Korean Organized Crime Busted in VA
by James Na ~ January 11th, 2009. Filed under: Crime, Korean Culture, Koreans in America.Nothing dramatic or theatrical like the Sopranos — mostly what one might call “arbitraging” cigarette price difference between New York City and Virginia (although there is a mention of an almost comical “hitman” recruitment attempt):
The astonishing discovery came during a two-year investigation into a Korean organized crime ring based in Annandale that trafficked in untaxed cigarettes. Undercover officers and agents started off making $5 million in sales of contraband cigarettes. That led to the crime ring’s money laundering and numerous financial schemes. There was even a murder-for-hire plot. [Snip.]
Cigarettes are hugely profitable because they are taxed so heavily in New York City — $4.25 a pack compared with 30 cents in Virginia. There is a cap on cigarette sales in Virginia, but agents put out the word that they could get cigarettes in bulk that could be sold with counterfeit tax stamps.
A while back, Canada experienced a dramatic increase in cigarette trafficking along the border with the United States when the former drastically increased taxes on cigarettes, which even led to gun battles along the border among smugglers fighting for turf.
And, of course, since Koreans are still “the others” in the region, there are some glib remarks about cultural differences:
Lt. John Piper of the Fairfax police criminal intelligence division said that in 2006, police began investigating a possible Korean crime ring in Annandale. Police agreed to talk about the investigation, which is continuing, only after their major targets had been convicted.
“We could not crack it because the Korean community was afraid of these individuals,” Piper said of the crime ring. “And their culture back home is they don’t trust police. We got lucky with one individual wanting to turn over some information.”
Certainly police work in Korea can be flawed sometimes, but by worldwide standards I find it generally reasonable. I do not think that Koreans are particularly distrustful of their police in the way, say, Russians are of theirs (for good reasons in the latter case). Furthermore, most people, not just Koreans, are wary of informing on possibly violent organized crime figures. And there is more superficial “the other culture” talk:
But when Cho and his associates walked into a restaurant or nightclub along Little River Turnpike, “you knew they had the respect of the community,” Piper said. “People bowed when they walked in. These were definitely not street-level operators.”
Well, Korean merchants bow when I walk in to their stores. I don’t think that’s because I have “the respect of the community.”
Although I applaud the law enforcement for the bust, I find this kind of exoticism unhelpful and it says a lot about the level of inter-cultural awareness the police has about a very sizable and sometimes prominent ethnic community in the region. And I don’t think it’s just with Koreans. The nearby county of Loudoun, for example, has a large number of people who come from the Indian subcontinent, and I doubt that many law enforcement officers in Loudoun know the difference between Indians and Pakistanis, let alone speak any Urdu or Hindi (or the more “exotic” languages from the southern part of India). I don’t know that they care, either.
A part of the problem is that Korean or Indian immigrants do not exactly raise their children to be cops. They want their kids to attend Ivy League universities and become doctors. So there is too small a pool of ethnic police recruits who understand the culture and speak the language. But another problem is that the police hierarchy (not the “beat” cops) seems ruefully unaware of how much Northern Virginia has changed even outside the Beltway and does not seem too interested in increasing or encouraging recruitment of “exotic” ethnic officers.
By the time the bureaucrats become aware, it will be too late.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I think every local VA law enforcement agencies are doing their best to hire ethnic Korean-Americans in their forces. I see the advertisement for recuiting all the time in the local Korean media outlets in DC area. I even met couple of Korean-American Fairfax County officers.
You are right. My parents did not immigrated to US so their only son will end up becoming the police officer or in the military. And I was lucky enough to do both as police officer in the Midwest in the past life and currently being a US military officer.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
I had a Korean classmate who was in the Air Force ROTC and his family had only immigrated relatively recently (judging by his accent).
January 12th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I would speculate, based on my experience and observations, that having their sons serve their adopted country as a military officer is higher on the hiearchy of parental expectations than being a cop for many Korean immigrant parents.
I know some ethnically Korean US military officers. Know a few who are federal LEOs, but I do not know a single ethnically Korean local LEO. This is not to say they are not out there, but they seem rather few in number compared to the other categories (that is not the case on the West Coast in places like SoCal, SF and Seattle where I’ve seen quite a few ethnically Korean LEOs and very large Asian-American LEOs in general).
As for local VA law enforcement agencies, I would agree they are doing something to hire ethnic Koreans, just not that they “are doing their best” to do so.
It’s not just Koreans… I don’t ever recall seeing, meeting, reading out, etc. an ethnically South Asian LEO despite a large population of South Asian descent in NoVA.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
http://www.napoaonline.org/
Here is a website for NATIONAL ASIAN PEACE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Thanks. Regarding NAPOA’s mission statement:
“UNITE into one national organization from peace officers organizations regardless of religion, sex, race, creed, color, national origin or age, who share a common interest and bond with NAPOA.”
I thought that was a bit oxymoronic — as in “Yeah, people of all backgrounds, join us as we promote the interests of a particular ethnic group!”
In all seriousness, I was not aware that such a group even existed before.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Good point made about the website mission statement James. Our firm also has an Asian Business Resource Group that practices similar oxymoronic principles. When I suggested inviting a Chinese business professional to discuss about asian cultures in business, they rejected the idea due to lack of inclusivity of other cultures.
Anyway, we should definitely have more asians in public service professions. I want to see some koreans in the DMV. I guarantee the lines would be a lot shorter.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am
I have little faith in bureaucrats, big or small, Korean or otherwise.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Andrew,
Back in mid 90’s, the Illinois SOS (DMV) office in Elk Grove village had a Korean supervisor who gave CDL license to unqualified Illegal Alien drivers. He took lots of bribes from these illegals until one of them got into huge accident with their 18 wheelers which killed several people. He was sent to jail for long time.
There is an Asian American Police officer group in every metro area in US. It is a great professional support network. I attended several meetings in Chicago when I was cop in the Chicago area.
January 16th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
http://www.asianfortunenews.com/site/article_0109.php?article_id=163
Here is an Asian Fortune article on KA Montgomery County, MD Police officer. Office Hanh became a Cop when he was 35 years old after successful career in Banking.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:23 am
A fair fisking of the story with the exception of this rebuttal:
“Well, Korean merchants bow when I walk in to their stores. I don’t think that’s because I have “the respect of the community.”
The original sentence in the story used the word “people.” When I read that line, I envisioned not just merchants but customers also acknowledging the presence of the mobsters. I inferred from the story that these men received more attention than other customers.