Body find shatters calm

Ten years ago words like triad and Asian crime syndicate belonged to another world, as foreign as a Jackie Chan movie.

Now a body in a suitcase floats down the Waitemata Harbour on Good Friday as families fish and sail nearby.

It's not so much the news of another murder that shocks; deaths have become weekly news and as crime increases, New Zealanders have become increasingly immune to all but the most gruesome cases.

It's more that this sort of thing just doesn't happen here. A body found in remote bush maybe, but not this: someone's son, not much older than 20, dead from multiple injuries, folded up in a suitcase and chucked in the water.

Suddenly a scene from Hong Kong, mainland China or Sicily is deposited on our doorstep. Add it to the shooting of triad gang enforcer Tam Yam Ah near his karaoke bar in Auckland last year and it's all a little too close for comfort.

And it's unlikely to go away.

New Zealand is seen as a soft target. The demand for methamphetamine is high and the profits huge. If the offenders are caught, the penalties are seen as light - compared with the death penalty in some countries. Standover tactics and a natural fear in the Chinese community mean many crimes may go unreported.

Mention the word triad in the wider Chinese community and the fear is evident. People spoken to by the Herald on Sunday yesterday either would not talk or would not be quoted.

One man, from the Chinese media, said the drama of the killing suggested mafia-style execution. Such a crime would trigger vigorous discussion in the Chinese community, through groups, friends and Chinese talkback radio.

While immigrants of Chinese origin were used to violent crime in the cities they came from, news of this sort was still a shock, he said.

And there was concern Asian students, naive and away from home, were being drawn into organised crime - either as victims or potential offenders. Several spoken to were adamant that the wider community was vehemently against criminal activity of any kind and resented being lumped in with those who broke the law.

Detective Sergeant George Koria, the officer in charge of the Asian crime squad in Auckland, said illegal drugs were the main focus of the four-member squad with fraud the next most common crime. Violent crimes did not figure as highly because many members of the Asian community, particularly the more recent immigrants, were still reluctant to come forward and lay a complaint. They either did not understand the system, feared the police because of the countries they came from, or tried to sort it out themselves the Chinese way.

Those involved in organised crime in New Zealand had Chinese backgrounds and were mainly from Hong Kong, China or Taiwan.

Students were easy pickings because they were naive, but those higher in the pecking order had New Zealand residency and were well organised.

Koria said that anything that made money was possible - from extortion to the multimillion-dollar seafood black market."They can turn their hand to anything," he said.

Asian crime was likely to remain within the community - an Asian offender targeting an Asian victim - because people of other ethnic groups were more likely to go to the police.

"They're not afraid [of the police]. It's harder to control them."

Lincoln Tan, editor of Iball, an Asian focused newspaper, said those committing crimes had no long-term commitment to New Zealand.

"It's not good for the Chinese community. The problem is we all get lumped together, but the reality is we are as different as chalk and cheese. Chinese people feel resentful they are tarnished. They do not approve of people who break the law."

Tan says talk of triads was not helpful because of the fear connected with those groups. "It will deter Asians from coming forward and will instil fear in the wider community. The moment you mention triads people don't want to get involved in case they become a victim."

Canterbury University sociology academic Jarrod Gilbert, who studies the rise and development of motorcycle clubs, patched gangs and Asian gangs, said those involved in Asian organised crime were serious, well organised career criminals.

Patched gangs were blamed for the methamphetamine trade but in reality it was organised Asian criminals who where involved in the big trade.

"We ignore organised crime at our peril because if we're seen as soft targets, clearly that's going to perpetuate the problem," he said. "And methamphetamine is causing a significant problem in this country."

The Asian community in New Zealand needed to know that the police in New Zealand were straight and would take complaints of standover tactics or organised crime seriously, he said.

Organised crime, he said, would not go away.

"We enjoy much of what overseas culture brings to the country but we've got to take the bad with the good. It's an inevitable outcome."