The Ping On ( zh, t=平安, j=ping4 on1) was a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

-based criminal organization. The organization rose to power in the 1970s and continued to operate throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The Ping On was founded by Stephen "Sky Dragon" Tse who had heavy ties to the infamous

14K Triad The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the ...

in Hong Kong.

History

The Ping On was regarded as a "farm team" for the 14K

triad Triad or triade may refer to: * a group of three Businesses and organisations * Triad (American fraternities), certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America * Triad (organized crime), a Chinese transnational orga ...

in Hong Kong. The ambition of Stephen Tse was to come to Boston to set up another hub on the East Coast of the United States. However, it was not directly affiliated with 14K despite Stephen Tse having a history with them. The organization had several allies in the late 1980s, including the Hung Mong which was in operation in New York City.

Decline

In 1984, Stephen Tse was jailed for refusing to cooperate with authorities in regards to Asian organized crime in the city. During this time, a large number of Vietnamese refugees had moved to Boston, in particular Chinatown. When Stephen Tse was released from jail in 1986, the landscape of organized crime was very different, and not nearly as one sided as it was when he was last free. The power vacuum left by the decline of Ping On was linked by early police reports to the Boston Chinatown massacre, which later FBI investigations revealed to be perpetrated by Ping On members and related to a feud with a rival gang member.

References

{{Reflist Organizations based in Boston Chinese-American organized crime groups Gangs in Massachusetts Triad groups