Original subtitles

Descended from centuries-old bandit gangs,

and spawned by the Vietnam War,

this new breed of criminal is young, tough, and fearless,

dispassionately dealing violence to their own people.

With extreme prejudice.

They're into drugs, forgery

and extorting computer technology.

The creeping new force

vying for world organized crime domination,

the Vietnamese Crime Gangs.

For much of the 20th century,

the American mafia proved to be

one of the most successful and profitable models

for large scale organized crime.

But times have changed

and the fortunes of the mob have waned,

leaving a power vacuum that has been filled by new players.

This new breed is perhaps best exemplified

by Vietnamese crime gangs,

which had their genesis in the turmoil

of war-torn Southeast Asia.

These indelible images of the fall of Saigon,

marked the end of one calamity and the beginning of another.

The mass outpouring of people from a war-ravaged

and war-weary Vietnam.

More than 160,000 Vietnamese,

many of them orphaned or abandoned children,

resettled in America.

Tens of thousands more fled Vietnam

trying to find refuge in other parts of Asia

and even Australia,

Along with the desperate and a displaced,

but the seed that eventually spawned to crime gangs

now evident in major American cities

and in other parts of the world.

It should have come as no surprise

that the street urchins and orphans of Saigon

so readily turned to a life of crime in their new homeland.

A concept of organized crime

was not new to their native culture.

Stretching back more than a thousand years

was a history of banditry along the length and breadth

of the Mekong Delta.

Historians say Vietnamese bandit gangs,

some of them descendants of Indonesian pirates,

as far back as 750 A.D., were looting on the high seas.

Extorting protection money from river traders,

terrorizing local villages,

preying on wealthy Chinese merchants.

By the time the French colonized Indochina in the 1860s,

organized crime had become an entrenched part

of Vietnamese society.

In July, 1941, Japan moved 50,000 troops into Indochina,

virtually neutralizing French rule.

In a quite extraordinary piece of maneuvering,

a onetime street hoodlum named Bay Vyen

managed to convince Japanese authorities

to appoint him chief of police in Saigon.

Bay Vyen and his criminal cohorts controlled drug running,

gambling rackets, and prostitution for more than a decade.

Indeed the bears had been put in charge of the honey.

But there was nothing sweet about life

for the human tidal wave of Vietnamese

forced to flee their homeland

at the end of the Vietnam War.

Tens of thousands of refugees

were crammed into overcrowded camps in Southeast Asia.

The lucky ones were resettled in far away America, Canada,

France, and Australia.

But even in America, hopes of a good life

for many Indochinese immigrants

were dashed on the rocks of economic recession,

which had gripped the United States.

Desperate and disaffected, they turned to crime.

It wasn't long before individuals banded together

and devised new schemes.

Like other ethnic gangs before them,

the Vietnamese turned first on their own people,

using terror tactics to force victims into submission

and ensure they didn't go to the authorities.

The concept of the home invasion robbery

was actually a concept that was developed

by Vietnamese immigrant kids in Southern California

that were led by some very sophisticated young gang members.

And they developed it, they refined it,

and then it was eventually taught to other kids

coming into the Southern California area

from across the nation.

And subsequently, my understanding now is

that it continued to spread outside the borders

of the United States,

where the home invasion robbery is now occurring

in places like Asia, Canada, and,

and regions of the world like that.

The first thing they do when they burst into a home,

if the head of the family, the male person is present,

they shoot that person in the leg.

Oh, don't hurt him!

We know you've got the money.

Give me the money now!

Where's the money?

Gun, shut up.

Give me the money!

I want the money now!

We know it is, you go and get it!

You want another one, huh?

Shut up!

Rape has also been used

to intimidate families into handing over cash and jewels,

or paying up on extortion demands.

Sometimes the victims of these vicious sexual attacks

are just 10 years old.

Another technique they use if a, if a very small child,

preferably a baby's present, they take the baby,

- Give me the baby. - No, no, no,

No!

Let go of me!

