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With his bleached blond hair, multiple earrings and black clothes, the new bartender looked like any another troubled Hong Kong teenager. But triad members were wary. Before recruiting him, they asked to see his ID card. They jokingly asked if he was an undercover police officer. In fact, he was. "They were testing my reaction," recalls Ah-wai, a boyish, 22-year-old Hong Kong detective. After weeks of working in a seedy New Territories bar, supplying free liquor and fraternizing with the out-of-work twentysomethings who came to play pool, this was the moment of truth. "I tried to respond in a joking way," says Ah-wai. "I said, 'You're crazy'."
The gang members believed him. And so Ah-wai began a dangerous year as a member of one of the hundreds of small crime groups, or triads, that control Hong Kong's underworld. Hong Kong's strict legal procedures and human-rights laws make it difficult to prosecute gang members. And it's hard to find witnesses; triad members refuse to testify against each other. And unlike kidnappers or robbers, they operate inconspicuously, peddling drugs or pornography on the street, or running prostitution rings. But they are "endemic to society," says Andy Cheng, head of the Hong Kong police's organized-crime division, and must be reigned in. More than 700,000 people have been convicted for triad offenses since World War II, but that represents only a small fraction of the total members. And with Hong Kong's jobless rate on the rise, young people are now joining triads in record numbers. Until recently police shunned undercover sting tactics; some young officers had been corrupted by long exposure to the gangs. "Now police have no other choice," says a former police officer, "because of the growth of the triads."
The job of an undercover agent is to witness criminal acts. Ah-wai (his nickname) kept a logbook every night in a rented apartment where he lived. He had a lot to record. The triad turned out to be a small faction of the loosely-knit 14K association, one of four major criminal organizations in Hong Kong. Sai Men, the alleged gang leader, personally took over Ah-wai's indoctrination. A middle-aged man who wore gold watches and bracelets and smoked constantly, he reputedly led him to gambling dens, brothels and karaoke clubs. Playing his role, Ah-wai sold ecstasy at discos, drank copiously and served as pimp and bodyguard for prostitutes. "There were moments when I felt I really was a triad member," he says.
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Not privy to the ongoing undercover operation, a former police colleague once stopped Ah-wai on the street. "He thought he recognized me, but he wasn't sure," the detective says. Ah-wai was with triad members. The officer checked Ah-wai's ID--and at that moment, says the detective, "all the other triad members grew silent." Ah-wai suddenly started swearing at the policeman. The officer was so startled that he handed back the ID card without a word and walked away. "I was terrified," says the detective.
Sitting comfortably in police headquarters, wearing a button-down pink shirt and gray flannel slacks, Ah-wai talks lightly of his risky assignment. "I felt it would be good for my career." But his double life was stressful. He cut ties with his parents, who are retired factory workers. He communicated with his case officer only by telephone.
At the end of his year in the gang, Ah-wai led a team of 50 plainclothes policemen into the gritty area. They swarmed into the gambling dens, bars and brothels. "I pointed out the triad members," he says. "We went every place that I knew." Triad members were shocked. "You betrayed us!" some yelled. But Sai Men, the alleged ringleader, escaped. And when the gang members were brought to court, most got off with light sentences. Hong Kong's human-rights laws forbid entrapment, which makes it tough to prosecute people for selling drugs. So most of the drug-related convictions were for the lesser offense of buying. The punishments for 23 triad members ranged from fines to a few years in prison. Ah-wai feels the operation was something less than a success. "It's becoming more and more difficult to stop triads," he says. Would he go underground again? "Yes," but not soon.
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