14K has been the most active Triad in France, Some years ago, a journalist went undercover in the Paris Chinatown and he ended up getting close to 14K members. One of them even tells him towards the end of the investigation that he is with 14K. I tried to find the video on youtube but couldn't.
Interestingly, today is the start of a big trial on one of the main Corsican Mafia clan. It turns out the Corsicans used Chinese businessmen in Paris to launder their money through real estate and various businesses located in South Korea (we're talking several millions euros). That's a very elaborated scheme and I wouldn't be suprised if these chinese guys were linked to 14K.
Also in the Netherlands, 14K (Chinese), Sun Yee On (Han Chinese) and Wo Shing Wo (mainly Chinese and Vietnamese). Rotterdam (Katendrecht) was the oldest Chinatown in Europe, since 1911.
Chinese on the Cape: From stoker to peanut Chinese Aries v Meeteren September 16, 2015
The Rotterdam district of Katendrecht was introduced to Chinese workers in June 1911. They were brought to the port by the shipping company Rotterdamse Lloyd as strikebreakers. The Chinese were deployed as stokers and laundrymen on the large passenger ships. They worked hard and were cheap, as they knew at Lloyd. The Chinese would never leave.
Photo: Wikipedia Maashaven 1906 (photo: ANP photo archive on Wikipedia)
The Rotterdam port area is in full swing in 1911. The municipality of Rotterdam had annexed the villages of Charlois and Katendrecht at the end of the 19th century in order to significantly expand the port there. Large parts of Katendrecht fall prey to the Rijnhaven and the Maashaven that are then dug.
In 1911 the work is finished. Little is left of Katendrecht then than the Cape, a peninsula between the two new harbours. The rustic river village has changed into a place full of sheds, silos, cheap workers' houses, pubs, bars, brothels and dance halls.
Port strike The expansion of the port of Rotterdam is not an isolated case. The economy is growing worldwide and with it transport by water. Seamen want to profit from it. They demand higher wages and better working conditions. If they do not get that, they go on strike in June 1911. In many ports in the Netherlands, Belgium, England and the US no ship can sail anymore. This makes the seamen's strike of 1911 the first international strike.
Chinese Then the Rotterdam Lloyd comes up with a trick. The shipping company secretly takes about 100 Chinese sailors from London's Chinatown. British shipowners had already had good experiences with Chinese sailors as strikebreakers. They are put to work in Rotterdam as stokers or coal porters on transatlantic ships that can sail despite the strike.
When the dock workers join the seamen's strike, other shipowners repeat the Lloyd's trick. They also use the Chinese to load ships. Despite the strike, work continues as usual. The strike has failed.
Heat-resistant The shipowners are very pleased with the Chinese seamen. Normally, strikebreakers are put back on the street after a strike, so that the regular staff can get back to work. But that is not happening now. Shipping companies are even hiring more Chinese, causing hundreds of Dutch seamen to lose their jobs.
Chinese are known by employers for being cheap, never complaining and always willing to do hard and unhealthy work. The story even goes that Chinese can handle the great heat in the boiler room.
Yellow Peril The harbour unions are furious. They call the Chinese sailors 'vermin' and 'the yellow peril'. For example, a magazine of the Rotterdam social democratic trade union Volharding states: "The Chinese are also human. But a human being who, as a social being, as a human being, still has to practice becoming human. [...] They are the lowest materialists, who are only interested in making money and who are always ready to sell their country to the enemy."
Fortune seekers A year after the strike, Lloyd employs almost 400 Chinese. When the First World War breaks out in 1914, that number grows further. The British navy blocks the German Baltic coast. Chinese living there move to Rotterdam, which is neutral in the war.
At the end of the war, a large number of Chinese come to Rotterdam again, because British sailors reclaim their work in the ports. As a result, many Chinese sailors are left without work and they also try their luck in Rotterdam.
Katendrecht All these newcomers find a place in Katendrecht. There is plenty of work there. There was also some thought about housing the Chinese on the Schiedamsedijk, where many migrants, sailors and ship personnel also live. But it became Katendrecht because, according to the authorities, the Schiedamsedijk forms too close a community that has difficulty accepting outsiders.
