For the last three centuries, wherever the Chinese have emigrated they have taken their secret brotherhoods. At first little more than mutual self-interest societies, these have evolved into the most efficient, ruthless and international of criminal fraternities, known as Triad societies. Bound by archaic oaths and secret quasi-religious rituals, the Triads demand absolute loyalty and exact brutal retribution from transgressors and opponents, traditionally death by a myriad of sword cuts.
Although outlawed, the Triads have been at the centre of Chinese patriotic politics. Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern China, was a member; so was his successor, Chiang Kai-shek; both were supported by Du Yeuh-sheng, one of the greatest criminal masterminds in history. The Triads instigated the Tong Wars in America, fought with the Allies against the Japanese in Malaya, connived with the CIA in Vietnam and escalated the heroin trade to Europe and the USA.
Today the Triads operate an unrivalled criminal empire. Extortion, gambling, international prostitution and illegal immigrant smuggling, money laundering, fraud, corruption, arms and narcotics dealing all fall within their remit. Few people have ever infiltrated their ranks and fewer have survived to talk about it.
This is the incredible story of th Triads: their evolution from third century BC, their rituals and mythologies, their role in shaping the twentieth century and their extensive criminal history and the life of key figures and their spread into such hi-tech crimes as computer fraud and blackmail. According to UN sources, the Triads pose the greatest potential criminal threat the world has ever known.
