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Crime networks in Vietnamese diasporas. The Czech Republic case

Crime, Law and Social Change volume 53, pages 229–258 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

The study seeks to analyse the structure and “modus operandi” of crime networks in the Czech Republic´s Vietnamese diaspora. Vietnamese criminality in the country has roots in communist era. After the democratic changes at the end of 80s, it has been representing dynamically developing phenomena, penetrating not only the local Vietnamese emigrant community but the state apparatus as well. Actually, the Vietnamese criminal underground lives in a specific symbiosis with the local Asian emigrant community, where legal and illegal activities are frequently merged together. “Respectable men” who have features of both legal businessmen and criminal bosses are the main actors in these processes. They create parallel power structures in closed worlds of Asian emigrants.

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Notes

  1. (1) Dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically; (2) alternatively, the expansion from a homeland in search of work, in pursuit of trade; (3) a collective memory and myth about the homeland; (4) an idealization of the supposed ancestral home; (5) a return movement; (6) a strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time; (7) a troubled relations with the host society, (8) a sense of solidarity with co-ethnic members in other countries; (9) the possibility of a distinctive creative, enriching life in tolerant host countries.

  2. Unpublished manuscripts: Brouček, S. (2002). Vietnamské etnikum v lokálním prostředí české majority (Vietnamese Ethnic Group in the Local Environment of the Czech Majority). Text vědeckého projektu RB1/1/01 zadaného Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí České republiky. (The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs Research Project RB1/1/01) Praha; Martínková, Š. (2007),Vietnamské etnikum, jeho sociabilita a sociální sítě v prostředí Prahy (Vietnamese Ethnic Group, its Sociability, and Social Networks). Praha.

    Unpublised theses: Jirasová, M (2000), Vietnamci očima české společnosti (Vietnamese in the Eyes of Czech Society). Praha: Charles University; Kocourek, J. (2001), Historie příchodu a působení příslušníků vietnamské národnosti na území ČSR (resp. ČSSR) v letech 1950 až 1975 (History of Arrival and Activity of the Vietnamese Ethnic Group’s Members on the CSR Territory (Respectively the CSSR Territory) in the Years 1950 – 1975). Praha: Charles University; Martínková, Š. (2003), Vietnamská menšina v Praze (Vietnamese Minority in Prague). Praha: Charles University; Ngo Van Le (1989), Vietnamští pracující v Československu (Vietnamese Workers in Czechoslovakia). Praha: Charles University; Poulík, M. (2006), Národnostní menšiny — aneb proč se nemluví o Vietnamcích (National Minorities — Why Vietnamese are not Discussed). Brno: Masaryk University; Soukeníková, R. (2004), Vietnamské etnikum v České republice (The Vietnamese Ethnic Group in the Czech Republic). Brno: Masaryk University; Štěpánková, K. (2006), Etnická ekonomika: případová studie vietnamské ekonomické enklávy Sapa v Praze — Libuši (Ethnic Economy: A Case Study of the Vietnamese Economic Enclave Sapa in Prague — Libuše). Praha: Charles University; Trung Ta Minh (2002), Podnikání a život Vietnamců v Chebu (The Business and Life of Vietnamese in Cheb). Plzeň: Západočeská univerzita (West Bohemian University).

  3. Unpublished thesis: Hammer, M., Problematika drogové kriminality páchané menšinovými etniky na území ČR (Problems of Drug Criminality Committed by Minority Ethnic Groups on the CR Territory). Brno: Masaryk University, 2007.

  4. Because of security reasons, the co-workers and respondents from the Vietnamese community and security forces, and also confidential materials, are quoted as “Vietnamese community sources” (VCS) and the “Czech Police Sources” (CPS) in the text.

  5. Brouček, S. (2002): 11–12.

  6. The plastic explosive SEMTEX, widely used by terrorists all over the world, was developed by the Czechoslovak company Synthesia Semtín on the basis of a Vietnamese order in 1964 — it was an analogue of the American explosive C4.

