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Viet Pride Gangsters
Viet Pride Gangsters, or VPG,
Asian gangs lure teens to life of crime
By James Emery
Aug. 20, 2000 - EDITOR'S NOTE: The names of gang members have been omitted or changed, unless they were charged in or convicted of a crime, to protect them from retaliation.
"What you bang, boy?"
On a warm July afternoon, a slender 13-year-old froze in his tracks as a gun pressed to his head. He had just made the mistake of walking by the Laundromat at 72nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard while four Asian Crips sat in a car nearby.
"What you bang, boy?" the voice repeated, asking him what gang he belonged to. "I don't bang nothing," he stammered. But his hair was cut short for summer, and the ACs, a Hmong street gang, thought he was one of the ORBs, Oriental Ruthless Boys, a rival gang whose members often shave their heads.
After a few tense moments, the AC assailant decided the boy wasn't an ORB after all and let him walk away, shaken but unharmed.
Violence among Asian gangs is on the rise. Of the more than 2,000 known gang members and their associates in the metro Denver area, 300 of them are Asian. Turf wars are being fought between two Vietnamese gangs - Asian Pride (AP) and Viet Pride (VP) - and between the APs and three Hmong gangs: the ORBs, the ACs, and the Masters of Destruction (MODs). Each of the Hmong gangs is also fighting each other.
You need a flow chart to keep the affiliations straight: The Viet Thugs (VTs), who claim they are not a gang but just a small group of friends, are aligned with the VPs. Their countergroup, Viet Soldiers (VS), is aligned with the APs. Both groups provide backup during fights for the larger gangs that they are affiliated with.
Some of the turf wars are between gangs vying for control of the lucrative drug trade. There are no clear-cut geographic boundaries. Instead, the city is divided into specific streets, cafes, nightclubs, and strip malls claimed by specific groups.
Problems between the Hmong gangs are linked to rivalries in California and Minnesota. Schoolhood chums become bitter enemies once they join opposing gangs. "Hootie was a friend of mine," said one ORB, "But once he joined the MODs, he started acting tough and talking trash. I went to his house a couple of times, knocked on his door, dragged him outside, and kicked his ass in front of his parents.
"The MODs were afraid to retaliate against us because we all had guns and were crazy and would do anything," the ORB continued. "So they'd call their friends from out of state to come in and deal with us. One night about 2 a.m., two carloads of them came by, throwing gang signs. My friends and I pulled out our guns and started shooting at them until they left."
Shootings are often retaliation for previous assaults. On July 30, three Viet Soldiers were injured by gunshots at the Cafe Thien Thanh on West Alameda Av enue in Denver. The trio had allegedly beaten a rival gang member outside a church less than two hours earlier.
When gang members can't find the people who shot at them, they'll shoot into the suspect's homes, which are not difficult to find since most gang members know each other. "I just pretty much aimed for the living room," said one gang member with a long history of gunplay. "I was really mad. I didn't care who I hit." Violence between Hmong gangs escalated with the arrival of Asian Crips from California between 1996 and 1997. "They were going around punking everybody," said an ORB. By the summer of 1999, the number of shootings and assaults had increased dramatically.
Asian gang members range in age from 11 to their mid-30s, but most are 14- to 24-year-old males who are high school dropouts. An OG - Original Gangster or Old Gangster - often directs the activities of new members, referred to as BGs, or Baby Gangsters.
"A few members are in college or have great jobs," said a former gang member. "They're stupid. They still "bang' at night. Some of them hang around because they have boring lives and don't want their friends to think they're weak."
Primary sources of income for Asian gangs are auto theft, burglaries and drug dealing. Some members are involved in gambling, prostitution, creditcard fraud, insurance scams and the interstate transport of drugs and guns.
Denver-based Vietnamese gangs have gone through a significant evolution in the past two decades. About five years ago, they started getting out of the pro tection rackets and home invasion in favor of more lucrative ventures.
Protection rackets are familiar to immigrant communities. They prey on lo cal businesses, extorting regular payments in exchange for "security," threatening property damage, inventory loss and beatings. Out of shame, guilt or perceived weakness, Asian victims were reluctant to ask for help. In their culture, they were taught to seek harmony over conflict. Most had been accustomed to paying "nuisance" bribes to government officials in Vietnam anyway.
