Xã há»Âi ÃÂen (chữ Nôm: 社æÂÂé¡Â, literally meaning "black societies") is a Vietnamese term used to describe the criminal underworld. The term is believed to have become widely used thanks to Hong Kong TV series and movies about the Chinese secret society of Heishehui (). An individual who participates in these criminal activities can be called a giang há»Â, gÃÂng-xtá, côn ÃÂá»Â, or tá»Âi phạm; while a criminal organization is known as bÃÂng ÃÂảng or bÃÂng nhóm, depending on its scale. They are those whose goal is to make money from illegal and overall immoral activities.
According to the law of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, under Clause 1, Article 8 of the 2015 Criminal Code:
Joining a criminal organization is considered to be a "very serious crime" in Vietnam. For example, a person who illegally transported goods or money across the border could "face a penalty of up to 2 years community sentence or 3âÂÂ24 months' imprisonment;" but the same crime if committed by a member of an organized group would be liable for "a penalty of 2âÂÂ5 years' imprisonment."
Although the law would also make political groups, such as Viá»Ât Tân and DTVNCH, criminal organizations, they are not part of xã há»Âi ÃÂen as their stated aim and genesis is ideological rather than commercial.
A small group of criminals, bÃÂng nhóm, has a simple structure. It is organized loosely with a small number of members. The leader is called ÃÂại ca or bÃÂng trðá»Âng. They act aggressively and mostly commit crimes such as murder, robbery, theft, and fraud. These small groups may band together to form a larger syndicate or find protectorate from an already existed one.
A larger criminal syndicate, bÃÂng ÃÂảng, has a clearer, more sustainable organizational structure with long-term operational goals. The leadership can have one or multiple people, but there is one individual at the top known as trùm. Below them is the command level with people who would be in charge of smaller groups within the syndicate. Ordinary members, known as ÃÂàn em, are those who directly carry out criminal acts, as well as all tasks assigned by the leaders.
For example, during the 1960s in South Vietnam, there was a powerful gang led by the infamous ÃÂại Cathay, the trùm of his gang and the "Brother of all brothers" (). Along ÃÂại were several members that assisted his leadership: cánh tay trái "H ÃÂầu bò" (H the bull head), cánh tay phải "Lâm chÃÂn ngón" (Lâm the nine fingers), and quân sð "Hoàng guitar" (Hoàng the guitarist). The gang bosses that submitted to ÃÂại Cathay were Huỳnh Tỳ and Ngô Cái, who were respectively known as "Second Brother" and "Third Brother".
Vietnamese drug lords control territories in the northwestern provinces. Because Vietnam is located near the Golden Triangle, its heroin trade is concentrated along its borders with Laos and Cambodia. Since 2019, Vietnam has not only become a drug market but also a transit port that criminals use to traffick drugs to other countries.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese illegal trafficking groups control areas in HỠChàMinh City. Their networks have been linked to the human-trafficking and human-smuggling markets, the ivory and pangolin-trafficking markets, illicit logging operations, arms trafficking, and drug-trafficking markets.
Foreign-based gangs such as the Korean mafia and the Japanese yakuza are also reported to be active in Vietnam.
In 1865, the China-based brigand Black Flag Army crossed the border from Guangxi into northern Vietnam to create a profitable extortion network along the course of the Red River. The group later joined forces with the Qing and the Nguyá» n to fight against the French.
In 1945, various groups of gangsters unified into an organization called Bình Xuyên, led by Ba Dðáng. In the 1920s, Ba Dðáng had previously been the leader of a coalition of river pirates. In 1949, Bình Xuyên became a legitimate military organization. In 1954, Bình Xuyên controlled nearly the entire supply of opium of Vietnam. In 1955, Bình Xuyên was defeated in the Battle of Saigon and was disbanded.
Saigon in the 1960s saw the rise of four powerful Vietnamese gangs whose leaders are known as the "Four Great Kings" (), and were behind almost all of the criminal activities and rackets within the city:
Beside the "Four Kings", there was also an infamous Chinese crime boss called TÃÂn Mã Nàm (nicknamed "Mad Horse"). He was considered the "Triad King" of Chợ Lá»Ân and was said to be the second highest-ranking member of Há»Âng Môn, a triad from China, behind only Hoàng Long ("Yellow Dragon").