Shipping masters Shipping companies soon stopped hiring Chinese themselves. They started working with so-called shipping masters . These are Chinese intermediaries who mediate between the shipowner and the sailor. The first recruitment agency in Katendrecht opened its doors in 1914. More soon followed.
The shipping masters have a lot of power. They decide who gets to work on the ships and who doesn't. Anyone who is hired for a job is allowed to sleep in a boarding house , a kind of inn, for room and board. These are also owned by the shipping masters .
Opium The boarding houses are poor and often have an opium kit in the basement. Some of the Chinese on board have already become addicted to opium, which makes them passive and without will. "That is not bad for the ship owners, because it eliminates the risk of riots on board," says writer Karina Meeuwse in Trouw .
Bad name The opium dens give the Chinese a bad name. They are said to be unreliable and lying and to smuggle drugs. In Amsterdam, gang wars break out that last until 1931. The government takes measures to reduce the number of Chinese entering our country. But shipowners are obstructive. They cannot do without their cheap personnel.
Photo: Rotterdam City Archives Chinese restaurant Tsong San Lao in the Delistraat on Katendrecht (photo: Rotterdam City Archives)
Red Light District But not everywhere the Chinese are looked down upon. On Katendrecht the Chinese live together with other dock workers, pimps and whores without many problems. In the 1920s Jo Kraaijeveld started 'squatting' with a Chinese in the Atjehstraat. They start a Chinese restaurant and are helped by a policeman. "On Katendrecht the Chinese were never discriminated against".
The collection of restaurants, teahouses, opium dens, pubs and brothels on the Cape has a huge attraction for people from Rotterdam and the surrounding area. Katendrecht becomes the red light district of Rotterdam. But it is not only the whores that attract a lot of attention.
Bus excursions The VVV organizes excursions to Chinese restaurants on Katendrecht in September 1935. Chinese food is hot then. The closing weekend of the VVV district attracts 35,000 people to the Cape, including busloads of tourists from Amsterdam, The Hague and the Hoeksche Waard.
Crisis At its peak, 1,500 Chinese live in Katendrecht. But the economic crisis of the 1930s changes that. Trade declines, which is immediately noticeable in the port. Furthermore, ships no longer sail on coal, but on fuel oil, which causes employment for the Chinese to decline even further.
Peanut Cookies Unemployed Chinese people start selling peanut cookies or teng-teng: 'Pinda pinda, lekka lekka, 5 cents'. The Peanut Chinese first sell their exotic delicacy in the city centre of Rotterdam, later also in The Hague and Amsterdam, even in the smallest villages. But the government finds the Chinese cookies unhygienic and bans their sale. Poverty strikes among the Chinese and with it many diseases, such as beri beri.
Emptying In the late 1930s, many Chinese left Rotterdam in search of work. From 1936 onwards, the Rotterdam police also sent more and more unemployed and sick Chinese out of the country. Chinese sailors who signed on to a ship were no longer allowed to return to Rotterdam. Little remained of the once flourishing Chinese community on Katendrecht. In 1938, 150 Chinese were still counted.
The influence of the Triads is hard to judge. There are more than 500 members in Britain and one estimate suggests that 75 per cent of Chinese-run businesses in Soho hand over protection payments - so called "tea money" - to the groups.
Police have identified four main societies operating in Britain: the 14K, Wo Shing Wo, Wo On Lok and San Yee On.
Triad crime is largely confined to extortion, protection rackets, illegal gambling, prostitution and people smuggling.
The National Criminal Intelligence Service and Scotland Yard monitor the activities of the main Triad societies, with the Met operating a specialist Chinatown unit at Charing Cros
At 1.10.40, the guy is talking about the 14K. It's in French but there's the subtitles and you can see he is talking about it. Basically he tells the journalist that if he goes to China he can connect him with all the Triads, especially the 14K and finally he says that he is with them.
