Golden Vegetables

Triads can make money from anything.

Seven men, said to be members of the Wo Shing Wo triad, were busted for extorting money from vegetable stall owners. The cops figure they were raking in $3 million per month.

"This is a problem that has been going on for at least 30 years," said the source who was close to the investigation. "They had become part of everyday life in the markets."

Stall holders and market workers paid protection money to an organisation called the Yuen Long Vegetable Union under the guise of labour, weighing and rent "fees".

They were also threatened with violence and arson if they did not move their stalls from markets scattered around the rural northern New Territories to a larger central market that the gang owned.

Three million a month? With that much revenue at stake, the seven men will be replaced in a heartbeat.

Don't expect vegetable prices to drop.

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