Looks like we've got competition, in the bank robbing business.:dodgy:
Wan "Broken Tooth" Huok-koi
For a while the most well known mobster in China was Wan "Broken Tooth" Huok-koi, the leader of the 14K Triad. Short and known as a flashy dresser, he strutted in dark striped suits, cream-colored shoes and a diamond ring. He liked to spend all night in casinos and often didn't get out of bed until late in afternoon.. When he was at the peak of his power he spent several thousand dollars to get his teeth capped.
Broken Tooth made most of his money in the late 1990s by controlling the VIP suites for high-rollers at Macau's casinos like the one at the Hotel Lisboa. He liked to gamble himself, once losing $200,000 in 30 minutes playing baccarat. He was barred from Macau's casinos for "breaking every rule you can think of," including throwing chairs and ashtrays when he lost bets.
An estimated 10,000 gangsters regarded Broken Tooth as their boss and referred to him as "Big Brother." Wan financed a gangster film about his life called Casino and even promoted it with Hollywood-style publicity campaign. Wan was finaly arrested, hours after a homemade bomb destroyed a car belonging to Macau's police chief.
Broken Tooth continued to run the 14K Triad from prison through cell phone and giving orders through his brother who was also imprisoned. He also reportedly had frequent lady visitors to his cell. One guard who tried to bring a little discipline to the prison was gunned down outside a coffee shop on his day off.
Yip Kai-Foon and Zhang Jun
Yip Kai-foon, a professionally-trained gunman, was another well-known gangster. He lead a small gang notorious for robbing jewelry stores and kidnaping rich businessmen, sometimes exacting huge ransoms. He ran a crime network in Hong Kong and Gunagdong Province.
Yip was captured in 1985 but he escaped from prison four years later after pretending that he had a stomach ailment. In 1993, he pulled off one of Hong Kong's most spectacular crimes. After robbing a jewelry store, he held off police by firing an AK-47 over their heads on busy Nathan Road.
In 1996 and 1997, Yip's gang kidnapped the sons of two of Hong Kong's richest and most powerful businessmen and demanded multimillion dollar ransoms. In 1997, Yip was shot three times by a rookie policeman and paralyzed. Two years later he was sentenced to 40 years in prison in a sensational trial. Now he is in wheelchair in a cell in maximum-security Stanley Prison.
Zhang Jun lead a gang that killed more than 30 people and committed 17 robberies in five provinces between 1994 and 2000. A big fan of Hong Kong gangster films, he reportedly copied many classic cinematic Triad moves such as forcing lieutenants and mistress to show their loyalty by killing people at his whim. Other famous Macau-based gangsters include: Five Fingers Fung and Two-Nostrils Lee.
Cheung "Big Spender" Tze-Keung
Cheung "Big Spender" Tze-Keung was perhaps Hong Kong’s most notorious gangster in the 1990s. A slight man with a protruding forehead, he was small-time crook until he hit it big in 1991 when he and his gang hijacked an armored truck carrying $20 million to the airport. He earned his nickname with his purchases of dozens of dozens of top-of-the-line sport cars, including a shocking yellow Lamborghini.
Cheung was arrested for the armored car robbery and sentenced to 18 years but he got out after three years on a technicality. While in jail he made friends with loan sharks who reportedly chained people inside their houses and burned them if they didn't pay their debts. Cheung held such a grudge against the police for his experience in jail, he rammed a bulldozer into a prison guardhouse and firebombed the house of Hong Kong's Secretary of Security.
Cheung was the son of a poor laborer. Before he became a big time gangster he ran some gambling dens in Hong Kong and made a living as a professional gambler. After hitting the big time he traveled the world playing games of chance. He frequently flew to South Africa and reportedly once won $2 million in a single night in the Philippines.
On Cheung, Broken Tooth Wan aid, "He's a genius. He thinks I'm a genius, and I think he's a genius." Once the two men played baccarat together and Broke Tooth lost more than US$1 million. "I was really mad, I put the cards in my pocket and went home to bed. That way, I don't have to kill him or do anything to him, because I wasn't really the loser."
Cheung's gang once smuggled 1,500 pounds of explosives from Guangdong into the Hong Kong. He worked with Yip on several crimes and developed a plan to kidnap high-profile Hong Kong politician Anson Chan. In a crime that went wrong, his gang accidently killed a businessman kidnapped in Shenzhen by tying tape so tightly around his mouth he suffocated to death during a two hour ride from Shenzhen to Guangzhou.
My favorites are defiantly, Five Fingers Fung and Two-Nostrils Lee.