Case Explained: The Rise of Chinese Organized Crime in Chile  – The Diplomat – Legal Perspective

El Barrio Meiggs is frenetic. There are times of day when it is best to steer clear of it. Tourists are advised to avoid this neighborhood in the Chilean capital Santiago. Those who must pass through keep a firm grip on valuables like wallets, phones, and luggage – me included.

In El Barrio Meiggs, beneath blue tarpaulins, the informal street economy has taken control of its streets and alleys. The eradication of the neighborhood’s informal economy has long been the main challenge for Santiago’s local authorities.

However, these authorities are facing a much greater challenge lately. El Barrio Meiggs has become an operating theater for the fast-growing Chinese organized crime in Chile. It grew silently among the neighbors’ karaoke bars, gaming parlors, and retail Chinese malls, where legal businesses camouflage illegal and criminal activities.   

Last February, Luis Cordero, the former minister of public security, said the Chinese mafia’s strategy was to use formal economic structures to carry out “their illicit activities.” These illicit activities included, he said, “trafficking of people, trafficking of migrants, illegal gambling, theft, extortion, and murder.” 

In August and December 2025, Chilean police uncovered a vast network of Chinese organized crime in El Barrio Meiggs. “There is a Chinese mafia of great magnitude in the neighborhood,” Mario Desbordes, the mayor of Santiago, told me. “We have arrested dozens of people with a large number of weapons and a significant amount of money.”

Situated beside the architecturally impressive Central Train Station, El Barrio Meiggs has become the operational hub for the Bang Clan, a Chinese organized crime group originating in Fujian province on China’s southeastern coast.

The Bang Clan has been present in Chile since at least 2019. Their arrival coincided with a notable increase in Chinese immigration – through both legal and irregular channels – facilitated by the country’s northern porous borders with Peru and Bolivia. 

In 2025, the country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office published its report “Organized Crime in Chile,” in which the Bang Clan appeared for the first time as an active transnational gang in the country.

The criminal portfolio of this organization includes intensive cannabis cultivation, human trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation, as well as the trafficking of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy.

Although the Chilean police have monitored the Bang Clan since 2020, it wasn’t until 2023 that a significant law enforcement operation uncovered the true scale of their criminal activities.

In April of that year, thousands of police raided a warehouse in Colina, a sleepy northern suburb of Santiago. The police raid resulted in the seizure of 1,903 cannabis plants that were in sheds adapted for their production. There were not run-of-the-mill sheds, though – they were highly sophisticated. 

The raid uncovered warehouses stocked with high-quality marijuana, made possible by all the technological and agronomic conditions for the plants to thrive, including LED lighting technologies and automated irrigation systems. 

In the raid, police detained seven Chinese nationals and one Chilean. The Chinese nationals were illegally in Chile. They were brought to the country due to their expertise in the cultivation of cannabis – they are referred to as “farmers” or “harvesters.” They live in semi-slave conditions. 

After this major setback, the Chinese mafia in Chile began to adapt its tactics. Instead of producing cannabis locally, they started importing synthetic drugs from Europe and Mexico – such as ketamine and methamphetamine – using regular parcels with Chinese senders and recipients.

Chinese organized crime functions differently from other transnational illegal groups in Chile. “Unlike other criminal organizations, such as Venezuela’s Train of Aragua, which boast about their crimes, the Bang Clan operates under the radar,” a police officer involved in organized crime, who requested anonymity, told me.

Unlike other transnational criminal organizations, this group in Chile is not known for acts of media-mediated violence, such as the one committed by Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, said Pablo Urquízar, an OCRIT researcher. “The Fujian Bang Clan represents a threat of silent, technological, and market-specific economic infiltration,” he said. 

The Bang Clan’s operational logic is characterized by discretion. It has concentrated its activities, apart from indoor marijuana cultivation, on money laundering networks through businesses such as karaoke bars, casinos, beauty salons, or Chinese malls.

The group has shown a strong ability to infiltrate social and economic spheres, particularly within local, provincial, and regional governments and municipalities. This is exemplified by Caixin Yu, a Chinese businessman who became the president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the southern city of Temuco. 

He built strong connections with local authorities and created numerous jobs for the Chinese community in the area. He also acted as a financier for the Bang Clan’s marijuana business. Yu was ultimately convicted in 2024 of drug trafficking. 

The Bang Clan has roots in criminal networks historically associated with mafias in southern China, particularly linked to Fujian-based structures that evolved from mutual aid societies into globalized criminal organizations.

Last December, the Bang Clan suffered a major setback when Chilean police, under the so-called “Operation Great Wall,” raided the clandestine nightlife of El Barrio Meiggs.

The operation led to the arrest of 30 individuals – 27 Chinese nationals, two Chileans, and one Bolivian. Among those arrested was also an active-duty police officer, who allegedly provided surveillance services and “tipped off” the organization regarding police operations.

In January, formal hearings began for 49 members of another Chinese mafia group based in the northern city of Iquique, 1,760 km north of Santiago. The criminal organization, known as the “Clan Cheng,” was led by a Chinese father and his two children.

Clan Cheng was dismantled by a major police operation on January 15, prompted by an FBI alert. The criminal operation was based in the ZOFRI (Free Trade Zone) of Iquique and specialized in “pig butchering,” a term used to describe the deception of foreign nationals through fake investment platforms.

The clan ran a fraudulent virtual real estate investment scheme, primarily targeting overseas retirees from the United States, England, France, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It is believed that the organization moved about $200 million through the Chilean financial system, impacting over 400 victims.

In the last five years, the number of Chinese nationals detained in Chile has increased by 520 percent, according to a report from the Observatory of Organized Crime and Terrorism (OCRIT) at the University of Andrés Bello.

On March 11, the far-right José Antonio Kast was sworn in as Chile’s new president. Kast’s inaugural speech focused primarily on order and security. During the campaign, he identified organized crime as one of the main problems Chile was facing and pledged to end it.

However, Kast and his administration face a major challenge. Chile lacks a well-equipped police force capable of tackling the complexities of organized crime – particularly, sophisticated Chinese organized crime networks.