Get off me.

And they tape it to the wall

using the electrical duct tape,

they then take their weapon

and they fire shots around the wall.

Bit like a bugs money cartoon,

but a little bit more dangerous.

This propensity for violence

and an apparent willingness

to use it on their own ethnic community

is what sets Vietnamese apart from other crime games.

Well, the home invasion robbery, of course,

tended always to be a very vicious and violent crime.

We've had some horrific acts of torture

that have occurred upon family members

in which the victims have not been forthcoming

more with valuables or are being hidden in the house

and things of that nature.

Not specific to Westminster, but over time I've,

I've assisted with a lot of other agencies

in the investigation of some of their

Vietnamese gang crimes.

We've had home invasion robberies

where the baby was picked up by the ankle

and its head was repeatedly dunked in the toilet

because the mother was not telling the suspects

where the jewelry in the house was being hidden.

We've had water that was cooked on the stove

and poured over the 79-year-old grandmother

because the father was not telling the gang members

quickly enough where the money in the house

was being hidden.

Asian crime gang experts have learned

that the gangs function with a complexity

that is not immediately obvious.

Most of the Vietnamese street gangs today

are fully capable of working

on two separate distinct levels.

The first is in crimes for economic gain.

In crimes where, where the ultimate goal is money.

You will find that all wars will be put to one side

and all alliances will be put to one side.

And in an effort to do a particularly big crime

where there's a lot of money involved,

it is not at all uncommon to find members

of rival gangs joining together to commit this crime,

splitting the money,

and then going back to the respective street gang.

The second level that the Vietnamese gangs operate on

is for the benefit of the gangs,

reputation of the gangs face.

Everything you do is done

with an eye towards enhancing the reputation, the power,

the character, the strength of the gang.

You know its reputation for violence,

its reputation for sophistication,

all of those things are done with a view towards

the more face your gang has in the gang subculture,

the more face you will have because you belong to them.

Vietnamese

or Viet Ching gangs, as they call themselves,

now exist in most reasonable sized American cities.

17, Foxtrot

17, Foxtrot.

10 eight. from 9200 Bolsa en route to 9191 Bolsa.

Good copy.

Law enforcement agencies agree that

Viet Ching gangs are already a significant problem

in 16 states.

One of the highest profile Vietnamese gangs

on America's west coast and the Natoma Boyz,

who came to public prominence in the very early 1990s.

In a four month period,

the gang netted more than $1 million in stolen property,

car break-ins, robberies, and auto thefts

throughout Southern California.

The gang had more than 150 members operating in Orange,

Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

The Natoma Boyz were the first Vietnamese gang

to pattern themselves on occidental gangs,

adopting gang colors, gang signs, and gang monikers.

In the mid 1990s,

a gang came under concentrated attention

from law enforcement agencies.

Many of the gang members ended up in jail.

Today there's increasing evidence

that some of the larger gangs

have become more sophisticated.

They have evolved hierarchy structures like those

the mafia developed as it gained a real foothold in America.

California's Justice Department estimates

that that state alone now has at least 15,000 members

in Asian street gangs.

The city of Westminster in Orange County,

Southern California,

has as one of the largest concentrations in America

of ethnic Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.

The influence of Vietnamese culture in the city is such

that it is often called little Saigon.

Feuds between gang wars are nothing new.

With Asian gangs, though there's often another dimension

beyond the traditional turf.

It's a complex question of face

or more to the point loss of face.

This loss of face,

rather than a dispute over territory

is often the cause of big trouble in Little Saigon,

Prior to Tet, which is our Vietnamese New Year's Festival,

we had a shooting in a cafe

in which one of our knit Nip Family street gang members

was killed by a rival gang because of some looks

that were exchanged while the members

were at the festival next door.

And because of this dirty look, they felt they lost face

and they went in to try and take care of the problem.

Sometimes a violence spills onto the streets

providing a stark reminder that organized crime,

although often unseen, does still exist.

