Xã hội đen, (chữ Nôm: 社會顛, literally means "black societies"), is a Vietnamese term used to describe criminal underworld. The term is believed to have become widely used thanks to Hong Kong TV series and movies about the Chinese secret society of Heishehui (Chinese: 黑社会).[1] An individual who participates in these criminal activities can be called a giang hồ, găng-xtơ, côn đồ, or tội phạm; while a criminal organization is known as băng đảng or băng nhóm, depending on its scale.[2] [3] They are those whose goal is to make money from illegal and overall immoral activities.
See main article: Crime in Vietnam. According to the law of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, under Clause 1, Article 8 of the 2015 Criminal Code:[4]
Joining a criminal organization is considered to be a "very serious crime" in Vietnam.[5] For example, a person who illegally transported goods or money across the border could "face a penalty of up to 2 years community sentence or 3–24 months' imprisonment;" but the same crime if committed by a member of an organized group would be liable for "a penalty of 2–5 years' imprisonment."
Although the law would also make political groups, such as Việt Tân[6] and DTVNCH,[7] [8] criminal organizations, they are not part of xã hội đen as their stated aim and genesis is ideological rather than commercial.
Small group of criminals, băng nhóm, has simple structure. It is organized loosely with a small number of members. The leader is called đại ca or băng trưởng. They act aggressively and mostly commit crimes such as murder, robbery, theft, and fraud. These small groups may band together to form a larger syndicate or find protectorate from an already existed one.[9]
A larger criminal syndicate, băng đảng, has a clearer, more sustainable organizational structure with long-term operational goals. The leadership can have one or multiple people, but there is one individual at the top known as trùm. Below them is the command level with people who would be in charge of smaller groups within the syndicate. Ordinary members, known as đàn em, are those who directly carry out criminal acts, as well as all tasks assigned by the leaders.
For example, during the 1960s in South Vietnam, there was a powerful gang led by the infamous Đại Cathay, the trùm of his gang and the "Brother of all brothers" .[10] [11] Along Đại were several members that assisted his leadership: cánh tay trái "H đầu bò" (H the bull head), cánh tay phải "Lâm chín ngón" (Lâm the nine fingers), and quân sư "Hoàng guitar" (Hoàng the guitarist).[12] [13] The gang bosses that submitted to Đại Cathay were Huỳnh Tỳ and Ngô Cái, who were respectively known as "Second Brother" and "Third Brother".[14]
Vietnamese drug lords control territories in the northwestern provinces. Because Vietnam is located near the Golden Triangle, its heroin trade is concentrated along its borders with Laos and Cambodia.[15] Since 2019, not only has Vietnam become a drug market but also a transit port that criminals use to traffick drug to other countries.[16]
Meanwhile, Vietnamese illegal trafficking groups control areas in Hồ Chí Minh City. Their networks have been linked to the human-trafficking and human-smuggling markets, the ivory- and pangolin-trafficking markets, illicit logging operations, arms trafficking, and drug-trafficking markets.[17]
| Name | Active | Operating in | Founder's ethnicity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860s–1885 | ||||
| 1945–1960 | ||||
| 1960s–1966 (Đại Cathay) 1960s-1975 (Others) | ||||
| Tín Mã Nàm's triad | 1960s–1975 | Chinese | ||
| Năm Cam's gang | 1962–2001 | Hồ Chí Minh City (HCM City) | Vietnamese | |
| Bạch Hải Đường’s robber band | 1970-1982 | Long Xuyên | Vietnamese | |
| Lâm chín ngón's prison gang[18] | 1970–1988 | Chí Hòa Prison | Vietnamese | |
| Khánh Trắng’s so-called "Đồng Xuân Labor Union" | 1989–1996 | Vietnamese | ||
| Phúc Bồ’s gang [<nowiki/>[[:vi:Phúc Bồ|vi]]] | 1990s–1996 | Vietnamese | ||
| Phước tám ngón’s gang [<nowiki/>[[:vi:Phước tám ngón|vi]]] | 1990s–1996 | HCM City | Vietnamese | |
| Dung Hà's gang | 1990s–2000 | Vietnamese | ||
| Hải Bánh's group[19] [20] [21] | 1990s–2001 | Hải Phòng, later HCM City | Vietnamese |
Foreign-based gangs such as the Korean mafia[22] [23] [24] and the Japanese yakuza[25] are also reported to have activities in Vietnam.
See also: History of organized crime in Saigon.
In 1865, the China-based brigand Black Flag Army crossed the border from Guangxi into northern Vietnam, created a profitable extortion network along the course of the Red River. The group later joined forces with the Qing and the Nguyễn to fight off the French.