But American-born offspring who assume family businesses now refuse to pay protection money and are not afraid to call police. "Gangsters now view the protection rackets as high risk for a low-level reward," said one merchant.
Home invasions - in which armed gangsters rob the residences of business owners while the occupants are present - also are declining, perhaps due to the fact that the newer generation of Vietnamese no longer keeps money and valuables at home.
In the past, "most Asian businesses did not trust or use the banks," said one college-educated offspring of prosperous Vietnamese merchants, "because they had not been able to trust the government in Vietnam."
The criminal activity among Vietnamese gangs is well organized and diverse, and in recent years has moved toward auto theft and drug-dealing.
"They steal cars on demand, taking orders for specific parts," brags a former car thief. "After the designated parts are delivered, they'll call gang members and associates to sell additional parts." The car is then dumped or left for the "vultures," younger kids on their way up the gang ladder.
"If we're just after the stereo or a small part, we take it where the car is parked," added another gang member. "Anything larger and the car is stolen so we can take our time stripping it down."
Sometimes the whole car is chopped, with requested items sold and the rest stored. Parts might be sold by prearrangement to body shops and junkyards, although proving it can be difficult for police officers. "We found a whole basement full of Honda parts in one gang member's house," said Officer Nick Worth, a member of the Denver Police Department's Gang Unit. "
A popular scam is to strip a car of enough parts to total it out, buy the shell at auction, reassemble it with the original parts and sell it legally for substantial profits.
Hmong and Vietnamese burglary rings within gangs are significantly different from each other. The Vietnamese usually target their own community and often work on leads provided by someone who knows the victim.
The gang will telephone and drive by a home before one of the group knocks on the door. "A girl is less suspicious," said one female burglar with experience climbing through windows. "If the peo ple answer, I just make up some story about having the wrong address and walk away."
In some cases, an Old Gangster will hear about a potentially lucrative house and send in Baby Gangsters to burglarize it, taking a percentage of the proceeds. The person providing the tip gets little or nothing unless they come along.
Hmong burglary crews are less active but cover a wider area. "We go every where," said one Hmong burglar, "from Aurora and Denver to Boulder, hitting houses during the day because everybody is home at night. We look for a house that doesn't have cars outside and ring the doorbell for about 10 minutes. If nobody answers, we go around back and break in." sell drugs, especially ecstasy, acid and marijuana.
Most of the trafficking takes place at raves, coffee shops, nightclubs and house parties. "I've seen 11- and 12year-old kids doing ecstasy and smoking bud (marijuana)," sighs a former Hmong gang member. "In our day, all we did was drink." The gangs work the raves in crews, selling drugs to anyone under 25 years old. "If they're over 25, they might be a cop," a Vietnamese drug runner said. Independent dealers attempting to work the raves are threatened or beat up. Many ecstasy runners will put the drug in a bag attached to a string and tie it to a belt loop or fly button. The bag is then wrapped around their scrotum, making it harder for police to detect. Earlier this month, Aurora police arrested an Asian youth carrying 117 pills.
Ecstasy is a pill, but some gang members have found cheaper sources in California and Texas and sell it for per pill. Local suppliers will front lowlevel dealers up to 100 pills during the week, collecting payment after the weekend. Some kids use several dealers so they can get larger quantities.
Acid is also popular. Dealers walk around at the raves with bottles of Visine or breath freshener filled with the drug. They sell it for a hit, putting it directly on a customer's tongue, hand or on a candy.
A Cambodian gang, the Tiny Rascal Gangsters (TRGs), recruits Hispanics and black members because of the small number of Cambodians in the area. "The TRGs are involved in a lot of crack cocaine," notes the Denver Gang Unit's Worth. between Asian gangs abound. Some APs broke off to form the Junior APs (JAP), a rival group allegedly run by a former Los Angeles gang member. A Filipino gang, the Original Panoy Gangsters (OPG), is also at odds with the APs, and sporadic fights break out between Asian and Mexican gangs. On Aug. 6, a crew of ORBs pulled a gun on a carload of Mexican bangers who drove by flashing gang signs. Retaliation is inevitable.
