Australia A 1992 internal report by the Asian division of the
Victoria Police documented Wo Shing Wo activity in
Melbourne. The group is involved in the importation of heroin into Australia from Southeast Asia, as well as illegal gambling, illegal prostitution, extortion, immigration malpractice and money laundering. Chinese criminal groups are the primary wholesalers of heroin in Australia; street-level distribution in Melbourne is mainly outsourced to Vietnamese and
Romanian groups.
Belgium The Wo Shing Wo has a presence in
Antwerp, where it is active in heroin trafficking, money laundering, gambling and illegal workshops. The group also uses Belgium as a transit port for illegal immigrants. The Wo Shing Wo deal cocaine to the people in Hong Kong Kowloon and Macau. Their leader Wong Ying Ding was killed and now they are with no leader.
France The Wo Shing Wo is among five triad groups active in France. These gangs cooperate with
Albanian and
Turkish groups in the importation of heroin from the
Golden Triangle. In March 2002, four self-confessed Wo Shing Wo members were deported from Ireland after being involved in several assaults and robberies in Dublin. Eight people believed to be working for the Wo Shing Wo, including a senior member of the gang, were arrested after local gardaí and members of the
Garda National Drug Unit raided cannabis-growing operations at two homes in
Drumshambo,
County Leitrim in March 2009. In November 2012, 113 mostly Chinese and Vietnamese nationals were arrested in raids on 236 properties, suspected of growing, smuggling and selling cannabis in Ireland. Many of those arrested were believed to be connected to the Wo Shing Wo and operating under the orders of gang leaders in the UK.
Netherlands The Wo Shing Wo branch in the Netherlands was founded and primarily operates in
Rotterdam. In the 1970s, the group battled the
14K and
Ah Kong for control of the heroin trade in
Amsterdam. In addition to heroin trafficking, the group also operates gambling, prostitution, money laundering, loan sharking, robbery, extortion and human trafficking. The Wo Shing Wo has more recently also closely cooperated with the 14K.
South Africa Since the mid-1980s, the Wo Shing Wo has been one of four Hong Kong triad groups operating in South Africa, predominantly in
Johannesburg and
Cape Town. Acting independently from the Hong Kong branch, the group's activities in the country include fraud, drug trafficking, firearms smuggling, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, illegal gambling, the smuggling of illegal immigrants, tax evasion, and the large-scale importing of counterfeit goods. The Wo Shing Wo was formerly heavily involved in the illegal harvesting and exportation of
abalone (in 2000, the estimated gross income from the illegal exportation of abalone to Hong Kong was US$32 million). Beginning in the late 1980s, the Wo Shing Wo has been involved in the distribution in the United Kingdom of heroin and counterfeit goods from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The group has also been involved in conflicts with rival triad gangs over control of the stores selling pirated videos originating in China. Restaurant owner and alleged
Shui Fong "white paper fan" (business adviser) Philip Wong was murdered by a gang of contract killers armed with machetes in Glasgow on 9 October 1985. It is believed Wong was murdered after refusing to do business with the Wo Shing Wo who wanted a share of his lucrative Chinese video rental business. Three men wanted for the murder have never been traced. In February 1999, Wo Shing Wo member and former Glasgow brothel manager Tony Yeung was jailed for his part in a multi-million-pound fake credit card scam. Wo Shing Wo footsoldiers ambushed 14K members in a machete attack on Glasgow's
Sauchiehall Street in July 2003 in a dispute over the control of protection rackets. Wo Shing Wo members Jerome Castrillo, Ryan Parker-Saunders, Yu Xiang Liu, and Cho Wei Leong were convicted of the November 2007 murder of drug dealer Michael McGrath at the
Old Bailey in November 2008. McGrath had allowed the gang to stash crack cocaine and heroin at his
Carshalton home but was beaten to death after he began helping himself to the drugs. In January 2013, four men – Yik Fung Ng, Hiu Nelson Yeung, Chiu Yuen Li, and Siu Hung Yeung – associated with the Wo Shing Wo but who denied being members of the group were convicted of violent disorder following a street fight involving up to thirty men in
Manchester's Chinatown in June 2010. During the trial, it was alleged that one side of the conflict included Wo Shing Wo members and associates who had bullied young men who socialised in Chinatown into paying to join their ranks, and that the violence erupted because a group of young men had refused. ==Dragonhead ==