  7. Brouček, S. (2002): 12–13.

  8. VCS (1999).

  9. Interview D. M., former employee of the Prague Ruzyně Airport, 14 February 1999.

  10. CPS: interview M. K., officer of the Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu Policie ČR (The Czech Police Organised Crime Unit), 27 May 1999.

  11. CPS: unpublished internal report, the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, May 1999.

  12. CPS: interview K. F., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 11 October 2007.

  13. VCS (2007).

  14. VCS (2007).

  15. Ibid.

  16. Interview K.T., employee of the Czech Embassy in Hanoi, 24 February 2008.

  17. VCS (2007).

  18. CPS: interview M. K., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 27 May 1999.

  19. VCS (2007).

  20. Martínková, Š. (2007).

  21. VCS (2007).

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. CPS: interview K. F., an officer of the Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu Policie ČR (The Czech Police Organised Crime Unit), 11 October 2007.

  26. CPS: interview H. T., Odbor azylové a migrační politiky Ministerstva vnitra České republiky (The Czech Asylum and Migration Politics Department, Ministry of Interior, Czech Republic), 2 March 2007.

  27. VCS (1997).

  28. VCS (2007).

  29. Trung Ta Minh (2002): 21.

  30. CPS: interview T. S., an officer of the Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu Policie ČR (The Czech Police Organised Crime Unit), 16 September 2002.

  31. CPS: internal report of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit prepared for the IIR´s research project “International Organised Crime in the Czech Republic” (1999 – 2002), May 2001.

  32. VCS (2007).

  33. Trung Ta Minh (2002): 22–23.

  34. CPS: interview M. K. and T. R., officers of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 4 June 1999.

  35. Interview M. D., the General Directorate of Customs, Department of Investigation and Supervision, Prague, 20 February 2008.

  36. CPS: interview M. K., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 27 May 1999.

  37. CPS: unpublished internal report, the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit. Based on the expertise of the Czech Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, November 2006.

  38. VCS (2007).

  39. VCS (2007).

  40. CPS: unpublished internal report, the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit. Based on the expertise of the Czech Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, November 2006.

  41. VCS (2007).

  42. Ibid.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Brouček, S. (2002): 23 – 26.

  45. VCS (2007).

  46. Ibid.

  47. Ibid.

  48. CPS: interview K. F., officer of The Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 11 October 2007.

  49. VCS (2007).

  50. CPS: interview J. S., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 8 August 2007.

  51. VCS (2007).

  52. CPS: interview M. K., officer of the Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu Policie ČR (The Czech Police Organised Crime Unit), 27 May 1999.

  53. CPS: interview M. K., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 27 May 1999.

  54. CPS: interview K. F., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 11 October 2007.

  55. CPS: interview K. F., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 11 October 2007.

  56. CPS: interview K. F., the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 11 October 2007.

  57. VCS (2007).

  58. CPS: interview J. B., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 4 September 2007. VCS

  59. CPS: interview K. F., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 11 October 2007.

  60. CPS: internal report of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit prepared for the IIR´s research project “International Organised Crime in the Czech Republic” (1999 – 2002), May 2001.

  61. CPS: interview M. K., officer of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 27 May 1999.

  62. CPS: interview V. M., Anti Drug Headquarters of the Czech Republic Police, 11 November 2007.

  63. VCS (2007).

  64. CPS: internal report of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit prepared for the IIR´s research project “International Organised Crime in the Czech Republic” (1999 – 2002), May 2001; unpublished internal report, the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit. Based on the expertise of the Czech Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, November 2006.

  65. CPS: unpublished internal report, the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit. Based on the expertise of the Czech Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, November 2006.

  66. CPS: interview M. K. and T. R., officers of the Czech Police Organised Crime Unit, 4 June 1999.

  67. VCS (2008).

  68. VCS (2007).

  69. Ibid.

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  1. Institute of International Relations, Prague, Czech Republic

    Miroslav Nožina

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Nožina, M. Crime networks in Vietnamese diasporas. The Czech Republic case. Crime Law Soc Change 53, 229–258 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-009-9226-9

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