australia - Blog - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-28T09:38:44Z
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Blue Murder: Profile of Australian crime boss “Neddy” Smith
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/blue-murder-profile-of-australian-crime-boss-neddy-smith
2022-09-12T18:46:20.000Z
2022-09-12T18:46:20.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10810103483?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>In the underworld there’s rarely a happy ending. Gangsters can make millions, only to end up in prison without being able to enjoy their wealth. If they don’t end up dead. The best one can hope for in that way of life is being immortalized in a television show or movie. In that respect, Australian crime boss Neddy Smith achieved more than he ever could’ve hoped for.</p>
<p>Born on November 27, 1944 in <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia" target="_blank">Sydney, Australia</a>, as Arthur Stanley Smith, he was quickly dubbed “Ned” or “Neddy” by those around him. Not by his biological father, though. He never knew him. His father was an American sailor who had slept with his Australian mother while on a break from fighting World War II.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Heists and heroin</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810088290,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="10810088290?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Smith got involved in crime when he was a teenager and gradually descended deeper into the underworld of Sydney. A convicted rapist, he was an imposing figure after growing up and becoming a man. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, and weighing in at more than 200 lbs., he struck fear in any opponent daring to stand eye to eye with him. He’d get into fights and frequently walked away the winner.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fat-joe-versace-and-the-calabrian-mafia-a-murder-in-australia"><strong>Fat Joe Versace and the Calabrian Mafia: A Murder in Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>He made his first real money committing bank robberies. In the 1970s, he began trafficking heroin for Murray Riley, a former Olympic rower-turned-crime boss. That was when he got his first taste of true riches. It wasn’t long before he headed up his own network, importing heroin from Thailand and smuggling it into Australia.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Get-out-of-jail-free card</strong></span></p>
<p>His illicit activities made him money hand over fist, but they also got him in frequent trouble with the law. He spent several stints behind bars. The first from 1963 to 1965, then from 1968 to 1975 and later from 1978 to 1980. Only to get locked up again in 1989.</p>
<p>It wasn’t that he didn’t do everything in his power to avoid prison. He worked closely with police to stay out on the streets. He fed them information and cash from his crimes. In return, they let him run his criminal business.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/murder-blue-two-dogs-cops-have-to-die"><strong>Murder Blue: “Two dogs (cops) have to die!”</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>You didn’t think Boston crime boss <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/revenge-is-a-dish-best-served-cold-the-men-charged-with-killing-m" target="_blank">James “Whitey” Bulger</a> was the only one to use such tactics, did you? </p>
<p>But it wasn’t until June 27 of 1981 that he created something of a blood bond with his corrupt cop friends. That is when Smith’s life of crime took a turn that saw him rise to the top of Sydney’s underworld.</p>
<p>Why? Because that day he delivered drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi to police detective Roger Rogerson. As requested by the cop. In return, Smith later said, Rogerson and his corrupt cop buddies gave him a green light to commit crimes.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Untouchable killers</strong></span></p>
<p>Lanfranchi, meanwhile, was shot to death by Rogerson while he was trying to arrest him. Or so his story goes.</p>
<p>Lanfranchi’s girlfriend, prostitute Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, disagreed with Rogerson’s version of events and decided to speak up about her boyfriend’s cold-blooded murder in 1986. She publicly accused Rogerson and Smith of forming a corrupt partnership.</p>
<p>In a sign of Rogerson and Smith’s sheer arrogance and pure confidence in their untouchable position, Huckstepp’s dead body was found floating in a pond in Centennial Park, Sydney, that same year.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/squizzy-taylor-the-roaring-twenties-fast-cars-guns-crime-death-do"><strong>Squizzy Taylor: The roaring twenties, fast cars, guns, crime & death down under</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Smith was charged with Huckstepp’s murder, but later acquitted. A pattern emerged that tended to back up his claim that he’d been given a green light to commit crimes. Smith was a suspect in at least fourteen murders and charged with eight. But suspicions and charges aside, he was only convicted of two slayings.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810101076,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10810101076?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>By giving police information and cash, Smith was able to dodge many charges and convictions. Right up until the time that he wasn’t.</p>
