Agents from the OS7 anti-drug division of the Chilean Carabinieri Corps arrested two Chinese citizens in the central region of Chile, who are believed to belong to the transnational criminal organization Bang de Fujian (Fujian Gang), from China. The men were guarding two large marijuana plantations, in two industrial greenhouses with controlled climate and irrigation when the arrests occurred in mid-April, reported Chilevision.
Although the Chinese mafia has ventured into Latin America before, its presence in Chile appears to be more permanent, indicated InSight Crime, an organization dedicated to studying organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, in a report from late 2023. The galleries, highly Technologized and automated, they were located in two locations in the region in a rural area, 30 minutes away from each other, where they cyclically cultivated thousands of plants.
“In Chile, the Fujian Bang has been present for at least five years, confirmed since the end of 2019 with investigations in the southern part of Chile, where the installation of high-tech sheds for hidden crops was pursued,” he told Dialogue on May 20 Luis Toledo, Chilean expert on organized crime and former director of the National Drug Unit, of the Attorney General’s Office of Chile. “The gang’s illicit businesses include the production, cultivation and sale of marijuana; in addition to human trafficking and arms trafficking, although in the latter case they are not for sale, but only for the protection of their businesses.”
In both raided facilities, Chinese citizens were engaged in carrying out the entire marijuana cultivation process, including the installation and operation of the electrical systems and the lighting and administration of the irrigation and fertilizer processes, the police reported. That made them true experts in the field, the researchers say.
“One of the detainees was in Africa and the other was in Europe, installing and operating the same systems; but there are many people involved in this crime in our region,” he told Chilevision Osvaldo Yáñez, deputy prosecutor of the O’Higgins region in charge of the investigation. “It is the same seal of the band in previous operations in Chile and in the world.”
“The Bang clan is one of the most prominent criminal organizations among those that emerged from Fujian province,” he reported. Insight Crime. “Due to its geographical position and its commercial links, waves of Fujianese immigrants have migrated around the world, and they have a strong presence in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, the United States and Canada (…). This diaspora allowed Fujianese organized crime to open operations in different countries, managing them internally or in cooperation with other Chinese triads (…).”
European connection
In Spain, the National Police arrested four members of the gang during Operation Cathay. The criminals were sentenced to three and a half years in prison and a fine of USD 350,000 each, for turning the northern city of Gijón into a center of operations for large-scale marijuana cultivation, the Spanish newspaper reported on May 20. Trade. The gang had converted two industrial areas as marijuana factories, to export to different countries in Europe, carrying out cultivation, processing, weighing and packaging, where even three Chinese citizens worked in conditions of semi-slavery.
“Everything revolves around the production and trade in industrial quantities of marijuana, the band is very oriented to that task,” Toledo said. “The operators do not have great luxuries, they have a very low profile, they tend to go unnoticed as workers, they are not related to acts of violence and their bond between peers is given by the sale of marijuana and large-scale production.”
Criminal history
In April 2023, Yu Caixin, one of the main financiers of Bang’s marijuana production operations in 26 different locations, who served as president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the city of Temuco, southern Chile, was arrested on charges of drug production and trafficking, reported the Chilean press network Bio-Bíeither. Previously, in September 2021, the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) dismantled a marijuana production operation linked to the Bang, leaving 13 people detained, the Chilean portal reported Emol.
A parallel criminal investigation, opened in 2020, found that a series of indoor marijuana farms and entertainment venues were owned by families originally from Fujian province, parts of the Bang clan.
Saved by translation
In all the countries where Bang is present, the challenge that research has due to the language barrier is mentioned, because they only speak – or pretend to only speak – the Fujian dialect. Likewise, clan members have very fragmented information. According to former officials such as Luis Toledo, the detainees are well aware that this factor complicates and slows down the investigations.
“They are aware that in Chile certain documents must be incorporated for the proper information of the accused in the oral trial. Then they take advantage of those guarantees,” Toledo said. “They know the problems derived from the application of procedural rules for the benefit of those accused of a case, and through the language barrier they complicate the investigation, because all their telephone or virtual communications are in the language or dialect that they have chosen one”.
“In addition, in all investigations against the Bang of Fujian, it is very difficult to find interpreters who are exempt from any type of connection with organized crime,” Toledo stressed. “Nor do the embassy translators give complete confidence. Whether because they are afraid; because they may be close to the accused; or out of loyalty to his country.”
