United States - The Mob: The Triads and Tongs

The FBI knows quite a bit more about the Chinese triads, tongs and street gangs than they do about the Russians. The Chinese population in the United States has been spiraling for decades and has provided a far more penetrable profile for the Feds. They're well aware of the three tiers: the Hong Kong-based triads, the secretive criminal families that were on the scene well before the Sicilian mafia; the tongs, which are ostensibly Chinese-American business associations, but in reality crafty overseers of devious doings; and the Chinese-American street gangs brought in as enforcers. The triads and tongs do their biggest business bringing Chinese white heroin into the United States, but also dabble in the smuggling of Chinese illegal aliens. The triads get them to Mexico, or somewhere else knockin' on Uncle Sam's door, where the tongs take over and put the illegals to work at slave wages in sweat shops and whorehouses. For their freedom, they have to pay off the tongs from US$30,000-$50,000.

http://www.fringeware.com/subcult/Chinese_Tong.html