Tuesday, June 5th 2001: "The Chinese Mafia in Romania Enlarged Due to a New Group: 'The Swallow,' the Yellow Terror"
PAUL CRISTIAN RADU, STEFAN CANDEA
Alongside the small Chinese traders, the Chinese mafiosi groups have also entered Romanian erritory. They deal with debt collection, protection money, and trafficking in human beings or drugs. So far, the police have only obtained the remains of chopped corpses or fished suitcases full of Chinese bodies from the bottom of Bucharest lakes. This is how things are - unusual violence and cruelty are specific to the Chinese crimes. The dreadful Triads (Chinese organized crime) have not yet arrived in Romania, but it seems it is merely a matter of time until they do. However, today, Evenimentul Zilei presents you information on the so-called "Swallow" group. Both the Romanian authorities and the local Chinese community believe it to be one of the most dangerous organized crime groups on Romanian territory.
The small Chinese traders generally purchase the commodities from China, on credit. They are to pay back their cost some time later. Many traders fail to do it, or refuse to pay. The debt collectors start their move at that moment. More than 20 Chinese were victims of the Chinese mafiosi over the past eight years. They were hacked into pieces, boiled, and the parts were put in suitcases.
Evil Bird
The Chinese community in Romania believes the "Swallow" group to be the most dangerous one. Some time in mid 1999, a Chinese daily in Bucharest published a communique issued by the Chinese Embassy in Romania. It warned Chinese citizens that a woman, whose name was not given, acted on behalf of the embassy and asked for fees to help the Chinese arriving in Romania remain in the country. "The Swallow" is a mysterious woman, aged 53. The Chinese community believes she pulls the strings of the most powerful Chinese mafiosi group. Although the Romanian authorities suspect she is allegedly involved in cases of earning money from protection fees and debt collection, so far she has never been convicted in Romania. Confidential sources told us her father is an extremely important Chinese politician and she allegedly came here with the help of one of the former Securitate's rings.
Three Stained Brothers
"The Swallow" was a dancer in China, for a while. Three brothers are "her muscles": Chen Kexin (reportedly her husband, although there is no document to prove it), Chen Kefu, and Chen Keqin. Chen Kexin was charged with the attempted murder of a Chinese citizen in 1994. Zhao Tun Guo, who, at that time, was the leader of the Chinese mafiosi in Romania, was shot in the abdomen. A Pakistani and one Indian scattered one of his kidneys on the wall, with a hunting gun. Guo came through. One year later he committed a horrid murder, following which he fled to the Czech Republic. Although the investigators' reports point out that Chen Kexin was the one who planned the murder and took part in it, to take Guo's place, he was acquitted last March. His brother, Chen Kefu, he was imprisoned for one year, for having been caught in the act in 1999, while he was asking for protection fees. On that occasion Kefu presented a forged passport, with the name of Yang Quing-Xiang. Kefu is in Timisoara now. He is suspected of having gone there to carry out the same type of activities, as the Chinese community in Timisoara keeps enlarging. At the moment it has about 6,000 members.
Lethal Ball Point Pens
All three brothers had problems with the police in China. From the talks we had with some Chinese in Bucharest, we found out the "Swallow" group is heavily armed. They are also equipped with some ball-point pen pistols, with a sole bullet in the barrel. These are man made arms. The Chinese come to talks with these pens and put them on the table, to intimidate the interlocutors. The pens are made in Hungary, from former signal flare launchers. The Romanian authorities believe that the three brothers are quite powerful at the moment. This allows them send other fellow citizens to carry out "interventions." They are there to pull the strings later, together with the "Swallow". Where do they get the funds to carry out such actions? The policemen told us that the Chinese mafiosi have lately increased their earnings from debt collection and helping other Chinese cross the Romanian border illegally. For example, one Chinese person pays $10,000 to get to Europe and $40,000 to get to the United States. Usually, only a small sum is paid in the beginning. After that, the Chinese person works for years like a servant, to pay the rest of the debt.