In 1945, various groups of gangsters unified into an organization called Bình Xuyên, led by Ba Dương. Before that, in the 1920s, Ba Dương was already the leader of a coalition of river pirates. In 1949, Bình Xuyên became a legitimate military organization. In 1954, Bình Xuyên controlled nearly the entire supply of opium of Vietnam. In 1955, Bình Xuyên was defeated in the Battle of Saigon and was disbanded.
Saigon in the 1960s saw the rise of four powerful Vietnamese gangs, whose leaders are known as "Four Great Kings" (Vietnamese: Tứ đại thiên vương) and were behide almost all of criminal activities and rackets within the city:[26]
Beside the "Four Kings", there was also an infamous Chinese crime boss called Tín Mã Nàm (nicknamed "Mad Horse"). He was considered as the "Triad King" of Chợ Lớn and was said to be the second highest-ranking member of Hồng Môn, a triad from China, behind only Hoàng Long ("Yellow Dragon").[29]
In 1964, Đại Cathay's gang and Tín Mã Nàm's triad clashed in a bloody fight. Although Mã Nàm won, the battle had caused many people to avoid his casinos and his business sharply declined. Tín Mã Nàm was then forced to call for a negotiation with Đại where he and many of the Chinese gangs in Chợ Lớn decided to give up away the areas between Nancy market and District 1 to Đại Cathay's gang.[30] [31]
In 1966, Tạ Vinh, a Chinese businessman, was arrested due to some conflicts with the government. Triads in Chợ Lớn and Hongkong tried to intervene by sending a petition to the embassy of the Republic of Vietnam in Taipei, Taiwan, but failed. Tạ Vinh was publicly executed on March 14.[32] [33] [34] [35]
In November 1966, Đại Cathay was arrested and placed in Phú Quốc Prison. On January 7 of 1967, Đại and his men escaped from the camp, but when he passed through the front gate, the alarmed sound, alerting the guards surrounding the prison. Discovered, Đại was chased to the North part of the island, but the guards never found him and he was never heard from again.
Following 1975 and the reunification of Vietnam, the era of Four Great Kings of Saigon came to the end. This, however, had allowed Năm Cam, a former follower of Đại Cathay, to developed a powerful criminal organization and dominated the South. He is said to have gone on a 15-year long killing spree in order to eliminate his rivals, and is considered as the "Godfather" of Vietnam.
Meanwhile in the North, four crime bosses also appeared:
At one point, both Năm Cam and Dung Hà joined forces to attack Lê Ngọc Lâm (nicknamed "Lâm chín ngón"), another former member of Đại Cathay. In 2000, Dung Hà was assassinated as she tried to expand her operation to Hồ Chí Minh City. In 2001, both Năm Cam and Hải Bánh, along with other gang members were arrested. Cam was executed while Hải was imprisoned until 2022.
Vietnamese-American gangs had their genesis in southern California, typically commit home invasion robbery against Vietnamese and other Asian refugee families. The kidnapping of young girls is also common with many are forced into having sex, doing drugs, and committing criminal offenses.[36] Vietnamese gangs are known to be highly mobile, often travel interstate, perpetrating a variety of criminal acts in a short period of time. They are considered to be less organized but more violent than ethnic Chinese organized crime groups. Ethnic Chinese from Vietnam (sometimes called Viet-ching) often play an important role as members of Vietnamese gangs or as links between Vietnamese and Chinese criminal organizations[37]
Vietnamese gangs have emerged as dominant and violent criminal organizations in Toronto's Chinatown area, with many of them were hired by already-established Chinese triads to work as street enforcers. While for the most part, these gangs have on businesses within their community, it seems that they are looking to expand their activities to the outside business community. There are three levels in Vietnamese criminal organizations. First is the organized crime level representing the geographically anchored hierarchy, second is the street gang level which carries out directions from the organized crime level leadership, and last is the action-set which consists of young males aspiring to gain membership in the street gangs.[38]
There has been concern expressed about the growth of ethnic Vietnamese criminal groups in Australia for a decade. Vietnamese gangs are heavily armed and have established links with Australian crime figures. They mainly involve in crimes against their own community including murder, extortion, robbery and petty drug dealing, with standover and extortion being the most common. Vietnamese criminal organizations are known to organize heroin shipments, either independently of or in association with established Chinese heroin trafficking operations. An increasing amount of heroin coming to Australia appears to have been transhipped through Vietnam. Australian polices have significant difficulties in counteracting Vietnamese organised crime due to a lack of Vietnamese police officers, consequent language barriers, and a common mistrust of government agencies by migrants from Vietnam.[39]
The impact of gangsters such as Đại Cathay and Năm Cam has created a generation that admired the xã hội đen culture. One notable example is Khá Bảnh, a YouTuber known for creating videos that showed him as a man of honor who possesses many moral principles of a giang hồ.[40] [41]