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The church in an unassuming Sheffield suburb had long been deconsecrated but it had not fallen into disrepair.
There was nothing about it to attract the casual observer’s gaze or disapprobation – no dilapidation or infestation of weeds and undergrowth.
In short, no one would have given it a second glance. But that was precisely the point.
‘The criminal gangs operating in these leafy suburbs don’t want to draw attention to themselves, and the people – often slaves – who work for them come and go in normal working hours so they do not raise suspicions,’ says David McKelvey, head of TM Eye, a company bringing organised crime groups to justice.
McKelvey carried out a nine-month surveillance on the church before it was raided, gathering evidence of the Triad gang that was operating an illegal tobacco factory there.
And what could be a more effective cover for a sophisticated organised crime operation than a former church?
McKelvey, a former detective chief inspector with the Metropolitan Police with an in-depth knowledge of the methods employed by organised crime gangs, has been investigating Triads – the notoriously brutal Chinese crime syndicates that have flourished in Britain since the 1940s, when the Asian diaspora settled here.
He has successfully disrupted their criminal activities, dismantled their operations and instigated the prosecutions of those at the top of their organisations.
And he says their reach spreads from inner cities to suburbs: ‘The Triads are without doubt the largest and most sophisticated criminal network in the UK. They operate from flats, semis, terraced houses and apartment blocks in every postcode in the country. These properties are all kept to a good standard – neat hedges, tidy paintwork – so as not to draw public attention.
‘Their tentacles spread everywhere. In Edinburgh we discovered a huge rented warehouse where they were operating the biggest cannabis factory in Scotland. It was being run largely by Chinese students – no British-born person is ever recruited – studying for degrees in respectable UK universities [one was at Birmingham]. They are often from the Fujian province of China and are the Triad’s foot soldiers, laundering money, making up packages.
‘Chinese–based organised crime is more highly developed than other gangs. They have hugely sophisticated structures with captains, lieutenants, foot soldiers. They sit under the radar, don’t draw attention to themselves and have tended not to operate in criminal areas that are taken seriously by police, earning billions from dealing in class C drugs like cannabis and illegal tobacco to avoid the attention of law enforcement.’
But a recent move by the Triads into production of the class A controlled opioid fentanyl, and an increased alertness to human trafficking, along with a rising awareness of the dangers of illicit tobacco, have conspired to bring Triad gangs into the orbit of police and trading standards officers.
‘Add to this the UK’s approval for plans for a new Chinese mega-embassy in central London, and warnings that it could be used as a base for spying and pose security risks, and you realise why the police have just woken up to what’s going on,’ says McKelvey.
Such has been the success of his company’s operations, a notorious Triad hub, masquerading as the Fujian Business Centre, above a Chinese restaurant on Leytonstone High Road in east London, closed down 18 months ago.
In the past year, law enforcement agencies have also begun to focus on Triad-run illegal tobacco factories, as well as retail outlets such as corner shops and convenience stores, selling illicit tobacco – at about £3 per 30 grams against around £23 (which is mostly made up of Government taxes) for the legitimate product.
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‘The Government is being deprived of millions of pounds in revenue by these sales – it has been estimated that 78 per cent of smokers buy illegal tobacco in the UK,’ says McKelvey. ‘The tobacco produced in these factories contains an additional potentially deadly health risk.
‘We’ve found some buildings lined with asbestos, and tobacco is swept off the floors. So smokers are ingesting asbestos straight into their lungs. And there are, of course, no hygiene regulations: rat droppings, poison and brick dust have all been found in illegal tobacco produced in factories run by Triads,’ he says.
Once the tobacco is packed into boxes, it is sent to ‘fulfilment houses’ – the respectable-looking suburban semis often staffed by modern-day slaves who are paying off debts to the Triads – where it is packed into pouches.
They are labelled to look as if they contain tobacco smuggled from abroad: ‘But the pouches are counterfeits. Typically four or five slaves each pack 1,000 packets of tobacco a day and they find their way into corner shops.
Protection rackets – extorting money from businesses – remain an easy additional income for Triad gangs. ‘They are low risk, high reward,’ says McKelvey. ‘Hundreds of millions are extorted at virtually no risk because the gangs exact money from businesses and if it isn’t paid there’ll be violent consequences for families back in China.’
Again, to the average law-abiding citizen, a gang member, often smartly-suited and well-educated, would meld into the crowd. But one former Triad member reveals the true power of their chokehold on the British underworld.
‘The gang members are invisible… but if you know, you know,’ former triad enforcer Richard Musa explains as he walks our reporter past the red lanterns and neon signs of London’s Chinatown, after gaining permission from the head of his old gang to speak to us.
Just a stone’s throw from the packed theatres, cinemas and pubs of Soho, Musa says the area is controlled by two ‘main players’ – the 14K and Wo Shing Wo (WSW) Triad gangs. Both originated in the 20th century – Wo Shing Wo establishing itself in the 1930s and 14K coming 15 years later. Originally set up as an anti–communist action group in mainland China, its members fled to Hong Kong in 1949 where they shifted towards organised crime.
14K was one of the first triads to gain a foothold in the UK, taking advantage of a relaxation in immigration policies after World War Two, while Wo Shing Wo gained power in the late 1980s.
