Ah Kong (Chinese: 阿公) was an organised crime and drugs syndicate that used to extensively control the European heroin trade in the 1970s to 1990s.
It was also known to have had connections with other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, and over the years they had built strong ties with the infamous Penang-based Sio Sam Ong.
After the assassination of the Ah Kong boss in 1997, they began to lose their influence to the Sin Ma gang based in Rotterdam led by a Singaporean fugitive wanted for first-degree murder with firearm in the 1980s.
Roland and many of his fellow gang members were from a Hainanese village at Upper Serangoon, where the community was close-knit and included hardened fugitives and seamen.
Back in those days, Holland's relaxed attitude towards drugs not only had created a domestic addiction problem, but also encouraged foreign narcotics merchants, especially the Chinese, to move into the country.
Roland Tan and his brethren, who had very little money with them, saw how members of Hong Kong's infamous 14K triad were doing a thriving drug trade.
When the Chinese community erupted in a series of gunfights as rival gangs lined up on opposite sides of narrow streets and opened fire on one another with shotguns, the Dutch police went to Chung Mon for help and he gave them a list of most of his competitors.
On 3 March 1975, three men approached Chung Mon as he stepped towards his Mercedes outside his office, and fired ten bullets into the Chinese Godfather.
It is believed that the three men, who were never arrested, were sent by Ng Sik-ho aka Limpy Ho, a major Chiuchow/Teochew drug lord in Hong Kong who was a rival of the 14K.
)[4] Within months, the 14K headquarters in Hong Kong sent a 426 Double Flower Red-Pole (high level enforcer) to replace Chung Mon as the new dragon head.
His name was Chan Yuen Muk aka Mo Dedong because he struck a resemblance to the Chinese Communist leader, Mao Zedong.
On the anniversary of Chung Mon's death, 3 March 1976, which was seven months after Chan's arrival in Amsterdam, he went to the Yow Lee domino club co-owned by Johnny and his sworn brother, Mo Yong, who was also a 14K member.
In no time at all, Ah Kong moved into the areas once controlled by the 14K and stifled the smaller independent dealers, comprising mainly Malaysians, Thais, Indonesians, Dutch, Hongkongers and Europeans.
Besides the illicit trade, he owned many legitimate businesses from high-end sex clubs or brothels, restaurants to travel agencies and into financing movie production in Hong Kong where he was famously known to the underworld who had taken out Chan Yuen Muk.
When he left the arrival hall, the law enforcement officers walked up to him and identified themselves but Johnny's men responded with firepower, and a shootout ensued.
When a well-respected See Tong member, Michael, visited the Netherlands in the 1970s, Roland ordered one of his men to publicly humiliate the unarmed man.
Ah Kong members were all well-off from the profits of the drug transactions and spent freely on women, travel, expensive clothes and drinks.
[7] The Ah Kong members were paid a basic monthly salary starting from 2000 guilders, and had their lodging and food taken care of.
When Amsterdam customs officers started checking on all Asian passengers thoroughly, Ah Kong flew its couriers to 'safer' airports in London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris and Rome.
After taking over the leadership of Ah Kong, Siam-kia handpicked a team of elite enforcers and ran the gang in executive style.
Ah Kong members were outnumbered but were already well known for being fearless and for their good fighting abilities as most of them were trained boxers and/or military-trained, and some others were fugitives on the run from death row and had nothing to lose.
He did meet obstacles when he expanded his interests to Indonesia when the local kingpin there known as Hong Li, took more than a hundred thousand units of ecstasy from him but did not make payment.
During this time, he saw the rising popularity of ecstasy and he began to import Piperonylmethylketone (PMK), the raw material used to mass-produce the psychedelic drug for the export markets.
Ah Kong soldiers would patrol the streets, airports and train stations and look out for 'China White' traffickers arriving from Asia and other European cities.
The Ah Kong based in Thailand, in charge of transporting the drugs to Europe, refused to send shipments as a protest of his leadership.
In 1999, Johnny was found dead, at the age of 53, in a hotel room in Hong Kong after a huge cocaine shipment was busted.
In 2009, Roland Tan and his Singaporean friend, known as Ah M, who had flown to the Danish capital to celebrate his 61st birthday party, was shot by his own man, a Vietnamese called Nguyen Phi Hung.
The attack took place after Tan had closed his popular Restaurant Bali at Kongens Nytorv square, the heart of Copenhagen's shopping district.
Tan had previously been questioned by police in connection with several serious crimes, including drug dealing, blackmail and murder, according to Danish news reports.
The Danish branch of the Hells Angels biker gang, whose activities revolve around drugs and prostitution, had held parties at the restaurant.