Not Integrated into "Europe"
From approximately 10,000 ethnic Chinese in Bucharest, 99 percent had or have stands in "Europe" [wholesale market]. The Chinese were able to group themselves in the "Europe" Complex due to Colonel Salitra, former head of the Passports Directorate. He started the business with the "Europe" Market in 1992, together with Dumitru Nicolae, who now owns the "Niro" Market. The foreigners who ask for a residential visa in Romania must give a serious reason for it. All of them mention carrying out some commercial deals on Romanian territory. Consequently, all the Chinese that used to have companies here had to pass through the Passports Directorate. All the head of the Passports Directorate had to do was to friendly guide them toward the new wholesale market named "Europe." In 1994 Colonel Salitra died in a doubtful car crash. Nicu Gheara took over his businesses. The latter had previously been hired to organize the security team for the complex. Dumitru Nicolae withdrew, due to some misunderstandings he had with Nicu Gheara, and built a new market, "Niro." However, at the moment, most Chinese who want to carry out upright businesses migrate toward "Niro." The "Europe" wholesale market became famous for the many illegal deals it is involved in, and might be closed down any moment.
Chinese Journalist Who Was Shot
Besides the Asian mafiosi groups they must avoid, the Chinese must also pay great attention to the so-called bodyguards in "Europe." For example, last spring, on 25 May, the bodyguards from the "Day Guard" Company (the one that must guard the "Europe" wholesale market) fatally beat a Chinese citizen, due to some financial misunderstandings. "The bodyguards got next to him (Wang Li Jian - Evenimentul Zilei editor's note) and started to trample him underfoot and hit him with their fists. Witnesses say 20 guards were present, of whom half were watching the scene. The people present saw how Wang's blood started to gush from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. One of the bodyguards put the sole of his ankle boot on Wang's mouth, because they could not stop the blood gushing from his mouth. Then they put him on a cart and carried him among the stands up to Gate no. 2 of the market, where they threw him away." The Chinese newspaper "The Ethnic Chinese in Romania" published this macabre story. The police detained bodyguards Nicu Lazar, Daniel Pascale Pascu, and the Chinese citizen Liu San Kim after the murder. Shortly after the aforementioned article was published, the director of "The Ethnic Chinese in Romania" publication was short in the back with a 7.65mm caliber bullet. Both cases, Wang's murder and the Chinese journalist's shooting, are still unsolved, despite evidence. No bodyguard was ever arrested and the "Day Guard" company keeps "taking care" of the Chinese in the "Europe" wholesale market at the moment, too.
Old Man, You Need Someone To Put a Word in for You
Following the talks we had with several Chinese citizens and an extended investigation, we discovered details about the way in which the bodyguards from the "Day Guard" Company take care of the "Europe" wholesale market. Consequently, we found out many of them are employed without any legal document (labor contract) and have a criminal record. The traders say that day in, day out, after the complex is closed, the bodyguards break into six or seven stands with commodities, which belong to Chinese owners, and steal goods that they later offer for sale. The Evenimentul Zilei reporters followed this lead and asked several bodyguards from "Day Guard" what the conditions are to be employed by the company as a security guard. "Old man, to be employed here you need someone to put in a word for you with the bosses. Do you know any of them, either Gheara, or Pascale? If not, you can say good bye. Salary? There are special conditions here, everybody gets something in accordance with one's possibilities," one of the guards working for "Day Guard" told us. The traders' statements also point out that when any of them brings merchandise to the stand on a cart, the bodyguards measure the height of the packages with a stick and, according to it, the trader pays a certain fee. One must also pay a fee to enter the wholesale market. A Chinese citizen, owner of a stand in the "Europe" wholesale market, told us the following. "The owner is not interested in the additional fees the bodyguards have invented and forcefully ask for. They should thank the Chinese, not hire so-called guards who beat them, curse them, break their shops, and threaten them.
Guess, Who's Coming to China Town?
The Evenimentul Zilei reporters have also found out the reason for which, to date, the Chinese from "Europe" have silently suffered the bodyguards and their fellow citizen mafiosi's dictatorship. Once arrived on Romanian territory, the Chinese practically land in a bureaucratic jungle, totally unknown to them. Consequently, it is easy to blackmail them, because in most cases, they do not have all the necessary documents for their commodities, and do not pay the due taxes.
Due to this, and because they cannot speak Romanian, they cannot file charges with the police for any incident. If they did, the police would start an investigation on the issue. This is the way in which the Chinese become dependent on the bodyguards and on those who come from China to ask for protection fees. Under such circumstances, the ordinary Chinese are tempted to agree to the idea of building a genuine China Town in Bucharest.
The project includes building
a residential area with blocks of flats, which will have shops and offices on
the ground floors, with their own banks, hotels, and casinos. The Chinese would
exclusively administer this area. However, the experts in organized crime issues
believe such a project would make it easier for genuine Chinese organized crime,
the so-called Triads, to enter Romanian territory.