There appears

that we've got a large Asian gang war in progress.

This young man was attacked

with machetes and swords

after an argument with a carload of other Vietnamese youths

in a quiet suburban street in Australia.

Eyewitnesses watch an utter disbelief

as the victim was hacked about the head,

the arms, the back, and the abdomen.

Yeah, mate, about five of them jumped out of this car

and hacking into this poor bloke.

And they had these big knives and choppers and swords.

Oh, they had everything

Although badly injured,

fortunately for this young man,

he did recover after extensive surgery.

But he'll carry the scars for the rest of his life.

Not everyone who crosses swords with a Vietnamese crime gang

however, gets off so lightly.

A crusading politician named John Newman

from Sydney, Australia

decided to confront local crime gangs head on.

He publicly railed against them on television

and at local meetings in the Vietnamese enclave, Cabramatta.

He demanded the gangs and those bankrolling them,

quit pushing heroin in his neighborhood.

There a deal going down the ramp,

the downward ramp on the eastern side now.

He just handed him the money.

Yes, we need to stay with Theresa.

Yeah mate, he's heading, heading south.

Repeat heading south.

All right, just send him back.

You two stay in the field.

Do you copy? - And copy.

I'll keep the gear with me then.

John Newman wanted the epidemic

that had become all too obvious on the streets

brought under control.

How much?

- 40. - 40?

How much?

- 45. - 45, yeah.

Can you get me more?

On this occasion,

two dealers fought over the sale.

- You got money here? - Yeah.

- How much you need? - Yeah, well, I don't know,

how much can you do me for 10?

130, 270.

- 270. - Yeah.

Four, 240.

So open was a trade in heroin

that a local television station captured

this remarkable image of a couple who had overdosed.

Just relax, just relax.

Just open your eyes for me darlin'.

Open your eyes.

You know what happened?

You know what happened? - No.

You overdosed on heroin, OK.

- Did I? - Yeah.

- Am I gonna be OK? - You weren't breathing okay.

You weren't breathing.

Your mate's still not breathing.

I got to help him, all right.

Do me a favor.

Do me a favor and just sit there and relax, OK?

Just sit there and relax. - Am I gonna be OK?

Yeah, you're gonna be fine.

We stop treating you, you go.

All right.

You're gonna go under heroin again, OK?

Yeah, okay.

Newman's one man campaign

brought little reaction from the authorities,

but it struck a raw nerve with the drug dealers.

And it wasn't long before the death threats began.

You're dead, Newman.

I tell you, you're dead, Newman.

Matters got worse.

Newman's office was shot up and his car fired upon

and something of an understatement.

Newman put his situation this way.

I've attracted the wrath of this, this game.

Indeed, he had.

Within two weeks, John Newman was dead,

gunned down outside his home

after he spoke at a public meeting on drug crime.

He was shot at close range

before the eyes of his fiance, Lucy Wang.

Months later, two ethnic Vietnamese were arrested

and charged with Newman's murder.

His untimely death prompted public outrage

and finally action from law enforcement agencies

who set up a special task force.

It also prompted a very public display of support

for John Newman and his fight against organized crime

from the local Vietnamese community.

In the United States,

importation and distribution of heroin

has long been a jealousy protected preserve

of Chinese crime gangs called triads.

Despite many common links between the triads

and the Viet Ching gangs, the Chinese have no intention

of letting anyone else control the heroin trade.

The Vietnamese have us been forced

to find some other niche in the drug market.

Heroin trafficking in the Western half the United States

has traditionally always been controlled

by Chinese organized crime syndicates.

Again, the Chinese were established here

far earlier than the Vietnamese refugee influx.

I mean from when the railroads were built in the late 1800s

initially in San Francisco, and then subsequent Los Angeles.

And you're talking about a significant

Chinese organized crime influence

that existed in the Los Angeles area in the 1960s already.

And so they immediately sewed up the heroin trafficking

operations and as a result,

the Vietnamese kids getting into organized crime

and getting in the street gangs lacked a source,

lacked a source of supply for the heroin

'cause it was controlled by the Chinese syndicates.

