· Abstracted from: "Dragons of Crime, Inside the Asian Underworld", by James Dubro, Octopus Publishing, Toronto 1992. ISBN 0-409-90538-0
Founder Lau Wing Kui (pronounced "Koy" like "toy") arrived in Toronto, Canada on December 22, 1974, as a landed immigrant. Hong Kong police (who were corrupt) reported no criminal record for him, although they actually had a big file on him. Lau Wing Kui was an initiated member of the Hong Kong Tung Lok Society, a part of the Luen (Kung Lok) family triad. He ran gambling and police graft operations in Hong Kong, as well as a night club owner. Lau's other links went to drug dealer Ng Shek-ho (Limpy Ho, who died in Hong Kong prison); Poon Lam (aka Poon Lam Jai) drug trafficker of Kowloon and triad dragon head; and Eddie Chan, corrupt former Hong Kong cop who was later leader of On Leong tong in the U.S; and Lau Fook, a corrupt Royal Hong Kong Police Staff Sergeant.
By 1977 he had established a new triad, called Kung Lok, which means "the house of mutual happiness" in Toronto, with a sub-group in Ottawa under Cheang Chi Wo (also known as Danny Cheung). [Cheung died of natural causes in the late 1980's, but his group lives on.] Lau Wing Kui's followers included: Danny Mo (Mo Shui Chuen), a kung fu expert who become the triad's "Red Pole" or enforcer; "Big John" Yue (Yue Kwok Nam), and his younger brother Ringo, Jimmy Kan (Kan Ka Tim; Peter Leung (Leung Kin- hung); Paul Kwok (aka Chiu Chow Por); Chan Ching; and group treasurer Charlie Kwan (Kwan Yee Man).
Other members included New Yorker Kit Jai (Hat Chuey Chan), and Eurasian Paul Bittick, Macao citizen Richard Castro; Raven Tsoi and Victor Cheng.
Kung Lok reportedly ran illegal gambling clubs, some legal entertainment business, extortion and protection rackets, and other crimes.
Founder Lau Wing Kui was ordered deported from Canada by a special order-in-council (as a danger to Canada) on January 11, 1980 (P.C. 1980-122). Lau had in 1978 gained citizenship in the Dominican Republic, and fled there, taking up management of gambling at the Ambassador Hotel. His wife and children remained in Toronto. Citizenship in the Dominican Republic could be purchased for $50,000 under a program arranged by Simon Yip (Yip Chung Ling). Many of Lau's top triad members, thugs and extortionists joined him in Santo Domingo (Dom. Republic). After much trouble, Simon Yip and his son Bernard fired Lau, and told his gang to go.
Lau Wing Kui returned to Hong Kong, and was last reported renting gambling space from Macao magnate Stanley Ho, at the Hotel Lisboa. Some of the triad members went to New York, forming new links there, and then returned to Toronto. Simon Yip was jailed in Hong Kong in the mid-1980's for a massive fraud of the Overseas Trust Bank, involving Yip's company, the Dominican Finance Company.
Dubro quotes RCMP intelligence reports of 1990 saying that the Ottawa branch of Kung Lok was then still active in heroin trade, and still had Toronto members of the triad. Meanwhile Danny Mo became the defacto head of Kung Lok in Toronto. He has been implicated in many acts of violence, ranging from extortion to assault, but has no convictions for serious crimes. Witnesses do not talk. His early specialty was a protection racket, called "lomo" or "lucky money". People paid, often weekly, for the priviledge of not being assaulted - kind of a rental of your own life.
Mo has links to various Chinese restaurants in Toronto, still pursues kung fu through clubs, and maintains links with gangster in New York and Hong Kong. His Kung Lok group has worked with Asau Tran, the Toronto Vietnamese crime leader. Mo also has a near-monopoly on bringing Chinese entertainers to Canada, through his company Oriental Arts and Promotion, and appears to run some legitimate businesses.
A 1980's Hong Kong Police intelligence report states that: Lau's son, Joseph Lau married the daughter of the Kung Lok's accountant in 1982. In 1983, they report a meeting in Hong Kong of Lau Wing Kui; Danny Mo (supervisor of Kung Lok in Toronto); William Tse (head of Kung Lok in Los Angeles); and Vincent Jew, head of a parallel crime society known as Wah Ching.
After 1983, Lau began to co-operate with Hong Kong police. Dubro quotes another Hong Kong police report about a January 1983 meeting in the Miramar Hotel in Hong Kong between Lau Wing Kui and other leaders of North American chinese gangs, including: Danny Mo (Toronto Kung Lok supervisor); Michael Pak and Pai Shing Ping, Nightclub owner, Monterey Park, California; Vincent Chu (a.k.a. Vincent Jew), leader of Wah Ching, San Francisco (and may in all of North America); Lee Yoo Ting, Taiwanese movie actor; Peter Man (a.k.a. Man Kam Fai), San Francisco restauranteur; Tony Young, Wah Ching leader in Toronto.
Others identified to Hong Kong police, by Lau, as part of Kung Lok were: William Tse (who is also listed as a Wah Ching leader in Los Angelese); Charlie Kwan Yee Man (aka Kwan Yuk Shum); Yue Kwok Nam, Peter Leung Kin Hung and Tyrone Pau Hing On.
Police believed that these were actually smaller players, and that many of them had links to Tongs allied with Hip Sing.