In 1964, ÃÂại Cathay's gang and TÃÂn Mã Nàm's triad clashed in a bloody fight. Although Mã Nàm won, the battle caused many people to avoid his casinos and his business sharply declined. TÃÂn Mã Nàm was then forced to call for a negotiation with ÃÂại where he and many of the Chinese gangs in Chợ Lá»Ân decided to give up away the areas between the Nancy market and District 1 to ÃÂại Cathay's gang.
In 1966, Tạ Vinh, a Chinese businessman, was arrested due to some conflicts with the government. Triads in Chợ Lá»Ân and Hong Kong tried to intervene by sending a petition to the embassy of the Republic of Vietnam in Taipei, Taiwan, but failed. Tạ Vinh was publicly executed on March 14.
In November 1966, ÃÂại Cathay was arrested and placed in Phú Quá»Âc Prison. On January 7 1967, ÃÂại and his men escaped from the camp, but when he passed through the front gate, the alarm sounded, alerting the guards surrounding the prison. After being spotted, ÃÂại was chased to the northern part of the island, but the guards never found him and he was never heard from again.
Following 1975 and the reunification of Vietnam, the era of the Four Great Kings of Saigon came to the end. However, this allowed NÃÂm Cam, a former follower of ÃÂại Cathay, to develop a powerful criminal organization which dominated the South. He is said to have gone on a 15-year long killing spree in order to eliminate his rivals, and is considered the "Godfather" of Vietnam.
Meanwhile in the North, four crime bosses also appeared:
At one point, both NÃÂm Cam and Dung Hàjoined forces to attack Lê Ngá»Âc Lâm (nicknamed "Lâm chÃÂn ngón"), another former member of ÃÂại Cathay. In 2000, Dung Hàwas assassinated as she tried to expand her operation to Há» ChàMinh City. In 2001, both NÃÂm Cam and Hải Bánh, along with other gang members were arrested. Cam was executed while Hải was imprisoned until 2022.
Vietnamese-American gangs had their genesis in southern California, typically committing home invasions and robberies against Vietnamese and other Asian refugee families. The kidnapping of young girls is also common, with many forced into having sex, doing drugs, and committing criminal offenses. Vietnamese gangs are known to be highly mobile, often travelling interstate, perpetrating a variety of criminal acts in a short period of time. They are considered to be less organized but more violent than ethnic Chinese organized crime groups. Ethnic Chinese from Vietnam (sometimes called Viet-ching) often play an important role as members of Vietnamese gangs or as links between Vietnamese and Chinese criminal organizations.
Vietnamese gangs have emerged as dominant and violent criminal organizations in Toronto's Chinatown area, with many of them hired by already-established Chinese triads to work as street enforcers. While for the most part, these gangs have businesses within their community, it seems that they are looking to expand their activities to the outside business community. There are three levels in Vietnamese criminal organizations. First is the organized crime level representing the geographically anchored hierarchy, second is the street gang level which carries out directions from the organized crime level leadership, and last is the action-set which consists of young males aspiring to gain membership in the street gangs.
There has been concern expressed about the growth of ethnic Vietnamese criminal groups in Australia for a decade. Vietnamese gangs are heavily armed and have established links with Australian crime figures. They are mainly involved in crimes against their own community including murder, extortion, robbery and petty drug dealing, with standovers and extortion being the most common. Vietnamese criminal organizations are known to organize heroin shipments, either independently of or in association with established Chinese heroin trafficking operations. An increasing amount of heroin coming into Australia appears to have been transhipped through Vietnam. Australian police have significant difficulties in counteracting Vietnamese organised crime due to a lack of Vietnamese police officers, consequent language barriers, and a common mistrust of government agencies by migrants from Vietnam.
The impact of gangsters such as ÃÂại Cathay and NÃÂm Cam has created a generation that admired the xã há»Âi ÃÂen culture. One notable example is Khá Bảnh, a YouTuber known for creating videos that showed him as a man of honor who possesses many moral principles of a giang há»Â.