Now, the Chinese syndicates would subcontract out

with the Vietnamese level gangs

to distribute the product on the street,

but they didn't feel comfortable with that.

There's, there's a lot of traditional animosity

between the two cultures and the two populations.

They didn't really feel they trust 'em.

We in fact have now a far greater problem

that is in the distribution of methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine, which has taken off tremendously

here in California is relatively easy to make.

You can make it at home using certain chemicals.

It is not something that needs to be imported

from outside the country.

And the Vietnamese kids have picked up on that very quickly.

And we now have fairly extensive methamphetamine trafficking

organizations involving Vietnamese.

But across the Pacific in Australia

where there are also Vietnamese gangs,

heroin trafficking has become their stock and trade.

And they work hand in hand with Chinese gangs.

Operations Head of Australia's National Crime Authority,

Peter Lamb, however,

sees street gangs expanding their power.

They've always been at the bottom end of the chain,

but they're, they are now starting to appear

as multi kilo distributors,

which is one of two levels up from from the street.

And there is some evidence also to indicate

that they are becoming involved in importations themselves,

arranging the importation, facilitating it,

and then being the recipient of the product.

Yes, there is evidence of, of a, of that occurring.

They are starting to play a more prominent role

in narcotics distribution.

And from time to time we do see them

involved in importations.

But they have individuals, civic individuals have,

I suppose, graduated out of that

street crime type activity into a more

organized environment

and become entrepreneurs in their own right.

Little wonder there is a nexus

between Vietnamese gangs and the lucrative drug market.

The young bandit gangs of Indochinese refugees

who came to America in other parts of the west in 1980s

were driven by one thing, one thing only, money.

Most saw a direct link between amassing personal wealth

and the acceptable in western society.

And for them, crime seemed the quickest route to riches.

These kids figured out very, very quickly,

it is more efficient to do crime in a group

than it is to do crime individually.

You make much more money

getting four or five friends together

and doing a, let's say, a home invasion robbery

than you do shoplifting at the local department store

by yourself.

The monetary take on an organized operation

like a home invasion

in which you bring in four or five other individuals

is much greater than, than trying to operate by yourself

out there in a criminal element.

And so what these kids initially ended up doing is

they would approach friends they had in the refugee camps

or friends they were going to school with

and would get them to cooperate

with them in committing the criminal activity.

It was these kind of individual groups of kids

that really were not yet organized

or structured in any type or or manner

that we gave the name bandit groups to.

Because they literally operated as almost gypsy bands.

They, they went out, they would get together

to commit criminal activity for economic gain

and then would go back to the respective homes

or their schools or whatever

and hang out until it came time to commit another crime

for economic gain.

While profit almost certainly was a driving force

for the gangs of Vietnamese refuges.

It may not be the full explanation.

The attraction of gangs for many kids, for fact,

for most kids, has to do with their own needs, for identity,

for status, for prestige, for something to belong to.

They don't join by and large in order to do crime.

Crime comes along with it

and is exaggerated by gang membership.

So for the most part, kids join gangs

to get these other needs fulfilled.

Sometimes they join them for a sense of protection.

They think that they will be protected against other groups,

rival groups if they join gang X.

What they don't recognize, of course,

is that that makes them more vulnerable

to attack by gang X.

Whatever the original sociological reasons

for the formation of Vietnamese gangs,

today the lure of big money from sophisticated crime

is what drives a better organized gang.

In 1997, working in conjunction

with the Denver Police Department in the state of Colorado,

we received information on a large-scale

check counterfeiting operation

that existed in the United States.

There was, there was several individuals

that were arrested in Denver

who subsequently said that the brains,

that the leaders of the organization were,

in fact all, all Orange Boy members

who were established in California.

In doing a series of operations,

we eventually were able to take down

a counterfeiting factory here in the Orange County area,

in which an individual who was an Orange Boy gang member,

using a computer was producing counterfeit payroll checks.