<p>In the mid-1980s, his heroin source dried up and he resorted back to armed robberies for income. He was pretty successful. One score netted him half a million.</p>
<p>His relationship with Rogerson, however, was under pressure. All the media pressure was getting to the detective. In April of 1986, he went on national television and outed Smith as a snitch.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ndrangheta-mob-war-in-australia"><strong>‘Ndrangheta Mob War in Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The next night, Smith was the victim of a hit and run. He suffered a broken leg, eight broken ribs, two spinal fractures, and a broken collar bone. While we’re listing all his injuries it should be noted that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1981.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Road rage</strong></span></p>
<p>As he did all his life, Smith walked on. But his protective shield was showing cracks.</p>
<p>Such times call for a drink. In October 1987, Smith joined Rogerson and several others for a big drinking session and got shit-faced. Smith and a friend left the booze fest and got involved in a collision with a tow-truck. An argument ensued and rather than let everyone have their say, Smith stabbed Ronnie Flavell, the 34-year-old driver, to death at a busy intersection as people looked on in horror. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/australian-ndrangheta-mafia-boss-bruno-romeo-dies-at-87">Australian ‘Ndrangheta Mafia boss Bruno Romeo dies at 87</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>With plenty of witnesses, Smith was looking at serious time. His crooked friends did all they could to help him. There even was a break-in at the local police station. But in the end it was of no use: Smith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810102457,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="511" alt="10810102457?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a><strong><em>Photo: Neddy Smith in prison around 1991.</em> </strong></p>
<p>Locked up with nothing to do, Smith bragged about his violent deeds to a cellmate. Unbeknownst to him, he was being recorded by his fellow inmate. As a result, he was charged with seven murders and went to trial for two: the killing of Sallie-Anne Huckstepp and the murder of brothel owner Harvey Jones, who was shot to death in 1983.</p>
<p>He was acquitted of murdering Huckstepp, but found guilty of shooting Jones, and was sentenced to a second life term.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/underworld-of-pattaya-the-thai-city-that-attracts-the-most-notori"><strong>Underworld of Pattaya: The Thai city that attracts the most notorious gangsters and bikers from the West</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Meanwhile, Smith continued talking. He became a witness for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Wood Royal Commission looking into corruption at the New South Wales Police in the second half of the 1990s. He testified how he had bribed cops and been given a green light to commit crimes.</p>
<p>Chief among them Roger Rogerson. Confronted by the testimony of his former associate and friend, Rogerson called him a “dog”.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Blue Murder</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10810103659,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="10810103659?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>The courtroom drama attracted plenty of attention. Smith and Rogerson and their vicious crimes were immortalized in hit television series <em>Blue Murder</em>. Smith’s murder of Huckstepp is depicted in the series.</p>
<p>From 1989 until the end of his life, Smith sat in prison. Parkinson’s disease wrecked his body and mind. He had to use a walking frame to move around. In 2008 his medication to treat the disease stopped working effectively, further deteriorating his health.</p>
<p>On September 8, 2021, he passed away of natural causes at Sydney’s Long Bay Prison Hospital. He was 76.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia">Australian organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Underworld of Pattaya: The Thai city that attracts the most notorious gangsters and bikers from the West
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/underworld-of-pattaya-the-thai-city-that-attracts-the-most-notori
2022-08-07T10:09:23.000Z
2022-08-07T10:09:23.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10753858470?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>The city of Pattaya in Thailand offers sandy beaches and a clear blue ocean, making it one of the country’s biggest tourist attractions. Its shady nightlife filled with go-go bars, massage parlors, and prostitution, however, attracts a different type of tourist. One that rocks the Thai city with drug trafficking, biker brawls, shootings, and murder.</p>