Enormous profits and personal pride are at stake in these turf wars. Older gang members want to curtail the violence because it disrupts their financial ventures: drugs, gambling and auto theft. Young thugs are eager to make a name for themselves and are unable or unwilling to see the consequences of their behavior.
Full of testosterone and with easy access to guns, teenage gang members are extremely dangerous and highly volatile. Unafraid of jail or death, they think nothing of killing a rival or anyone else who gets in the way. "They'll pull the trigger without thinking about the consequences," an OG said. "They just don't care."
On July 30, the same day as the gang shooting at the Cafe Thien Thanh, Junior APs shot a rival Hmong gang member in Westminster. Since then, several other gang-related shootings have occurred, including gunfire between speeding cars and retaliation shots fired blindly into the homes of rivals. Most of these incidents go unreported. If police are actually called, investigation quickly grinds to a halt due to the absence of victims and reluctance of witnesses.
It's difficult for members to break away from the gangs, even after they've gotten married and had children. Loyalties run deep. Johnny, on OG with the ORBs, con tinued to associate with members of his gang two years after he was married. In February, he and 10 ORBs were bowling at Arvada Lanes when they were confronted by 20 APs.
The APs provoked a fight that eventually poured out into the parking lot. Johnny reluctantly joined in. "I had to back up my friends," sighs Johnny. "I had no choice."
As the battle broke up, two carloads of APs followed a car driven by Johnny's cousin. On a side street, one of the APs began firing at them until an ORB popped up through the sunroof and emptied a 16-round clip into their cars.
"I know we hit the car, but I don't know if anybody was hit or not," Johnny said. Charlie Sou Her, a 19-year-old ORB, moved to Seattle to get away from gangs. He confided to Johnny that he would probably get into trouble if he came to Denver, be cause he'd hang with ORBs again.
Charlie was right. About 2:30 a.m. on April 21, Charlie and his friends George Lo and Pao Ge Xiong drove up next to a carload of Vietnamese in the 7300 block of El iot Street. George and Pao started yelling at the Vietnamese, asking if they were AP. As the driver replied, "No, no, we're not gangbangers," George and Pao opened fire, killing Vien Cong Than, 19, and wounding Phi Nguyen, 20. Neither had any gang affiliations.
"They didn't even know those guys. George just wanted to show off," Johnny said.
All three were convicted of firstdegree murder.
"Poor Charlie. He never was hard-core; he just liked to flirt with girls. Now he's in jail for 30 years." Even if a gang member does manage to get out, rival gang members still consider him a target. A former ORB nearly escaped injury on Dec. 11, 1999, near a Circle K on West 68th Avenue when a crew of MODs sped by and fired four rounds into his car. One bullet missed his head by inches, break ing the driver's side window and smashing into the dashboard.
Most kids join gangs for an obvious reason: They provide a sense of belonging, especially for immigrant teens who feel caught between two cultures. Few turn to their parents for help once they begin to get swept into gang activi ties. And their parents "feel trapped," said Ge Thao, a project director at the Asian-Pacific Development Center. They "are reluctant to ask for help because it would bring shame and embarrassment to their family."
To help combat gangs, Ge Thao and other Hmong community ac tivists organized a Friday night drop-in center, in cooperation with the Adams County Sheriff's De partment. The center, which offers participation in sports and group discussions, attracts Hmong youths from Boulder to Littleton.
"This type of program provides kids with an alternative to the streets," said Frank Spottke, Ad ams County district attorney, "and I think it's doing a good job."
"We have to work on the value systems of the individuals," said Capt. Gary Leuthauser, head of the Denver Police Department's Gang Unit. "When you look at most gang members, they pretty much fall into the same situation - academically, socially, athletically. They really haven't achieved much, so they're looking for recognition, some way to fit in, and (gangs are) something they gravitate to."
