a former follower of Đại Cathay, to develop a powerful criminal organization which dominated the South. He is said to have gone on a 15-year long killing spree in order to eliminate his rivals, and is considered the "Godfather" of Vietnam.
Meanwhile in the North, four crime bosses also appeared:
- Dương Văn Khánh, whose group operated in Hanoi under a legal named "Đồng Xuân Labor Union." At its height, Khánh Trắng's organization even received praise from government officials as a model example of an organization that should be replicated. He and his members were finally arrested on 24 May 1996 and Khánh was sentenced to death.
- Nguyễn Thị Phúc operated in Hanoi, around the Đồng Xuân market. Phúc Bồ occasionally clashed with Khánh Trắng until her arrest in 1996. She was released in 2002.
- Dung Hà, a high-ranking gangster in Haiphong, was considered one of the two greatest mafia bosses of the Vietnamese underworld, along with Năm Cam.
- Hải Bánh, a follower of Dung Hà until 1995 when Hà was temporarily arrested. After that, Hải and some members went to the South and joined Năm Cam's gang.