Sun Yee On
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| Founded | 1919 |
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| Founding location | Hong Kong |
| Years active | 1919 – present |
| Territory | Hong Kong, Mainland China, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Netherlands, United States, Thailand, Canada, Australia, Central America |
| Ethnicity | Han Chinese |
| Membership | 55,000 – 60,000+ |
| Criminal activities | racketeering, counterfeiting, extortion, drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, murder, illegal gambling, prostitution |
| Allies | Wo Hop To, Wah Ching |
| Rivals | 14K, Wo Shing Wo |
| Sun Yee On | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 新義安 | ||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 新义安 | ||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Xīnyì'ān |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | san1 ji6 on1 |
Sun Yee On, or New Righteousness and Peace Commercial and Industrial Guild, is one of the leading triads in Hong Kong and China. It has more than 55,000 members worldwide. It is also believed to be active in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Sun Yee On was founded by Heung Chin, originally from Teochew (Chaozhou), in 1919. The organisation is involved in counterfeiting, gambling, narcotics, human trafficking, prostitution, smuggling and extortion. Mainly through ethnic Chinese diaspora, it is thought to extend to the United States, Canada, Thailand, Australia and Central America. The founder was deported to Taiwan in the early 1950s and continued to lead the organisation from there. Sun Yee On was allegedly taken over by his eldest son Heung Wah-yim, who ostensibly worked as a law clerk. The triad is also noted as being founded by "Teochew and Hokkien immigrants" to Hong Kong.
In February 1986, a former Hong Kong police officer, Anthony Chung, who had become a member of Sun Yee On, asked the police for protection. He identified Heung Wah-yim as the leader of the triad and this led to the police arresting eleven members of the Triad on 1 April 1987. Whilst searching Heung Wah-yim's law office they found a list of 900 numbered names which appeared to be the membership roster of Sun Yee On. In October Heung Wah-yim was brought to trial, along with five accomplices who all pleaded guilty. Heung Wah-yim professed his innocence throughout the trial, claiming to be the president of a local chapter of the Lions Club and that the list found in his office consisted of potential donors. Chung and another former member were the main prosecution witnesses. On 20 January 1988 the jury found five of the defendants guilty, including Heung Wah-yim who was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, acquitting the sixth.
The triad operates several vice establishments in Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Tei, or at least did in November 2010 when a 29-year-old alleged office-bearer or "red pole" of the triad, named "Sai B" Chan, was arrested for vice offences and money laundering.
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