Many law enforcement officers say there is an urgent need for a fully integrated, multi-agency task force to pool resources and centralize information on gang activity. "The gang members from California think that Denver's easy," one Vietnamese gang member, said. "They think they're too clever to get caught here. That's why so many are coming."
The 14-year-old who had a gun pressed against his head last year blinks hard as he recalls the incident. "It was scary," he sighs. "I try not to think about it." He is not compelled to get involved in gangs: His nights are spent studying, looking after his younger relatives, and dreaming of a future. "I really like school," he confides.
Whether or not he makes it to graduation is another matter. As the conflicts between rival gangs heat up, innocent bystanders may get caught in the crossfire when young gangsters shoot each other in an expression of misdirected pride.
Asian gangs lure teens to life of crime
By James Emery
Aug. 20, 2000 - EDITOR'S NOTE: The names of gang members have been omitted or changed, unless they were charged in or convicted of a crime, to protect them from retaliation.
"What you bang, boy?"
On a warm July afternoon, a slender 13-year-old froze in his tracks as a gun pressed to his head. He had just made the mistake of walking by the Laundromat at 72nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard while four Asian Crips sat in a car nearby.
"What you bang, boy?" the voice repeated, asking him what gang he belonged to. "I don't bang nothing," he stammered. But his hair was cut short for summer, and the ACs, a Hmong street gang, thought he was one of the ORBs, Oriental Ruthless Boys, a rival gang whose members often shave their heads.
After a few tense moments, the AC assailant decided the boy wasn't an ORB after all and let him walk away, shaken but unharmed.
Violence among Asian gangs is on the rise. Of the more than 2,000 known gang members and their associates in the metro Denver area, 300 of them are Asian. Turf wars are being fought between two Vietnamese gangs - Asian Pride (AP) and Viet Pride (VP) - and between the APs and three Hmong gangs: the ORBs, the ACs, and the Masters of Destruction (MODs). Each of the Hmong gangs is also fighting each other.
You need a flow chart to keep the affiliations straight: The Viet Thugs (VTs), who claim they are not a gang but just a small group of friends, are aligned with the VPs. Their countergroup, Viet Soldiers (VS), is aligned with the APs. Both groups provide backup during fights for the larger gangs that they are affiliated with.
Some of the turf wars are between gangs vying for control of the lucrative drug trade. There are no clear-cut geographic boundaries. Instead, the city is divided into specific streets, cafes, nightclubs, and strip malls claimed by specific groups.
Problems between the Hmong gangs are linked to rivalries in California and Minnesota. Schoolhood chums become bitter enemies once they join opposing gangs. "Hootie was a friend of mine," said one ORB, "But once he joined the MODs, he started acting tough and talking trash. I went to his house a couple of times, knocked on his door, dragged him outside, and kicked his ass in front of his parents.
"The MODs were afraid to retaliate against us because we all had guns and were crazy and would do anything," the ORB continued. "So they'd call their friends from out of state to come in and deal with us. One night about 2 a.m., two carloads of them came by, throwing gang signs. My friends and I pulled out our guns and started shooting at them until they left."
Shootings are often retaliation for previous assaults. On July 30, three Viet Soldiers were injured by gunshots at the Cafe Thien Thanh on West Alameda Av enue in Denver. The trio had allegedly beaten a rival gang member outside a church less than two hours earlier.
When gang members can't find the people who shot at them, they'll shoot into the suspect's homes, which are not difficult to find since most gang members know each other. "I just pretty much aimed for the living room," said one gang member with a long history of gunplay. "I was really mad. I didn't care who I hit." Violence between Hmong gangs escalated with the arrival of Asian Crips from California between 1996 and 1997. "They were going around punking everybody," said an ORB. By the summer of 1999, the number of shootings and assaults had increased dramatically.
Asian gang members range in age from 11 to their mid-30s, but most are 14- to 24-year-old males who are high school dropouts. An OG - Original Gangster or Old Gangster - often directs the activities of new members, referred to as BGs, or Baby Gangsters.
"A few members are in college or have great jobs," said a former gang member. "They're stupid. They still "bang' at night. Some of them hang around because they have boring lives and don't want their friends to think they're weak."