These counterfeit payroll checks were for banks

that were not in the state of California,

and he would produce them in batches of 50 to a hundred.

These checks were then sent out of state,

along with an Orange Boy member.

They would go to the state where the checks,

where the banks existed

that the checks were counterfeited from.

And this orange boy member would then recruit

from the local Asian communities

people who would pass these checks to the banks.

The Orange Boys pulled the counterfeit check swindle

in 16 states across America.

40% of the take went directly back to them.

The rest were spit up among teams of Vietnamese

hired to pass the checks

and the cost to the banks, millions of dollars.

The story of the Orange Boys counterfeit racket

has a footnote that is almost as remarkable

as a story itself.

Sergeant Marcus Frank tells us about Phong Vu Nguyen,

a drug addict who took over control of the Orange Boys gang.

The leadership of the gang changed after the initial,

after the original leader was killed during a pursuit

by police while driving a stolen car.

And his brother took over leadership with the gang.

His brother at the time was a hardcore heroin addict.

He was doing approximately two to $300 worth

of heroin a day, but a very intelligent individual,

and at the time, he took over the gang,

took himself off heroin himself, cold turkey, so to speak,

and immediately sat down

and instructed his gang members

that they needed to present a lower profile to the police.

That he did not want them out there on the street committing

street gang activities.

He didn't want them being contacted by the police.

He didn't want them admitting their gang affiliation.

And what he was able to do was he was able

to decrease the activity of Orange Boys to the point where

for three years there was no police record

of any Orange Boy activity occurring.

About the same time that this happened,

we had a homicide of a California State Police officer

who was killed on a traffic stop by a Vietnamese individual

by the name of Hung Mai.

Hong Mai was part of the Orange Boy organization.

As a matter of fact, he reported

to the leader of the Orange Boys.

And the reason that police officer was killed

was because Hung Mai had counterfeiting equipment

for checks in the trunk of his car.

The car was going to be towed away.

And this, this individual felt that

because it was his third strike, he was going to go to jail

for a or prison a long time.

And he ended up basically executing the officer.

The officer didn't have much of a chance.

Phong Vu Nguyen who ran the old Orange Boys,

is now serving eight years behind bars

for the counterfeit checks racket.

He is something of a rarity among Vietnamese gangs.

Many other

organized crime gangs depend upon structure.

There's a centuries old customs that form the Chinese Triad.

Japanese Yakuza a classic power structure

of the traditional mafia.

But the Vietnamese use a system

where leaders are appointed temporarily,

depending on their suitability for the task at hand,

Six, oh, okay, you, you're gonna take the night.

I know where there's six, maybe seven.

It is a structure that makes it more difficult

for law enforcement agencies to pinpoint who is in a gang.

And it means a gang will survive

even if the head of one crime enterprise is cut off.

Most of the Vietnamese street gangs

do not have a hierarchical structure,

although they may have a dominant personality figure

that for the most part runs the gang or advises the gang.

Oftentimes leadership of the gang

may devolve upon the person

who has the most experience committing that type of crime.

So for example, a Vietnamese gang that is planning

to do a residential home invasion robbery,

they may have a 14-year-old member

that's done six of these already.

And for that night, the leadership of that gang

will devolve upon this 14-year-old

for the purpose of that home invasion.

Two nights later, perhaps the gang decides

they're going to steal a car.

And now that leadership of the gang may go over

to the 16-year-old member of the gang

that has the most experience in stealing cars.

So experience plays a very great role in terms

of determining who leads the gang for a particular effort.

If understanding the power structures

of the Vietnamese gangs is puzzling

and accurately defining where on the ladder

of organized crime these gangs stand is equally difficult.

The experts all have differing opinions,

even among law enforcement officers

views can be poles apart.

Operations head of the National Crime Authority

in Australia, Peter Lamb.

