Cancer claims the life of HK gangster
Print Edition
A GANGSTER who specialized in armed jewelry heists and became Hong Kong’s most wanted fugitive after a dramatic prison escape in the 1980s, died of cancer in custody yesterday.
Yip Kai-foon, re-captured in a hail of bullets in 1996, was a symbol of a more violent time in a city which was rife with triads — the organized criminal networks steeped in murky traditions and violent histories.
Images of Yip and his gang holding AK-47 rifles while wearing balaclavas, wreaking havoc on the streets and leaving police vans and store windows riddled with bullet holes, once dominated the evening news.
Yip reportedly started down his path of violent crime at the age of 19, spreading fear and robbing gold stores. He and his gang were known for stealing merchandise worth millions of Hong Kong dollars every heist and spraying bullets at police as they made their getaway.
He was 55 when he died, a government statement said. “During hospitalization, his condition deteriorated and he was certified dead today,” yesterday’s statement said, adding that he was in prison for illegal possession of arms and ammunition and escape from legal custody.
Yip’s exploits were portrayed in crime drama “Trivisa” which won best picture at this month’s Hong Kong Film Awards.
He was initially jailed in 1985 but escaped in 1989 while receiving treatment in hospital, reportedly threatening a guard with a broken bottle and hijacking a van.
Yip and his gang again spread terror on the streets until he was jailed for 41 years after a 1996 shoot-out with police when he was shot in the back and paralysed from the waist down.
Authorities in the city had offered what was then Hong Kong’s highest reward — HK$1 million (US$130,000 at the time) — for his capture.
Yip was a known associate of crime boss Cheung Tze-keung, who kidnapped the eldest son of the city’s richest man Li Ka-shing and was sentenced to death in the late 1990s.
While Hong Kong is now considered to be one of the safest cities in the world, organized crime still casts its shadow, with the continued presence of gangs — including Wo Shing Wo, 14K and Sun Yee On — spreading their activities to southern China and further overseas.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