Primary sources of income for Asian gangs are auto theft, burglaries and drug dealing. Some members are involved in gambling, prostitution, creditcard fraud, insurance scams and the interstate transport of drugs and guns.
Denver-based Vietnamese gangs have gone through a significant evolution in the past two decades. About five years ago, they started getting out of the pro tection rackets and home invasion in favor of more lucrative ventures.
Protection rackets are familiar to immigrant communities. They prey on lo cal businesses, extorting regular payments in exchange for "security," threatening property damage, inventory loss and beatings. Out of shame, guilt or perceived weakness, Asian victims were reluctant to ask for help. In their culture, they were taught to seek harmony over conflict. Most had been accustomed to paying "nuisance" bribes to government officials in Vietnam anyway.
But American-born offspring who assume family businesses now refuse to pay protection money and are not afraid to call police. "Gangsters now view the protection rackets as high risk for a low-level reward," said one merchant.
Home invasions - in which armed gangsters rob the residences of business owners while the occupants are present - also are declining, perhaps due to the fact that the newer generation of Vietnamese no longer keeps money and valuables at home.
In the past, "most Asian businesses did not trust or use the banks," said one college-educated offspring of prosperous Vietnamese merchants, "because they had not been able to trust the government in Vietnam."
The criminal activity among Vietnamese gangs is well organized and diverse, and in recent years has moved toward auto theft and drug-dealing.
"They steal cars on demand, taking orders for specific parts," brags a former car thief. "After the designated parts are delivered, they'll call gang members and associates to sell additional parts." The car is then dumped or left for the "vultures," younger kids on their way up the gang ladder.
"If we're just after the stereo or a small part, we take it where the car is parked," added another gang member. "Anything larger and the car is stolen so we can take our time stripping it down."
Sometimes the whole car is chopped, with requested items sold and the rest stored. Parts might be sold by prearrangement to body shops and junkyards, although proving it can be difficult for police officers. "We found a whole basement full of Honda parts in one gang member's house," said Officer Nick Worth, a member of the Denver Police Department's Gang Unit. "
A popular scam is to strip a car of enough parts to total it out, buy the shell at auction, reassemble it with the original parts and sell it legally for substantial profits.
Hmong and Vietnamese burglary rings within gangs are significantly different from each other. The Vietnamese usually target their own community and often work on leads provided by someone who knows the victim.
The gang will telephone and drive by a home before one of the group knocks on the door. "A girl is less suspicious," said one female burglar with experience climbing through windows. "If the peo ple answer, I just make up some story about having the wrong address and walk away."
In some cases, an Old Gangster will hear about a potentially lucrative house and send in Baby Gangsters to burglarize it, taking a percentage of the proceeds. The person providing the tip gets little or nothing unless they come along.
Hmong burglary crews are less active but cover a wider area. "We go every where," said one Hmong burglar, "from Aurora and Denver to Boulder, hitting houses during the day because everybody is home at night. We look for a house that doesn't have cars outside and ring the doorbell for about 10 minutes. If nobody answers, we go around back and break in." sell drugs, especially ecstasy, acid and marijuana.
Most of the trafficking takes place at raves, coffee shops, nightclubs and house parties. "I've seen 11- and 12year-old kids doing ecstasy and smoking bud (marijuana)," sighs a former Hmong gang member. "In our day, all we did was drink." The gangs work the raves in crews, selling drugs to anyone under 25 years old. "If they're over 25, they might be a cop," a Vietnamese drug runner said. Independent dealers attempting to work the raves are threatened or beat up. Many ecstasy runners will put the drug in a bag attached to a string and tie it to a belt loop or fly button. The bag is then wrapped around their scrotum, making it harder for police to detect. Earlier this month, Aurora police arrested an Asian youth carrying 117 pills.
Ecstasy is a pill, but some gang members have found cheaper sources in California and Texas and sell it for per pill. Local suppliers will front lowlevel dealers up to 100 pills during the week, collecting payment after the weekend. Some kids use several dealers so they can get larger quantities.
Acid is also popular. Dealers walk around at the raves with bottles of Visine or breath freshener filled with the drug. They sell it for a hit, putting it directly on a customer's tongue, hand or on a candy.