<p>Located around 90 miles southeast of Bangkok, Pattaya first gained its reputation as a party town during the Vietnam War when it was used as an R&R destination for U.S. servicemen stationed at a nearby former USAF base at U-Tapao. In the decades that followed, the soldiers disappeared, but the nightlife remained.</p>
<p>A nightlife filled with sex – any kind for any price. Cheap motels with hourly rates, sex shows, shady bars and massage parlors were available to visit alone, with friends or with one of thousands of prostitutes (both male and female) who worked on Walking Street, Pattaya’s red-light district.</p>
<p>Pattaya’s loose morals made those with a dark side feel at home there. Criminals and gangsters from around the world flocked to the city and the surrounding area. In particular, notorious figures from the West, mainly <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview" target="_blank">Europe</a> and <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia" target="_blank">Australia</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Fleeing Amsterdam’s underworld</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10753852281,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10753852281?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="138" /></a>Like Dutch crime boss <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/dutch-boss-john-mieremet" target="_blank">John Mieremet</a> (right), who had come to the Thai city to escape a gang war in his home city of Amsterdam. Together with partner-in-crime Sam Klepper, another Dutch crime boss, he earned a reputation for violence and murder. As long as he was the one doing the killing all was well, but in the early 2000s the odds were no longer in his favor.</p>
<p>He hoped hitmen wouldn’t follow him to Thailand as he went about turning his millions earned through armed robberies, drug trafficking and extortion into a real estate empire.</p>
<p>On November 2, 2005, Mieremet was hard at work at his office when a man wearing a helmet entered and fired several shots at him. Bullets hit Mieremet in the head and body. The gunman then fled the scene. Leaving 44-year-old Mieremet to die in a puddle of his own blood.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Bratva in Pattaya</strong></span></p>
<p>The <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/russian-mafia-overview" target="_blank">Russian Mafia</a> also arrived in Pattaya. Many of its members on the run from charges in Russia or Europe, wanted by Interpol, found a safe haven in Thailand. Well, and perhaps a way to continue doing business as usual.</p>
<p>In March of 2017, four alleged members of the Russian Mafia were among 14 foreigners arrested in an anti-crime sweep, most of them were apprehended in Pattaya. Sergei Mareev, Aleksandr Danilov, Mikhail Kriventstov, and Anton Filippov were all wanted by either the Russian government or Interpol.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fugitive-russian-mobster-caught-in-pattaya-thailand" target="_blank"><strong>Fugitive Russian mobster caught in Pattaya, Thailand</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Danilov was wanted by Interpol on drug charges. Mareev and Kriventstov were found to have made frequent trips across the border from Thailand into Laos, a country known for producing narcotics. Though there was no hard evidence in this case – the men were arrested for overstaying their visa – it is quite possible these men were traveling to Laos for more than just a tourist visit.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-golden-triangle-how-triads-cornered-the-heroin-market" target="_blank"><strong>The Golden Triangle: How Triads cornered the heroin market</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Sitting between Laos and Myanmar, another region known for its drug production – and some horrific other things as well – Thailand functions as a gateway for all sorts of drugs. Or, as Police Lieutenant General Sommai Kongwisaisuk, head of the Narcotic Suppression Bureau in Thailand, told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-26/hells-angels-founding-member-calls-for-aus-members-deported/8375254" target="_blank">ABC</a>: “It's a picture of a superhighway.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Outlaw bikers</strong></span></p>
<p>No one loves highways more than an <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bikers-amp-outlaw-motorcycle" target="_blank">outlaw biker</a>. Revving up the engine of his motorcycle as the wind goes through his hair and his vest signals to all fellow travelers that he is not to be fucked with. Several outlaw motorcycle clubs have established chapters or charters in Thailand. Among them the infamous <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bikers-amp-outlaw-motorcycle" target="_blank">Hells Angels</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10753853485,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10753853485?