On one occasion, while in the second district, because Đại refused to name members of his gang that had been involved in a fight, a group of uniformed police officers forced him to kneel on the ground and swallow a live cockroach in front of his crew, which Cathay vomited in disgust.

Tín Mã Nàm had a strong physical appearance, had years of training in Shaolin Kung Fu and Choy Li Fut, and was nicknamed ngựa điên (lit.

At the beginning of 1964, Đại, followed by Ba Thế and Lâm Đào Già brought two cars and a dozen motorbikes with the markings Goebel, Push, Brumi, Ishia, each one carrying two people.

The gang then suddenly brought out knives, swords, sticks, bayonets and simultaneously attacked the roadside shops in the Great World district.

After a moment of shock, Tín Mã Nàm's gang calmed down, began shouting and ran into the bars to arm themselves with knives, swords, and nunchakus in which afterwards they then hid and counterattacked.

With his business rapidly declining, Tín Mã Nàm was desperate and so he asked to meet Đại Cathay at Đồng Khánh restaurant in order to negotiate.

As a result of the negotiation, Tín Mã Nàm and the Chinese gangs in Chợ Lớn ceded away the entire areas from between Nancy market and District 1, allowing Đại to open more casinos and run a monopoly on illicit activities within those regions.

[3][7][9][10] At that time, besides Đại, in Saigon, there were also three major mobsters or "kings": Huỳnh Tỳ, Ngô Văn Cái and Ba Thế.

On January 7, Đại and his men escaped from the camp, but when he passed through the front gate, the alarmed sound, alerting the guards surrounding the prison.

[11][7] Duyên Anh's novel "Điệu ru nước mắt" (Tale of One Teardrop) was based on the life of Đại Cathay, and the novel was later adapted into a film by the same name directed by Lê Hoàng Hoa and was acted by two famous Vietnamese actors at the time Hùng Cường and Trần Quang.