If you'd have asked me that question

probably three or four years ago,

I, I would have answered by saying they don't,

whilst they're been largely involved

in street crime type activity

up until maybe three or four years ago,

they are starting to play a more prominent role

in narcotics distribution.

And from time to time we do see them

involved in importations,

but they have individuals, specific individuals have,

I suppose, graduated out of that

street crime type activity into a more

organized environment

and become entrepreneurs in their own right.

Chief of police for Westminster City

in California, James Cook.

In my 37 years of experience,

they transitioned faster from street gangs

to organize criminal activity.

There's an FBI definition that we tend to use also of ACEs.

Asian Criminal Enterprises

and the Vietnamese are extremely good at organizing ACEs.

These are ad hoc groups that come together to work on,

on one or two for-profit crime ventures

and then they may disband and go on

and do something else.

And street gangs feed into these Asian Criminal Enterprises.

But by the same token,

people that run these Asian Criminal Enterprises

are like business managers in the corporate world.

And they put together the enterprise and go ahead and,

and do it that way.

I think if you look at the news reports,

they always overemphasize the level of organization

in street gangs

so that if you see a pattern of crime,

whether it's Vietnamese home invasions or,

or Chinese extortions or what have you,

you get the feeling that that's

what those gangs are all about.

That's a, that's a distortion of reality.

That's a piece of what they're doing.

And that piece may require some level of organization

by some members of the gang,

but there are many other members of the gang

that are not doing that, that are doing

various other kinds of things as any other gang will.

And so if you get a whole picture of what that gang is up to

you don't get a very good picture of true organization.

These, these kids are not mafia, they're not Cosa Nostra.

And it's foolish to apply to them the kinds of techniques

that we would apply to adult criminal gangs.

Overall, the Vietnamese street gangs prefer the firearm.

It is the one weapon

that makes them equal on the street

with any other gang that they may encounter,

that makes them in their eyes all-powerful.

Many of these kids realized early on

that they were for the most part of smaller stature

than your typical Occidental Street gang member

or your typical occidental victim.

They're smaller in size and oftentimes in weight.

So the one factor that equals,

that equals everything up is the firearm.

For the most part, they prefer the semi-automatic

or the fully automatic handgun.

It's easily concealable and it's also preferred

because of the manner in which they shoot their weapons.

Very few of these gang members take a sight picture

over gun sites.

Instead, they, they do what we call spray and prey.

They crank out as many rounds from the weapon

in a short amount of time as possible

with the intention that their target goes down in that,

that field of fire.

A number of years ago, we had several instances

where individuals went into a restaurant

with an automatic weapon and opened fire.

And the, the casualty count was two dead and eight wounded,

or one dead and 13 wounded

and investigating that particular crime,

it turned out there was only one individual

in that whole restaurant that the gangs were targeting.

Everyone else was simply hit in this field of fire

that was put down by the gang members

when they went into the front door of the restaurant.

Initially law enforcement tackled gang crime

on a local basis, but instead of crime gangs diminishing

the opposite happened.

Law enforcement had to devise new ways

to deal with a new type of criminal.

So what this really does is to confront this enclave

which would require a huge police department police.

We now have brought in resources

of different levels of government

and specifically aim them

at the Vietnamese organized crime problem.

And, and we are able to respond with lightning like ability.

And we move through an antiquated criminal justice system

in a matter of moments.

Because when Sergeant Frank calls up there

and he talks to the, to the United States Attorney

who's handling the latest money laundering case,

they're very familiar with that.

We've already by, by a whole series of relationships,

established a team and they operate as a team.

It's the way the Japanese built cars to make them go better.

It's the way we put people on the moon.

A team works on a problem.

In this case the Asian Organized Crime Team, we call it SIU,

Special Investigation Unit, are set and ready to go.

They have access to county prosecutors,

they have access to federal prosecutors,

they have access to county resources.

We have access to federal government resources

and we have our local resources.

That multi-jurisdictional team

enables us then to keep abreast of what's going on now.

because I'll tell you quite frankly

the Asian Organized Crime, in the Vietnamese end of it,

is very innovative and extremely violent.