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="300" /></a>The Hells Angels arrived in Thailand in 2012 and established their Pattaya charter in 2016. Australian national Wayne Schneider (right) was a senior member of the Hells Angels in Sydney, part of its City Crew chapter, when he decided to settle in Pattaya, Thailand.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/learning-from-mistakes-murdering-one-s-rival-and-retiring-to-thai" target="_blank">Learning from mistakes, murdering one’s rival and retiring to Thailand - Profile of Yakuza boss Shigeharu Shirai</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Schneider was on a watch list for drugs and money laundering back home in <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia" target="_blank">Australia</a>. He had fled Australia in February of 2012, after police busted two clandestine methamphetamine labs in the Sydney suburbs. Authorities suspected he was continuing his drug business in Pattaya.</p>
<p>He rented a villa in Pattaya where he lived with fellow biker Amad Malkoun.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-death-of-an-outlaw-hells-angels-boss-sonny-barger-passes-away" target="_blank"><strong>The Death of an Outlaw: Hells Angels boss “Sonny” Barger passes away at 83 after living life on the edge</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Malkoun was a former president of the Comanchero motorcycle club, a fierce rival of the Hells Angels. But this rivalry had no place in the temporary household of Schneider and Malkoun. both men were in Pattaya for business. Like Schneider, Malkoun was involved in the drug underworld as well. He was convicted in 2009 of trafficking heroin and was a suspect in various other criminal dealings.</p>
<p>Plan and plot as they might, though, things never tend to go as planned.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Beaten to death</strong></span></p>
<p>On November 30, 2015, Schneider was abducted outside his villa in Pattaya by five masked men. His dead body was found a few days later in a roadside grave around 18 miles from his home.</p>
<p>“There was a two-inch cut at the eyebrow and a broken neck on the body we found... so he might have been beaten up by a group and that caused the broken neck,” Pattaya superintendent Sukthat Poompanmuang said.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/we-were-elite-and-acted-like-it-former-hells-angels-boss-george-c" target="_blank"><strong>“We were elite and acted like it.” Former Hells Angels boss George Christie sits down with Gangsters Inc.</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The day before he was abducted, Schneider was seen having a drink with Antonio Bagnato. It was said the two men had a dispute and that Bagnato then arranged for his kidnapping and subsequent beating that cost Schneider his life.</p>
<p>Bagnato was later found guilty of murder, kidnapping and disposing of Schneider’s body. He was facing the death penalty, but on appeal the ruling was overturned and downgraded.</p>
<p>Still, things weren’t over for Bagnato. Like so many others, he had come to Pattaya to evade justice in his home country. Back down under, authorities wanted Bagnato on murder charges. Thailand was glad to get rid of him. 33-year-old Bagnato was extradited to Australia on July 23, 2022, to face charges in connection to the 2014 fatal stabbing and shooting of 25-year-old Bradley Dillon.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10753856875,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10753856875?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Antonio Bagnato</strong></em></p>
<p>A Thai court had also found American Tyler Gerrard guilty of involvement in the kidnapping. According to the Bangkok Post: “Tyler Gerard provided "useful information" during an "intense" interrogation session that followed his arrival at Pattaya City Police Station on Wednesday night from Sa Kaeo province, where he was apprehended trying to enter Cambodia, a police source said.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Trouble between Thai and Australian biker brothers</strong></span></p>
<p>Though this brought an end to a particular bloody chapter in Pattaya’s history, the violent story of the Hells Angels in Pattaya was far from over. One of the charter’s founding members was Thai national Thaksin “Sin” Monthonthaksin, a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-26/hells-angels-founding-member-calls-for-aus-members-deported/8375254" target="_blank">self-proclaimed</a> close friend of deceased Wayne Schneider. As the club’s sergeant-at-arms, he found himself surrounded by brothers from all over the world. The Pattaya charter had Thai members as well as bikers from Australia, Europe, and Canada.</p>
<p>After Monthonthaksin introduced a Thai man he wanted as a new prospective member to the Pattaya charter, he was turned down by the Australian members of the branch. This angered the sergeant-at-arms and he began telling his Australian brothers what he had on his mind. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/famous-movie-star-and-respected-gangster-profile-of-14k-triad-bos" target="_blank"><strong>Famous movie star and respected gangster - Profile of 14K Triad boss Michael Chan</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Things quickly escalated and Monthonthaksin was kicked out of the club. A statement by the Hells Angels in Pattaya read: “Both Thai and foreign members unanimously voted the now ex-sergeant-at-arms out of the club following numerous infractions of the rules — a decision the biker wasn't willing to accept.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10753857897,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10753857897?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Hells Angel Glen Norris</strong></em></p>
