Police investigations, which began in 2020, revealed that a Chinese mafia, specializing in the drug trade and sex trafficking, had set up shop in Chile. According to information from the NGO InsightCrimewhich investigates organized crime in Latin America, the gang, known as the Bang clan, has made strong inroads into the South American country in recent years, benefiting from the growing marijuana trade and close commercial ties with China.
In August, a criminal complaint opened in Santiago gave a new turn to the investigations. when reporting that more than 200 Chinese migrants had entered Chile illegally since 2021. The complaint, filed by the Chinese Culture and Commerce Commercial Association, alleged that the migrants went to Argentina, Brazil or Bolivia and were later transferred to the country, after paying amounts between US$2,500 (around R$12 thousand) and US$8,000 (R$38.5 thousand), each person.
Upon arriving in Chilean cities such as Santiago, Valparaíso and Temuco, these illegal foreigners were often forced into sexual exploitation in entertainment establishments, prostitution or were forced to work as producers in marijuana plantations, indoors. The 2020 criminal investigation had already discovered a series of drug plantations in establishments belonging to families from Fujian province, in southern China.
“There have been at least four investigations in recent years linked to migrant smuggling and human trafficking [da China]… in which we can see the same management structure,” the head of the national anti-drug unit of the Chilean Attorney General’s Office, Luis Toledo, told Insight Crime.
Although organized crime from China has previously operated in Latin America, through the sale of Fentanyl or laundering proceeds from the drug market, its presence in Chile appears to have gained greater solidity, compared to other businesses.
The Bang group, one of the most prominent criminal organizations that emerged in Fujian province, due to its geographical position and commercial links with other countries, was responsible for the expansion of immigration of Fujianese throughout the world, with a strong presence in Hong Kong, southeast of Asia, United States and Canada.
Historically, this diaspora has allowed local organized crime to establish operations in different countries, through the management of the criminal trade or through collaboration with other factions, such as the Japanese Yakuza or mafia groups in the United States. These actions usually take the form of shell companies, such as casinos, entertainment venues and beauty salons, to mask drug trafficking and prostitution.
This type of criminal activity formed an early model for how the Bang group would operate in Chile. The group was able to benefit from the Fujian legacy of running entertainment venues such as karaoke bars as fronts for criminal economies, while also developing its own expertise in growing and selling marijuana.
But Chile was not the first foreign country the Chinese mafia moved to. Its first major operation abroad took place years ago in Spain. In 2021, Spanish police dismantled a large-scale illicit drug production network, belonging to the Bang group, which operated in 13 different cultivation sites and exported “industrial quantities of marijuana”, according to authorities. Sixty-five people, including hundreds of Chinese citizens, were detained in Spain, as well as in the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Italy.
Two families, identified as Lin and Zheng Wei, were known to Spanish authorities since 2012 for smuggling migrants from Fujian. From 2017 onwards, they dedicated themselves to the production of marijuana, according to police documents.
Several superintendents, mostly young people in their 20s and 30s, who managed the production headquarters, were known as “gardeners” and came directly from China, in exchange for a low salary and the expectation of getting a share of marijuana sales. that they produced, according to an investigation by the Spanish newspaper 20 minutes.
The Bang group replicated the same model in Chile, right down to the drug plantations, forcing migrants to work for them, counting on the benefit of the Chinese diaspora. The Latin country was chosen to host the business due to some favorable factors such as the growth in the use of the drug – 15% of Chileans regularly smoke marijuana, according to the 2019 UN World Drug Report, making it the third country in the world where the use of the drug is more regular, second only to Israel and the United States.
Although the country has decriminalized the personal use of marijuana, its large-scale cultivation and commercialization remains illegal. From 2019 to 2022, Chilean authorities seized significant quantities of marijuana entering by land and sea from Peru, Colombia and Bolivia.
As land borders closed during the pandemic, international transportation of marijuana became more difficult. Local production predictably increased, with low external receipts.
In 2022, several large-scale outdoor plantations, each with plants valued at millions of dollars, were discovered in the Chilean province of Choapa. This provided an opportunity for the clan, a group with experience in indoor marijuana farms and able to operate largely outside the Santiago government's radar, to act.
Since 2006, Chile has maintained close relations with China, when it became the first Latin American country to sign a free trade agreement with the Asian country. Chile's economy is heavily dependent on China, with more than a quarter of Chile's exports going there, especially raw materials such as copper. Bilateral relations have helped Chinese organized crime mask illicit activities such as smuggling migrants and purchasing stolen copper. Legal copper exports from Chile to China reach 20 billion dollars per year.
Beijing Chile's business associations are constantly growing, both nationally and locally. The original criminal complaint against the Bang group was filed by one of these associations, showing how the Chinese business community in the South American country is uniquely positioned to report on criminal economies linked to China.
The fact that Chile is a relatively wealthy and safe country made it an attractive target for the mass arrival of migrants from across Latin America and other countries. Political and economic crises in Venezuela and Haiti caused thousands of people to head to Chile.
The entry of foreigners into Santiago was welcomed by criminal factions, who quickly attacked these vulnerable populations through extortion, drug trafficking and sexual exploitation. The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, for example, is particularly active in this type of situation, recruiting numerous Venezuelan migrants on their way to Chile and continuing to do so within the country. Tren de Aragua was blamed for an escalation of homicides, extortion and migrant smuggling in the country.
The Bang group followed the same pattern, bringing migrants from Fujian, speaking a language unknown to Chilean authorities, and forcing them to work and live under their complete control.
Faced with the growth of organized crime, the Chilean government is studying ways to repress these groups operating in the country. One of the strategies is the review of immigration policy. “Migrant trafficking is nothing new, but the level of organization and consolidation of these groups has changed. Known smugglers have joined Tren de Aragua and now the Bang group. The lack of control at the border and the lack of an orderly and controlled migration policy helped this entry of crime”, explains Pilar Lizana, security analyst at the Chilean think tank AthenaLab.
Chile reversed its previously liberal immigration policy, with the deportation of thousands of migrants to neighboring countries, being the target of criticism by international Human Rights agencies, under the accusation of “arbitrary deportations”.
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