A Cambodian gang, the Tiny Rascal Gangsters (TRGs), recruits Hispanics and black members because of the small number of Cambodians in the area. "The TRGs are involved in a lot of crack cocaine," notes the Denver Gang Unit's Worth. between Asian gangs abound. Some APs broke off to form the Junior APs (JAP), a rival group allegedly run by a former Los Angeles gang member. A Filipino gang, the Original Panoy Gangsters (OPG), is also at odds with the APs, and sporadic fights break out between Asian and Mexican gangs. On Aug. 6, a crew of ORBs pulled a gun on a carload of Mexican bangers who drove by flashing gang signs. Retaliation is inevitable.
Enormous profits and personal pride are at stake in these turf wars. Older gang members want to curtail the violence because it disrupts their financial ventures: drugs, gambling and auto theft. Young thugs are eager to make a name for themselves and are unable or unwilling to see the consequences of their behavior.
Full of testosterone and with easy access to guns, teenage gang members are extremely dangerous and highly volatile. Unafraid of jail or death, they think nothing of killing a rival or anyone else who gets in the way. "They'll pull the trigger without thinking about the consequences," an OG said. "They just don't care."
On July 30, the same day as the gang shooting at the Cafe Thien Thanh, Junior APs shot a rival Hmong gang member in Westminster. Since then, several other gang-related shootings have occurred, including gunfire between speeding cars and retaliation shots fired blindly into the homes of rivals. Most of these incidents go unreported. If police are actually called, investigation quickly grinds to a halt due to the absence of victims and reluctance of witnesses.
It's difficult for members to break away from the gangs, even after they've gotten married and had children. Loyalties run deep. Johnny, on OG with the ORBs, con tinued to associate with members of his gang two years after he was married. In February, he and 10 ORBs were bowling at Arvada Lanes when they were confronted by 20 APs.
The APs provoked a fight that eventually poured out into the parking lot. Johnny reluctantly joined in. "I had to back up my friends," sighs Johnny. "I had no choice."
As the battle broke up, two carloads of APs followed a car driven by Johnny's cousin. On a side street, one of the APs began firing at them until an ORB popped up through the sunroof and emptied a 16-round clip into their cars.
"I know we hit the car, but I don't know if anybody was hit or not," Johnny said. Charlie Sou Her, a 19-year-old ORB, moved to Seattle to get away from gangs. He confided to Johnny that he would probably get into trouble if he came to Denver, be cause he'd hang with ORBs again.
Charlie was right. About 2:30 a.m. on April 21, Charlie and his friends George Lo and Pao Ge Xiong drove up next to a carload of Vietnamese in the 7300 block of El iot Street. George and Pao started yelling at the Vietnamese, asking if they were AP. As the driver replied, "No, no, we're not gangbangers," George and Pao opened fire, killing Vien Cong Than, 19, and wounding Phi Nguyen, 20. Neither had any gang affiliations.
"They didn't even know those guys. George just wanted to show off," Johnny said.
All three were convicted of firstdegree murder.
"Poor Charlie. He never was hard-core; he just liked to flirt with girls. Now he's in jail for 30 years." Even if a gang member does manage to get out, rival gang members still consider him a target. A former ORB nearly escaped injury on Dec. 11, 1999, near a Circle K on West 68th Avenue when a crew of MODs sped by and fired four rounds into his car. One bullet missed his head by inches, break ing the driver's side window and smashing into the dashboard.
Most kids join gangs for an obvious reason: They provide a sense of belonging, especially for immigrant teens who feel caught between two cultures. Few turn to their parents for help once they begin to get swept into gang activi ties. And their parents "feel trapped," said Ge Thao, a project director at the Asian-Pacific Development Center. They "are reluctant to ask for help because it would bring shame and embarrassment to their family."
To help combat gangs, Ge Thao and other Hmong community ac tivists organized a Friday night drop-in center, in cooperation with the Adams County Sheriff's De partment. The center, which offers participation in sports and group discussions, attracts Hmong youths from Boulder to Littleton.