<p>The statement continues: “After the ex-sergeant-at-arms was voted out he arrived at a members' meeting carrying a baseball bat making threats to those attending and calling out several Australian members of the chapter.”</p>
<p>A fight then erupted in front of the clubhouse on March 7, 2017. How things went down exactly depends on who you believe: Monthonthaksin or the Hells Angels Pattaya charter.</p>
<p>According to the Hells Angels, the fight was between Monthonthaksin and an Australian member who lives in Bangkok [named Glen Norris]. “The fight was a one-on-one, fists only and witnessed by over 20 both Thai and foreign people, who saw the ex-sergeant-at-arms take a fair beating and felt the matter was now closed.”</p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MQOFWhCSgEY" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>According to Monthonthaksin, he was lured to the clubhouse and was attacked by the Hells Angels that were present. Three Australian Hells Angels members joined in on the attack. He singled them out to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-26/hells-angels-founding-member-calls-for-aus-members-deported/8375254" target="_blank">ABC</a>, claiming they were Glen Norris, Dan Stalley and Matthew Robinson.</p>
<p>“I would like to ask the Australian Consulate to push these people out, please,” Monthonthaksin told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-26/hells-angels-founding-member-calls-for-aus-members-deported/8375254" target="_blank">ABC</a>. “They're dangerous… if we ignore them, they can create violent situations.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Crackdown</strong></span></p>
<p>Police were evidently listening. In December of 2017, police arrested four foreign members of the Hells Angels in Pattaya after raiding five luxury houses in tambon Nong Prue of Bang Lamung district. Among the four were three Australians and one Canadian. They were charged with several criminal offences, and after serving their sentence were scheduled to be deported and barred from entering Thailand ever again.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-modern-day-pimp-toronto-boss-operated-dozens-of-illegal-asian" target="_blank"><strong>The Modern-Day Pimp: Toronto boss operated dozens of illegal Asian brothels in US, Canada, and Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“Some members of the Hells Angels gang were disguised as tourists and threatened national security as they were involved in extortion, money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking,” Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal, acting deputy commissioner of tourist police, said. “They were the same group of people involved in the murder and secret burial of an Australian two years ago.”</p>
<p>This statement gives insight into the murder of Schneider. Police apparently believe it was ordered or okayed by members of the Pattaya Hells Angels.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>More bullets fly</strong></span></p>
<p>Despite police cracking down hard on the outlaw bikers operating in Pattaya, incidents continued happening. On April 19, 2022, four men opened fire at the Harley Davidson Pattaya motorbike shop before speeding away on motorcycles. Authorities claimed the shooting was ordered by the Hells Angels over a business conflict.</p>
<p>Police issued arrest warrants on four suspects: 61-year-old Australian national Anthony George Leorga, 35-year-old British national Joshua George Hurley, 48-year-old Canadian national Steven Zatchus, and 37-year-old Belgian national Axel Goddeeris.</p>
<p>Joshua George Hurley was caught on May 5. Last week, Thai police arrested Anthony George Leoga in this case, while he attempted to jump across the border in Sa Kaeo province. The other two men are considered fugitives.</p>
<p>The world is a small place and gangsters love traveling when they can’t stand the heat in their own kitchen. Why not start anew some place sunny? Somewhere no one knows your name and face. Or your criminal history. Where you can fly under the radar.</p>
<p>Until, of course, you run into the exact same problems you were running away from.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/bikers-amp-outlaw-motorcycle">Outlaw Bikers section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
The Modern-Day Pimp: Toronto boss operated dozens of illegal Asian brothels in US, Canada, and Australia
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-modern-day-pimp-toronto-boss-operated-dozens-of-illegal-asian
2022-02-25T05:51:23.000Z
