Big Circle Gang

Big Circle Gang

The Big Circle Boys (大圈幫) is one of the major Chinese Organized Crime syndicates. Its Chinese designation is Tai Huen Chai (大圈仔). It was featured in the Alex Rider novel Skeleton Key. It was created by corrupt members of the Red Guards (China) who fled to Hong Kong as refugees from Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.

In 2008, building on extensive literature and interview data, Alex Chung, a scholar from Oxford focused on the Big Circle Boys and the case of the ‘Flaming Eagles’, a group of some ten associations of the Big Circle Boys, the primary activity of which was the smuggling and trafficking of heroin from the ‘Golden Triangle’ region to the United States. Chung argued that the Big Circle Boys is a loosely affiliated group of gangs rather than a unified criminal group. Members often operate in autonomous mini-pyramids with small cells, engaging in illegal activities independently and co-operating only when necessary.[1]

Since 2000, there have not been many reports on the Big Circle Boys, thus it seems extremely difficult to obtain the clear map of its criminal activities worldwide in recent years. Hong Kong and Western enforcement agencies currently tend to label criminals originating from Guangzhou or other parts of China as 'Asian criminals' in a generic manner instead of calling them as ‘Big Circle Boys’. In the past 10 years, more and more Chinese immigrants from different provinces can be found in Hong Kong and Western Societies, which seems to be the main concern of Western and Hong Kong agencies to label the Big Circle Boys in a generic manner. [2]

The Big Circle Gang is also believed to be linked to the shooting of Hong Chao Huang in the upscale district of Shaughnessy in Vancouver, BC, Canada. [3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Chung, Alex (2008). "The big circle boys: Revisiting the case of the flaming eagles". Global Crime 9 (4): 306-331. 
  2. ^ Wang, Peng (2011). "Vicious circles - Gang legacy of the Cultural Revolution". Jane's Intelligence Review 23 (08): 46-49. 
  3. ^ "Big Circle Boys born of Red Guards: Drugs, loansharking among Asian gang's specialities". Vancouver Sun. June 10, 2005. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/specials/websterawards/story.html?id=56ca11d5-f4e6-455a-b686-f7cc9b668c12. 

External links

Raid revealed extortion gang's strength (Sydney Morning Herald)]