What is happening in police circles

is we are following the patterns of globalization.

Crime is international, it's it's mushrooming on the back

of globalized activities

in industry and commerce and elsewhere.

And therefore the police have to keep up with it.

And we have regular contacts now almost daily in some cases

where we are constantly in touch

with our counterparts in other countries, through Interpol,

through conferences, seminars, and one-to-one meetings

and exchanges of staff

so that we can share experiences not only here in Australia

but certainly in from those countries

where most of the immigrants have come from.

Now that is tremendously important for us

because sharing of information, the exchange of ideas

and the exchange of people that can help us

analyze trends is very important.

So it's something that we'll continue doing.

Law enforcement officers claim

that in using these new integrated techniques

for fighting crime, they have begun to make real progress.

But Malcolm Klein thinks a sledgehammer is being used

to crack a peanut.

But there are justice agencies

that think in terms of conspiracy.

I think in many ways they would prefer to have street gangs.

And it doesn't matter whether it's Vietnamese or Hispanic

or black, they would prefer to have street gangs

take on a more organized structure.

A because it makes it more of a legitimate problem to fight

as law enforcement agencies.

And B, because we have new or expanded techniques

for dealing with organized crimes

that don't work very well with disorganized youth groups,

street groups, we have conspiracy statutes

and special sentencing stripe structures and guidelines.

RICO statutes that were about developed originally

for the drug trade that can be applied to criminal groups.

In fact, here in California,

they finally got around to defining what a street gang is.

And in order to do that, they,

the very first sentence in the definition is

a criminal street gang is

so as soon as they put crime in there,

then they justified a series of responses

that might not be possible

without that kind of thinking.

There is often a fine line

between a crime being a disorganized, spontaneous attack

by a street gang is something more sinister,

A deliberately planned attack

that is a part of organized crime.

If you are the victim,

the question is academic,

as this Korean tourist couple

discovered in the back streets of Sydney.

A security camera captured their assailants

who were determined to take every cent

the hapless couple had.

The woman initially refused to give up her bag

with some heavy handed treatment,

soon changed her mind.

For daring to resist,

she was handed a second beating.

And oddly, the victims began to bow

in a display of respect for their attackers.

Even after the police arrived,

the couple refused to press charges.

They actually asked the police to let the assailant go.

As you have just seen, organized crime has made a return

to the streets after decades behind closed doors.

So what's next?

As organized crime leaders of yesteryear

are being replaced by brash young opportunists

like the Vietnamese and other gangs.

Some of our experts look ahead.

I'm fully convinced that the Vietnamese street gangs,

along with a lot of the other Asian Street Gangs

as they move into organized crime,

are going to far surpass any type

of organized crime syndicates

we've ever seen in this country.

The sophistication level is simply too high

that they've already demonstrated at a very early age.

And, and everything they do contributes to their training,

contributes to their knowledge,

contributes to their education.

And these kids learn every single thing they do,

every crime they commit,

every gang activity they get involved in,

they use as a basis of further educating themselves

on how to do things better.

And we've seen that happen time and time again.

Because it is an evolutionary process,

remember the Chinese and the Japanese

had to start somewhere as well.

Where I place the Vietnamese today

is probably where the Chinese,

the raw Chinese immigrants were say 30 years ago,

who started off at the very basic level of street extortion.

Not unlike the mafia in the United States, for example,

in the forties.

I think, you know,

if you're talking about the history and the future of gangs

we're in for a long term problem.

I started doing my research back in the 1960s

and the gang number of gang cities in this country has grown

from around 50 at that point

to this three or 4,000 estimate.

We're reaching an asymptote, we're reaching a,

a leveling off point because there aren't all that many

of the cities and towns left,

which have the capacity to form gangs.

On the other hand, there aren't a heck of a lot of cities

that are expand cities.

There's once, once the phenomenon starts

and gets established, it tends to perpetuate itself.