2022-02-25T05:51:23.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10151854696?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Organized crime constantly evolves and adapts to the new ways of the world. Even a criminal held in contempt by many, the low-down dirty pimp, has changed with the times. Gone are the days of putting girls out on the street. Nowadays, a sophisticated flesh peddler makes sure the booking is done online. While he keeps himself far removed from the day-to-day business that involves customers, prostitutes, and associated issues and products.</p>
<p>Last week, the FBI announced 49-year-old Zongtao Chen, who also went by Mark Chen, was extradited from Canada to the United States after being indicted for his leadership role in an international sex trafficking organization operating illegal Asian brothels in the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in" target="_blank">United States</a>, <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-canada-from-the-mafia-to-outlaw-bikers-and-dru" target="_blank">Canada</a> and <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia" target="_blank">Australia</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10151855496,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="10151855496?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Chen (right) is the, alleged, epitome of the modern-day pimp.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Ways of the pimp</strong></span></p>
<p>Residing in Toronto, <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-canada-from-the-mafia-to-outlaw-bikers-and-dru" target="_blank">Canada</a>, Chen is accused of leading a criminal enterprise that recruited women, primarily from China, to travel to the United States and elsewhere to engage in prostitution and other sex trafficking activities.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/how-organized-crime-continues-to-dominate-the-prostitution-busine" target="_blank"><strong>How Triads run prostitution skyscraper in Hong Kong</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>There are many ways pimps try to stay one step ahead of the law. This always involves intimidating and abusing the women who work for him. Another step is making sure these women are isolated. Shipping them from China to English-speaking countries is a good way of doing that. Even more if you steal their passports.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/mob-myth-busted-gambino-family" target="_blank"><strong>Mob Myth Busted: Gambino Family Pimping Out Underage Girls</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Once smuggled into the country, the women were put to work as prostitutes in a local brothel, a hotel or an apartment complex. These places were overseen by a “boss”.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Online bookings</strong></span></p>
<p>Customers seeking sex for money would call a number listed on <a href="http://www.supermatchescort.com">www.supermatchescort.com</a> or related websites, or send a text, email, or encrypted internet message. Chen’s organization employed dispatchers who would receive incoming requests for “dates” from potential customers. They would coordinate and schedule dates with women working in the various brothels.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chili-pimping-in-atlantic-city" target="_blank"><strong>Chili Pimping in Atlantic City</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Dispatchers used a computer program to schedule and track the prostitution dates. When seized by law enforcement, this computer program contained a customer database with more than 30,000 phone numbers and records from previous dates.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Indictments</strong></span></p>
<p>On November 15, 2018, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a two-count indictment charging Chen and four others —Weixuan Zhou aka Marco Zhou, 40, of Guangzhou, China; Yan Wang aka Sarah Wang, 36, of Temecula, California; and Chaodan Wang, 35, and Ting Fu, 38, both of Beaverton—with “conspiring to use and using interstate facilities to promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate a racketeering enterprise”. In Oregon, Chen promoted illegal prostitution activities brothels in Portland, Tigard and Beaverton.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10151856259,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10151856259?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em><strong>Photo: Stockphoto of a model posing as a prostitute.</strong> </em></p>
<p>On January 15, 2019, the FBI partnered with local law enforcement agencies in more than a dozen cities across the United States to conduct sting operations targeting Chen’s organization along with other Asian sex trafficking networks. As part of the coordinated law enforcement operation, the FBI seized <a href="http://www.supermatchescort.com">www.supermatchescort.com</a> and approximately 500 other associated domains, including 25 location-specific sub-domains.</p>
<p>At around the same time, Chen was arrested by the Toronto Police Service Human Trafficking Enforcement Team and Fugitive Squad at the request of the United States. On November 2, 2021, Canada’s Minister of Justice approved Chen’s extradition to the United States to face prosecution.</p>