"This type of program provides kids with an alternative to the streets," said Frank Spottke, Ad ams County district attorney, "and I think it's doing a good job."
"We have to work on the value systems of the individuals," said Capt. Gary Leuthauser, head of the Denver Police Department's Gang Unit. "When you look at most gang members, they pretty much fall into the same situation - academically, socially, athletically. They really haven't achieved much, so they're looking for recognition, some way to fit in, and (gangs are) something they gravitate to."
Many law enforcement officers say there is an urgent need for a fully integrated, multi-agency task force to pool resources and centralize information on gang activity. "The gang members from California think that Denver's easy," one Vietnamese gang member, said. "They think they're too clever to get caught here. That's why so many are coming."
The 14-year-old who had a gun pressed against his head last year blinks hard as he recalls the incident. "It was scary," he sighs. "I try not to think about it." He is not compelled to get involved in gangs: His nights are spent studying, looking after his younger relatives, and dreaming of a future. "I really like school," he confides.
Whether or not he makes it to graduation is another matter. As the conflicts between rival gangs heat up, innocent bystanders may get caught in the crossfire when young gangsters shoot each other in an expression of misdirected pride.
Department of Law
NEWS RELEASE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 18, 2003
STATE, LOCAL, AND FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ANNOUNCE INDICTMENTS AGAINST 23 MEMBERS OF ALLEGED ASIAN GANG OPERATING IN DENVER METRO AREA
Denver-- State, local, and federal law enforcement agencies announced today that an investigation spearheaded by the Metro Gang Task Force and the Colorado Attorney General's Office resulted in a statewide grand jury indictment of 23 members of an alleged criminal enterprise known as the "Viet Pride Gangsters," or "VPG." The defendants are variously accused of attempted first-degree murder, assault, burglary, theft, and drug trafficking.
At a news conference at the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office, Attorney General Ken Salazar, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas, Lt. Jim Welton of the Metro Gang Task Force, Mr. Jeffrey Sweetin, Special Agent in Charge for the Rocky Mountain Region, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and other representatives of law enforcement agencies involved announced four indictments obtained by the Colorado Attorney General's Office involving almost 100 criminal charges against the various named defendants on June 13, 2003. The indictments were sealed pending the arrest of the defendants and/or court order from the trial court. Arrests were begun by local law enforcement agencies around the Denver metro area in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday morning. Seventeen arrests were made this morning; six defendants were already in custody.
A list of the defendants and a numerical itemization of the charges against them is attached for reference. The defendants will be tried in Jefferson County District Court.
More than 20 law enforcement agencies were involved in or had a connection to the investigation leading up to last week's indictments. They include the Metro Gang Task Force; Attorney General Ken Salazar's Office; Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas' Office; Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter's Office; Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant's Office; Araphaoe County District Attorney Jim Peters' Office; Chaffee County District Attorney Ed Rogers' Office; Aurora Police Department, Denver Police Department; Lakewood Police Department; Westminster Police Department; Arvada Police Department; Adams County Sheriff's Office; Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office; Douglas County Sheriff's Office; Jefferson County Sheriff's Office; the Colorado Department of Corrections; the Colorado Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area intelligence center.
Fifteen of the named defendants are charged with conspiring and conducting a criminal enterprise through racketeering activity (racketeering), a class 2 felony. The 15 are also variously charged with a other crimes, including: attempt to commit first degree murder (class 2 felony); assault (class 4 felony); menacing with a deadly weapon (class 5 felony); illegal discharge of a firearm (class 5 felony); theft (class 4 and 3 felonies); burglary (class 3 felony); possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) (class 4 felony); conspiracy to distribute marijuana and distribution of marijuana (class 4 felonies); and introduction of contraband (into a prison facility) (class 4 felony).
Four other defendants are charged by separate indictment with a single count of accessory to a crime (class 5 felony); two other defendants are charged by separate indictment with conspiracy to commit first degree murder and attempt to commit first degree murder (class 2 felonies); and two other defendants are charged by separate indictment with conspiracy to commit assault and assault (class 4 felonies).