And the way we respond to it tends to perpetuate it as well.

So I think we've, we've seen the worst of the increase,

but I don't think we've seen much good news

about a decrease in gang problems.

Those who study crime

have been given a rare glimpse into

the world of crime gangs.

When police detained this young man

for questioning over a vicious attack on a Vietnamese family

during a home invasion.

This is part of what he told investigating officers.

We armed with weapons and that

and we just kick the door in and just go in and do it.

If you have money, then you can grab a hold of anything

as as easy as that.

With money, you can have gun, you know, bullets.

Yeah, anything that you want as long you have money.

As a teenagers who got nowhere to go,

who left home and don't go to school

and hang around the streets,

obviously they think that to join the gang

as a group go together,

they got more protection as a group.

What are we seeing here?

Is it simply a random criminal act

being committed by members of a Vietnamese street gang

or is it a systematic process being perpetrated by a gang,

which is itself part of a bigger picture

we know as organized crime?

It is not a question easily answered,

but it does need an answer

before society at large can decide what to do.

I do believe politicians should rethink

and take a second look at at organized crime

in America today.

I would suggest as a police chief

that may be a presidential commission

on the status of organized crime.

And look at the very different parts of it

here in Westminster,

we're very much exposed to Asian Organized Crime

but I think in the upcoming 21st century

that the federal government should host a series

of conferences and perhaps have a special commission report

because organized crime has changed.

From my understanding of this

and the briefings that I've attended,

Italian organized crime is flat

and probably not increasing as rapidly as Asian crime.

And so all of these things should be considered.

And I think that the Justice Department

should lead us on a national strategy

so that all the local agencies,

the state agencies,

and the federal agencies can get on the same page.

You know, if, if you're going to look at gangs,

street gangs, which is what I'm talking about,

you have to be very careful not to

overstate the relationships to other groups.

For example, they're nothing like terrorist groups.

They are really nothing like motorcycle gangs.

They are really nothing like prison gangs

although there are connections between some street gangs

and some prison gangs.

They are really not very much like all of the youth groups

that you probably are a part of

and I was a part of that got into trouble occasionally

when we were in school in high school,

but we didn't commit ourselves

or orient ourselves to and associate to criminal activity,

street gangs do.

That's why we get so concerned.

So if we're going to look at and understand them,

we have to start with several things.

One, they're by and large adolescent or youth groups.

And that suggests, you know,

a number of things about socialization, job opportunities,

training opportunities for them.

Another is that group process takes over.

Once kids join gangs, they get enveloped in

all of this rhetoric of the gang language and the gang talk

and the gang glory.

And the more we do to them that emphasizes their gang,

as such, the more we create more cohesiveness in the gang,

the more we create gang crime.

So what we want do, rather than say with adult gangs

where we try and crack down on them as much as possible,

put them away in prisons is such a big problem.

With street gangs, that's gonna be counterproductive,

because by and large, they're gonna sit back

and put the clippings in their pockets

and say, see man, we're so tough.

They had to do this and they had to do that

'cause there are lots of examples of this,

and there are good data in some of the American evaluations

that show that the more we do to gangs, for gangs,

with gangs, the stronger they become,

the more cohesive they become,

and the more difficult it is to reduce that cohesiveness

and the crime that results from that.

So from my point of view, one has to be extremely strategic

and sensitive about the nature of gangs

before trying to intervene with them.

And unfortunately, we're not.

And the history of the American interventions is

that we intervene on the basis of our ideologies,

not on the basis of what we understand

about the nature of those gangs.

Developing strategies

to prevent Vietnamese gangs

from becoming new lords of organized crime

may take some time.

After all, the mafia flourished, virtually untouched

for seven decades in America

before law enforces finally began to win the battle.

One thing is very clear.

The law will have to find innovative

and potent new ways to deal with a new breed of criminal

because the old order

and the ways of fighting it have passed

irrevocably into history.

I'm Robert Stack, thanks for joining us.