[10] In 1949, the group relocated to British Hong Kong after the Kuomintang evacuated China following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War.
After the Chinese Civil War ended in the victory of the Communists in 1949, a defeated Kuomintang army fled in early 1950 from Yunnan province into Burma, a state which then as now has a weak government that does not exercise control over all of its territory.
[6] While Hong Kong's 14K triad gang dominates its traditional areas of operation and has expanded far beyond the region, its focus remains China-centric.
Since the crackdown in Macau, the 14K triad resurfaced in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago in the United States; Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto in Canada; Sydney in Australia; and the UK.
In California there have been cases of 14K members recruiting teens in Asian densely populated areas such as San Francisco or Orange County.
In Hong Kong, 14K members would usually recruit teens in poorer areas such as Kowloon, Kwun Tong, or Tuen Mun while also targeting certain schools.
[19] Two 14K groups, 14K-Hau and 14K-Ngai,[20] are among seven Chinese criminal organizations operating in South Africa, represented in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, specializing primarily in extortion and abalone trafficking.
[21] The National Police Agency stated in 1997 that the 14K had been expanding its operations in Japan since the 1980s and had branches in Fukuoka, Osaka, Sapporo and Tokyo, each with at least 1,000 members.
The 14K in Japan has been involved in counterfeiting credit cards and has cooperated with yakuza groups in the importation large numbers of illegal Chinese migrants.
In 1998, the chief of Belgium's security agency stated of Chinese criminal organizations in the country: "They include several hundred Asiatics and have a strong familial characteristic.
Tony Lee, allegedly a high-ranking member of the 14K's Cork branch, was killed along with Michael Tsin of the rival Dublin faction.
[23] In August 1983, twelve members of the 14K were arrested in Limerick in connection with attempting to extort money from the owners of Chinese restaurant in the city.
[21] The triad association is still very much active but now operate in smaller groups run by members and distant relatives of the Nam and Tsin family.
Underbosses, bosses and high ranking soldiers are believed to have "14K" tattooed on them using ink mixed with blood that's been blessed by Kuang Kong.
The reported criminal activities of the triads included the trafficking of women and children from China into Ireland, involvement in casinos, and money laundering.
[22] The 14K was the first triad society to arrive in the United Kingdom, emerging from the Chinese communities of London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester during the post-war period.
Other triad societies did not arrive in the UK until 1964, when the Labour Party encouraged large-scale immigration, bringing a huge influx of Hong Kong diaspora.
[28] On 3 June 2003, alleged 14K member You Yi He, who was the subject of a police investigation into people-smuggling at the time of his death, was shot and killed in London's Chinatown.
[36] Initially, the group was made up of members from Hong Kong but later recruited from the Vietnamese community, and absorbed the remnants of the defunct Ghost Shadows.
[38][39] Intelligence reports from the Attorney General of Mexico and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency have indicated that the 14K triad is among the suppliers of raw materials used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine to the Sinaloa Cartel.
[5] High-ranking 14K member Hui Sin Ma aka Frank Ma, who was born in China and illegally immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s, began his criminal career in Boston and San Francisco before settling in Queens, New York, where he became associated with the On Leong Tong and their youth gang the Ghost Shadows, as well as the Hip Sing Tong, along with their youth gang the Flying Dragons.
They are involved in the importation of pseudoephedrine, a chemical precursor in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, from Hong Kong and mainland China, which they sell to local drug trafficking gangs, the Head Hunters and the Hells Angels.