While maintaining its traditional stronghold in Tsuen Wan, it has extended its influence to Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok.
Like most Chinese triads, the organization's roots date back to secret societies founded during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
WSW split into six separate regional forces in Hong Kong—500 fully armed members in North Territories, hawkers in Sham Shui Po, love hotels in Jordan, with groups in Tsuen Wan, Wanchai and a new branch across the border in Shenzhen (1997).
WSW is involved in various criminal activities and some of Hong Kong's politicians and businessmen are suspected to be supporters of the Triad group.
In 2014, the Triad was thought by police to be responsible for the brutal stabbing on 26 February of Kevin Lau, a journalist known for his tough reporting on China, who had been fired from his position as the editor of the Ming Pao newspaper.
[4][6] From 2006 to at least 2010, the group controlled three red minibus routes and was extorting at least HK$14 million a year as protection fees from 30 drivers.
Triads gained a firm foothold in Ireland in the 1980s, when large numbers of Chinese restaurants opened in these cities.
The reported criminal activities of the triads included the trafficking of women and children from China into Ireland, involvement in casinos, and money laundering.
[15] Eight people believed to be working for the Wo Shing Wo, including a senior member of the gang, were arrested after local gardaí and members of the Garda National Drug Unit raided cannabis-growing operations at two homes in Drumshambo, County Leitrim in March 2009.
[16] In November 2012, 113 mostly Chinese and Vietnamese nationals were arrested in raids on 236 properties, suspected of growing, smuggling and selling cannabis in Ireland.
Acting independently from the Hong Kong branch, the group's activities in the country include fraud, drug trafficking, firearms smuggling, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, illegal gambling, the smuggling of illegal immigrants, tax evasion, and the large-scale importing of counterfeit goods.
The group has also been involved in conflicts with rival triad gangs over control of the stores selling pirated videos originating in China.
[22] Restaurant owner and alleged Shui Fong "white paper fan" (business adviser) Philip Wong was murdered by a gang of contract killers armed with machetes in Glasgow on 9 October 1985.
McGrath had allowed the gang to stash crack cocaine and heroin at his Carshalton home but was beaten to death after he began helping himself to the drugs.
[27] In January 2013, four men – Yik Fung Ng, Hiu Nelson Yeung, Chiu Yuen Li, and Siu Hung Yeung – associated with the Wo Shing Wo but who denied being members of the group were convicted of violent disorder following a street fight involving up to thirty men in Manchester's Chinatown in June 2010.