Les Kennedy
March 25, 2008
POLICE investigating the stabbing murder of a South Korean student in the World Square complex believe it was carried out by members of a new Triad-style criminal gang, some of whom officers had identified to immigration officials in a request for their deportation.
The Herald has learned that the deportation request, on the grounds of student visa violations, was made the day before last Thursday's fatal stabbing of the 19-year-old brother of the prominent South Korean actor Lee Dong-gun.
Concerned members of the NSW Asian Crime Squad are understood to have met Department of Immigration officials to detail the activities of the gang that calls itself "Yee Tong". While police have yet to establish how many members the gang has, those identified to date are from mainland China and many are on study visas.
Yee Tong, whose members are in their late teens to early 20s, emerged in the Sydney CBD in the past year amid rising night-time violence in and around the World Square business and residential complex.
Police intelligence suggests Yee Tong has laid claim to the World Square complex, bounded by George, Liverpool, Goulburn and Pitt streets, as their turf against the long entrenched rival Big Circle- and Sing Wai-stylised Hong Kong Triad gangs in nearby Chinatown.
Five years ago, the Big Circle and Sing Wai gangs were involved in a series of violent clashes over protection rackets.
Yee Tong came to the attention of police investigating a number of brawls and knife fights in and around World Square in the past year. The gang is believed to prey on Asian students by extorting cash. It is also suspected of break-ins.
It has been at a least a decade since police last saw the emergence of an organised Triad-style gang in Sydney. The last was a gang called the "108 White Tigers" that evolved from the remnants of the 1990s' violent south-west Cabramatta Vietnamese gang, 5T.
Like Yee Tong, the 108 White Tigers preyed on overseas students in an extortion racket around the then unfinished World Square complex and the George Street cinema strip.
The 108 White Tigers, whose activities were broken up by police in a two-year operation beginning in 1998, also carried out home invasions on students' accommodation in the inner city and were involved in kidnappings and ransom demands.
Their targets were English-language students on two-year visas studying in the city, who were kidnapped or waylaid in the street and forced to disclose their bank cards and PINs.
Police have yet to establish a motive for last week's attack, which began inside the Hungry Jack's restaurant in George Street with what appeared to be an argument between two groups.
The row continued across the road and into the World Square complex. The victim was stabbed several times and died in hospital.
A 20-year-old male Korean student who was with him survived a stab wound to the upper body.
Two 18-year-old men who allegedly fled the scene in a taxi were arrested in Redfern.
The men, Michael Lee and Ivan Wong, both Chinese students living in Carlingford, have been charged with murder, causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder, and common assault.
They are expected to face Central Local Court today.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/triad-...6207010884.html
V-trans: http://www.iuphimhan.com/sarang/news-581fcb616.htm
*Kr.yahoo.news (03/25): Lee Dong Gun and parents went to Australia on the 20th and will return to Korea to prepare for the funeral on the 27th .