While most immigrants were hoping to start a new life for themselves in cities including London, Manchester and Birmingham,
Triads saw the emergence of this diaspora as an opportunity to assert their control, demanding protection money from new business owners and setting up a network of illegal gambling dens.
According to Musa, the 14K and WSW each rule half of Chinatown, enforcing a protection racket on a host of restaurants in the iconic district. The restaurants, he claims, are run by legitimate businessmen forced to pay Triads a percentage of their earnings in exchange for protection known as ‘tea money’.
Musa explains there are universal symbols that show the businesses are under Triad protection. ‘If you walk into a restaurant and it has a tangerine tree in the window with red paper wrapped around it, it means a civilian owns the restaurant but is paying protection money to a Triad.’
Musa says restaurants in Chinatown without a tangerine tree placed prominently in the window are warning rivals the business is owned by a Triad or a person associated with a gang.
The former gangster was a WSW member for 37 years before turning his back on a life of crime and converting to Islam.
His outreach work now includes youth mentoring initiatives: some Triad members are recruited in their early teens. However the bond he has with his Triad ‘brothers’ means he is still treated with respect when visiting their establishments.
When we meet in a popular Chinatown restaurant, a teapot is placed at a specific angle in front of Musa by the waiter. Explaining the ritual, Musa says: ‘If I wasn’t here the waiter could point the teapot at anyone. But because I’m here they won’t point it at me, because it’s like putting a middle finger up at someone. It can cause a major issue. That teapot can cause someone’s life to be lost, a WSW member would flip this table upside down and smash it if it was pointed at him.’
And teapots aren’t the only objects which have potent symbolism to Triad gang members – white flowers and broken items are also indicators of danger.
Dr Oliver Chan, associate professor of criminology at Birmingham University, tells the Daily Mail: ‘The white chrysanthemum or white wreath are associated in Chinese culture with death and funerals.
‘Delivered to a business, they communicate an unambiguous threat without a single word.’ Meanwhile sending a cracked piece of ornamental stone such as jade is a threat that something belonging to the recipient will be destroyed.
But as gangs are increasingly sophisticated, some old customs have become out-moded.
‘The image of the tattooed, openly aggressive Triad member is largely a product of older films and older eras,’ says Dr Chan.
‘Senior figures operating here now are often indistinguishable from legitimate businesspeople. They can be well–dressed, multilingual and professionally presented. Many are prominent businessmen who have either sought Triad protection or become fully involved in the organisation’s activities.’
Triads are split between businessmen and fighters: the ‘money and power’ are intentionally kept separate to maintain control and balance. Leading the group is the ‘Dragonhead’ and at the bottom are ‘Horses’, or foot soldiers.
‘Lower down the hierarchy, among the enforcers, debt collectors and other low–ranking members, you are more likely to see the traditional markers,’ Dr Chan adds.
‘For example tattoos in specific body locations, [people] gathering at the same spots at regular times and a certain physical authority within the community.
‘You notice it in how others around them behave, people who would normally be quite confident become very deferential.
‘Tattoos have historically been a way of signalling rank and allegiance, for example Guan Yu, the deity of brotherhood and war. But modern groups are increasingly reluctant to use them to reduce identification risk.’
Alongside the intricate hierarchy system, initiation processes are often secretive and ritualistic.
Musa explains that every Triad’s inauguration differs but share a few similar practices.
Discussing his initiation into WSW, he says: ‘You start in your boxer shorts and they take a grapefruit branch and hit your back. They say they beat you to death and then bring you back.’
Afterwards the new member takes a sip of tea, before asking their new boss to do the same. Once the boss sips you have joined the ‘brotherhood’ – for life.
In the past two years, the evidence that Triads are infiltrating our suburbs and provincial towns, as well as cities, is potent.
More than a dozen properties across Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Reading, Huddersfield and Essex have been vandalised with red paint; attacks that, according to Dr Chan are acts of intimidation to rivals – or reminders by loan sharks that debts remain unpaid.
‘For civilian targets, the approach is typically very calculated and layered. It starts with a ‘softening-up’ phase: someone turns up, seemingly friendly, maybe bringing gifts, just making themselves known. Nothing is said directly. The message is implied: ‘We know you, we know your business, we know your family.’
‘If that doesn’t work, things escalate. Verbal warnings first, then minor property damage, broken windows, graffiti. Physical violence tends to come much later, if at all.
‘The red paint attacks we have been seeing across British cities fit this pattern very clearly.
‘When it is a turf dispute, the sequence is usually intimidation first, then the senior figures on both sides try to negotiate. If that breaks down, it can get violent.
‘For business owners, there is also a slower, more insidious tactic, such as interfering with their supply chains, pressuring food and alcohol suppliers to cut them off or getting someone placed inside the business as a member of staff.
‘Owners often don’t realise how compromised they are until they are already deep in it.
‘The silence of victims is itself part of the intimidation strategy,’ adds Dr Chan. ‘The community knows what happens to people who talk. That silence makes it very difficult for police or journalists to find out.’
The reminder is compelling and persuasive: the cloak of secrecy the Triads perpetuate is one of the reasons they still flourish.
