Van de Kamp Seeks U.S. Help Against Asian Gangs

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp called today for more federal help to combat Asian gangs, which he said are an increasing threat as the state’s Asian population rapidly grows.

Van de Kamp released in Los Angeles his department’s Organized Crime in California 1986 report, which includes discussion of prison gangs, terrorists and East Coast crime families.

The attorney general said traditional organized crime in Southern California weakened last year and became less structured than on the East Coast, although criminal interest in pornography and high-stakes bingo on Indian reservations continues.

It is Asian criminal gangs, Van de Kamp said, that pose a major threat and are responsible for murder, extortion of Asian businesses, prostitution, residential robberies, burglaries, narcotics, auto theft and gambling.

Asian organized crime is keeping pace with the state’s rapidly growing Asian population, Van de Kamp said, noting that it will grow even faster when gangs known as Triads begin to leave Hong Kong before the communist takeover scheduled there in 1997. Many Triads are expected to come to California.

“The stage could be set for our own Marielito-style disaster here in California,” Van de Kamp said in a prepared statement, referring to the migration of thousand of Cuban criminals to Florida in 1980 and the subsequent increase in crime there.

“The problems we face go far beyond state boundaries and far beyond state resources. We welcome federal cooperation and we need it to meet this challenge,” he said.