The main indictment alleges that between August 1995 and December 2002, the 15 named defendants engaged in a criminal enterprise in Jefferson, Arapahoe, Douglas, Chaffee, Adams and Denver Counties as a criminal street gang known as "Viet Pride Gangsters" composed primarily of Asian males of Vietnamese descent.
According to the indictment, the core group of the Colorado gang started in the early 1990s in Denver, with its original roots in California. The group expanded and has extensive membership throughout the Denver metro area, where their alleged criminal activities are centered. These activities are designed not only to recruit and retain gang membership, but also to provide financial benefit to both individual members and the group in general. Many of the counts in the indictments address crimes allegedly committed to serve these purposes. They advertise their gang through traditional symbols such as tattoos, markings, graffitti, and hand gestures.
The Viet Pride gang also allegedly target Asian victims for burglaries. Various of the defendants also allegedly engaged in acts of retaliation and other violence alleged members or associates of the so-called rival "Asian Pride" gang, or "AP". Many of the counts in the indictments reflect these kinds of criminal activity allegedly committed by the various defendants.
Examples of some of the criminal activity for which various defendants are charged in the indictments:
Attempted murder of several alleged rival gang members or associates, as well as assault and menacing of alleged rivals, in particular alleged members or associates of the so-called "Asian Pride Gang", and in one case, members of a local Laotian community. These charges stem in part from shooting confrontations and other incidents involving firearms at various locations in the five-county Denver metro region
Staging another shooting incident in order to avoid having gang members from being implicated in an earlier, real shooting incident. That real shooting incident also forms the basis for some of the charges in the main indictment.
Other acts of assault involving knives, bludgeons and mace against alleged rival gang members or associates.
Threatening or intimidating a victim/witness in one of the shooting confrontations in the City and County of Denver Courthouse in a case in which an alleged VPG gang member was the defendant.
Burglarizing homes of fellow Asians, in one case, a relative of an alleged gang member. In some cases, the homes were allegedly ransacked during the burglaries and robberies. The cash and stolen goods, or proceeds from the sale of stolen goods, were then allegedly distributed among VPG members or associates.
Attempting to or smuggling marijuana and methamphetamine to one of the named defendants then serving a prison sentence at the Buena Vista Correctional Facility in Chaffee County.
Motor vehicle theft or attempted motor vehicle theft.
# # # 3 0 # # #
"Viet Pride" Indictment Summary
Name(s) Age Counts Charged
Indictment "1" 89 Counts
Duc Dang 18 1,2,53,54,72,73
Phuc Huynh, aka "Phuc Aurora" 24 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,
19, 20,23,24,25,26,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,
50,51,52,
Tien Pham, aka "Tien Mop" 23 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,
19,20,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,
35,36,37,41,64,65,66,67,70,71
Thanh Do, aka "Gulo", aka "Culo" 22 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,
19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26
Tien Nguyen, aka "Archie" 21 1,2,74,75,76
Quoc Ho, aka "Toothless" 25 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,
19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,38,39,40,55
John Swanson, aka "White Boy" 20 1,2,55,56,57,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,
69,81,82,83,84,85,86
Choi Lau, aka "Joey" or "Joe Mop" 25 1,2,38,39,40,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,
52,
Trinh Nguyen 19 1,2,56,57,59,60,61,62,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,
81,82,83
Tan Pham, aka "Tan Mop" 20 1,2,55,58,60,61,62,64,65,66,67,74,75,76,77,
78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86
David Le 19 1,2,53,54,89
Juvenile 17 1,2,56,59,60,62,74,76,77,81
Dung Nguyen 20 1,2,53,54,87,88
Thang Van Bui 19 1,2,53,54,72,73
Trang Than, aka "Tom" 21 1,2,41,53,54
Indictment "2" 4 Counts
Luyen Van Le, aka "John" 20 1,2,3,4
Thien An Ngoc, aka "An Le" 23 1
Indictment "3" 4 Counts
Phong Nguyen, aka "Innocent" 24 1,2,3,4
David Pham 26 1,3
Indictment "4" 1 Count
Hoang Dang, aka "Wang" 22 1
Macdan Vo 21 1
Duy Nguyen 22 1
Jesse Nguyen 21 1
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