According to police, in multicultural Toronto, certain types of criminal activity are often tied to ethnicity: South Americans dominate cocaine production, while Italians handle the distribution and Mexicans the street-level trafficking; Chinese rule the meth trade, thanks to ties to mainland China where raw chemicals originate; Middle Eastern immigrants largely control the heroin market; and West Africans are the masters of identity fraud. The production and distribution of marijuana is an Asian specialty, due mostly to cultural connections to Canada’s West Coast, the mecca of pot, where the vaunted B.C. Bud is grown. The hyperpotent strain, which was developed in the 1980s by Vietnamese farmers on northern Vancouver Island, gives those who have access to it an enormous advantage in the market.
In the 1980s, Asian criminals in Canada were known for more than just marijuana trafficking. Toronto-based offshoots of China’s powerful 14K and Sun-Yee On triads sold heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a wave of crime—extortion, kidnappings, carjackings—in Chinatown and across the city.
The bloodshed peaked in 1991, when 16 of the city’s 89 homicides were linked directly to drug wars between rival Asian gangs, including the assassination of Vietnamese-Chinese crime boss Asau “Johnny” Tran, who was gunned down outside a restaurant on Dundas West.
In the 1980s, Asian criminals in Canada were known for more than just marijuana trafficking. Toronto-based offshoots of China’s powerful 14K and Sun-Yee On triads sold heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a wave of crime—extortion, kidnappings, carjackings—in Chinatown and across the city.
The bloodshed peaked in 1991, when 16 of the city’s 89 homicides were linked directly to drug wars between rival Asian gangs, including the assassination of Vietnamese-Chinese crime boss Asau “Johnny” Tran, who was gunned down outside a restaurant on Dundas West.