<p>On Friday, February 18, 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service transported Chen to Portland where he will have to face justice for his alleged crimes.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-canada-from-the-mafia-to-outlaw-bikers-and-dru">Organized Crime in Canada section</a>, the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/triads-overview" target="_blank">Chinese Triads section</a> or the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in" target="_blank">Organized Crime in North America section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
Squizzy Taylor: The roaring twenties, fast cars, guns, crime & death down under
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/squizzy-taylor-the-roaring-twenties-fast-cars-guns-crime-death-do
2021-10-12T12:06:58.000Z
2021-10-12T12:06:58.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9669103488?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>In the 1920s Australia was a place of excitement, optimism and invention. Flappers danced at music halls, motion pictures were becoming popular and Melbourne was littered with large scale amusement parks including Luna Park and Wirths. But along with WWI came a prohibition on alcohol known as the Six O’clock Swill, cocaine and more handguns than the country had ever seen.</p>
<p>Anyone who grew up in <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia" target="_blank">Australia</a> in the 20th Century would have a family member who talked about the infamy of Australia’s quintessential 1920s gangster, Squizzy Taylor. And for good reason. As a criminal he was prolific. As a celebrity he strutted down the street and was even more prolific, made movies, was in newspapers every day, and a phenomenon. But standing at only 5’2”, wearing £100 suits and flanked by bodyguard mates with pistols in both pockets, he was as much theatre as he was deadly. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.lulu.com/en/au/shop/roy-maloy/squizzy-the-biography/paperback/product-qw5p95.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9669104300,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="9669104300?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Published this year, Australia’s leading true crime biographer, Roy Maloy, published the first chronological biography of Squizzy Taylor’s life, examining his crimes, the forensics and the people involved. The fast paced book has become an incredibly high selling collector piece as it tells the full story of a criminal more prolific than Al Capone, more deadly than Machine Gun Kelly and with love trysts similar to Bonnie and Clyde. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/assault-on-law-and-order-melbourne-australia" target="_blank"><strong>Assault on Law and Order: Melbourne, Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The career of Squizzy Taylor began in the 1890s. He became the most widely remembered participant of a sensational year of drive by shootings, known as the Vendetta over the years. He was a complex character. His early life was horrific, and included possible domestic violence, the death of his father, and then foster care around the age of 12, where he was possibly brutalized. He found himself homeless at 16 in Bendigo and went on to become a world class pickpocket and thief by the time he was 30 in 1918. His formative years, and the experiences that shaped him made him perfectly suited for what was to come. He had zero patience for anything that didn’t gratify him at all times, and even then, he could also show his temper even when things were going his way. He was a braggart, and talked himself up hugely at all times. His face carried a permanent, deep sneer unless it shifted to a cocky, jaunty look of arrogance. </p>
<p>The mean streets of Melbourne in Australia’s south got a bit meaner owing to the economic fallout caused by WWI, which was still not yet being referred to as a World War, but only as “the international war1,” and it set the scene for huge amounts of violent crime, petty pickpocketing and bag snatching and other felonies that Leslie Taylor felt right at home in amongst. He was theatrical, and had a lifelong love for things that had a pantomime nature. Twice in his life he tried to turn over a new leaf and become a professional movie actor. The inside of a courtroom had an oddly satisfying feel to him in a certain way that pleased the part of him that he saw as an almost theatrical presentation. He loved the drama that came with guns, fancy clothes, young pretty girls and flashy cars. But most of all he loved the drama that came with acts of violence. </p>
