TNAG-0417-FCO40-463-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 174

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These core groups, in turn, are commanded by a leader or dominant figure, e.g., Hu T'ien-hsing in Vientiane. These leaders are usually quite wealthy, operate under legitimate business cover in major cities, and have connections with key police or military figures. The core group is often the single stable element of a network. It may have only one member--the leader, e.g., Ma Yu-ts'ai in Chiang Mai--or several--a leader and others, e.g., Hu T'ien-hsing, plus his brothers and Liu T'ien-shun. (See Attachments)

While the core group may deal with different buyers, producers and couriers, use various methods of completing a transaction, and see that the goods are moved to their destination one way or another, the core group's integrity remains inviolate, its membership static and its internal security absolute. The core group, then, represents the driving force within the network, and its members are hard to pin down as to their culpability for they insulate them- selves from the work-a-day aspects of trafficking.

Middle Level

As a result, there is a middle level in the narcotics trafficking business. This second level includes the managers, financiers, middle- men and, at the production end, independent #44. heroin chemists. Managers provide the buffer between the core group leadership and middlemen or buyers by serving as the leadership's "window to the narcotics world"--relaying instructions and administering production, purchases and sales. These men are often capable businessmen in their own right, and sometimes conduct an independent trafficking business of their own. They are not unlike managers of western corporations, responsible for running a smooth operation and reaping maximum profits for the core group.

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