<p>Having learned the trade of pickpocketing from possibly as young as ten years old, Taylor would continue to use it as a skill his entire life. Even at times when he was financially better off than he had been, he still picked the loose hanging coat pockets of people he stood behind like a tiny, devious, frail shadow. It could be said with reasonable certainty that he simply enjoyed picking pockets because he would still do it even when he was incredibly wealthy and didn’t need to. Perhaps it was the rush and the Adrenalin that attracted him to all the things that made him different to others, including the risk of picking pockets and the potential for violence. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-calabrian-ndrangheta-in-australia" target="_blank"><strong>The Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta in Australia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After his release from prison in mid-January 1918 he was placed under a good behavior bond, which he managed to break in record time, even by his standards, and was caught picking a man’s pocket near the Eastern Market in Flinders Street in two months’ time on March 3, 1918. The case isn’t recorded to allow us to understand what happened in the hearing, but it’s likely that Taylor was able to plead for clemency, and have the court take pity on him again, as he had done in his last case. The judge gave him a fine of £2, with 6s costs, and In default he would have to spend 20 days in prison.</p>
<p>Another consistent pattern in the life of Leslie Taylor is that he never missed any kind of opportunity to commit a crime - and was doing so on an almost daily basis. Many have made suggestions that he had been involved with a number of high profile crimes before the Vendetta, including the Trades Hall robbery in 1918. Although it’s likely that he could have been involved in the crime, there remains no reliable evidence that he was an organizer at any level. It was, however, in keeping with his rising interest in more advantageous crimes, which had been increasing in risk and potential reward for years. His progression toward being a criminal who was trying to get away with more than just pickpocketing also coincided with his relationship with criminal overlord and businessman Henry Stokes. The pair had become known to one another from as early as 1914, and been aiding and abetting one another when police accusations had been laid3 regarding petty crimes and also the organized killing of William Patrick Haines in a foiled bank robbery. However, if he was capable of organizing bigger crimes before his relationship with Stokes truly came into full effect in the end of 1918 it would contradict his behavior as a repeat petty offender on the streets of Melbourne and shift his style into that of a sophisticated and organized criminal. Where he had always used petty crime as a means of sustaining himself financially, his interest in finding the next big thing made Henry Stoke’s operations, running illegal gambling dens (known as two-up schools), illegal alcohol (known as sly grog), Squizzy’s own work as a standover man and brothel owner, all culminated to set his empire up around him. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9669105285,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="460" alt="9669105285?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a><strong><em>Photo: Squizzy Taylor</em></strong></p>
<p>Squizzy’s life and story is enormous. Where other criminals of his era broke laws, Squizzy’s output was up to 20 times higher than others like him at that time. He organized jobs, and also participated in them. Jobs he was not convicted of included the robbery of a bank, the prison break of a known associate, the robbery of Trades Hall in which a guard was murdered and countless jewelry shops. Yet of the crimes we do know for certain that he was involved in and guilty of, his output was staggeringly high - committing huge scale crimes on a daily basis. The result was that he often found himself in court up to three times a day for separate hearings, making appearances at the criminal court, the magistrates court and the coroners court all on the same day on more than one occasion, for years on end, and then committing more crimes at night. </p>
<p>The death of Squizzy Taylor was every bit as spectacular as one might imagine, considering the life he’d led. After hearing news of the return of a once-friend and fellow thug, and now enemy, Squizzy went hunting for Snowy Cutmore. On 27 October 1927 Squizzy and two accomplices went looking for Cutmore in a number of local hotels and bars, before arriving at the house of his elderly mother. Cutmore was in bed with influenza as Squizzy and accomplice Roy Treverse entered the room. What happened next can only be speculated upon, but resulted in the instant shooting death of Snowy Cutmore in an execution style, and left Squizzy staggering to the getaway car with two bullets in his right side as Roy Traverse made a run for it. Squizzy died later that night leaving behind a trail of bloodshed and mayhem that spanned two decades across Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and New Zealand. </p>
<p><em>The full retelling of the life of Squizzy Taylor has been compiled into book form for the first time and can be found in the fast paced, fascinating biography “Squizzy Taylor” <a href="https://www.lulu.com/en/au/shop/roy-maloy/squizzy-the-biography/paperback/product-qw5p95.html?page=1&pageSize=4" target="_blank">here</a>. </em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in-australia">Organized Crime in Australia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>