The Yardies attack the Triads in Chinatown.
The Triads-Yardies War was a gang war between the Triads and the Yardies in London. The war occurred in 2002 and likely concluded in the same year. Despite both gangs being involved in the Gang War of 2002, they had their own war going on between just the two of them and clashed the most over any other gangs involved.
History[]
Before the War[]
Both the Triads and Yardies were long-running gangs that emigrated to London. Neither of the gangs got on and they were far from friends, but they stayed out of each other's way. Shan Chu Lee, the leader of the Triads in London, occupied the Chinatown area and interiors located in Hyde Park. Jamahl, the leader of the Yardies in London, occupied the Shoreditch area. Both gangs however had interiors located near St Saviour's Dock.
Beginning of the War[]
Both gangs were provoked into attacking one another due to the actions of Frank Carter and Mark Hammond. These actions were orchestrated by Charlie Jolson however, who tricked Frank into attacking the Yardies in order to shift blame onto the Triads, as well as using Mark Hammond to lure Triads to a known Yardie base.
Charlie first of all used corrupt Flying Squad leader Clive McCormack to discretely tip Frank Carter off about a Yardie delivery going down at St Saviour's Dock. Charlie somehow knew of this delivery, presumably because he'd been watching all the other gangs. The Triads ran the shipping warehouses, making it seem as though they were the prime suspects in tipping off the police about the Yardie shipment. McCormack and Charlie's nephew, Jake Jolson, tipped off Frank about a depot the Yardies owned at St Saviour's. Interested in the case, Frank headed down there and took down a large number of Yardies. Backup SO19 officers also arrived to assist him, and all the Yardies at the depot were either killed or arrested, with the shipment being seized. The surviving Yardies who were arrested discussed how the police could possibly have known about their operation. They concluded the Triads must have been responsible because they ran the shipping warehouses.
First War[]
The Triads and Yardies battle in the underground car park.
Wanting revenge for the loss of his shipment, Jamahl declared war on the Triads and sent a large number of his men over to Chinatown to deal with them. The Yardies arrived in Chinatown and attacked the Triads in the streets. Triads and Yardies battled with one another in an all-out gang war. Frank and SO19 attended to the urgent call and tried to stop the gang war. The war took place in the heart of Chinatown and outside the Siu Fung. Eventually, the gangsters fled into the nearby underground Cambridge Circus Car Park. Frank followed and took down the last of the Triads and Yardies involved in the gang war and brought it under control.
The casualties from both sides were high and neither gang won this specific battle. All it achieved was more carnage and heavy losses of men from both sides.
Second War[]
The Yardies and Triads in an all-out gang war.
After the carnage in Chinatown died down from the first war, more chaos returned not long after. At some point, a member of the Triads called Johnny Chai, had been secretly kidnapped by the Bethnal Green Mob. Wanting to cause more problems for both the Triads and Yardies, Charlie ordered the death of Johnny and came up with another scheme. Jake Jolson beat Johnny to death and then spoke with Charlie on the phone. He ordered Jake to give Mark Hammond his next assignment. Mark was told to drive the corpse of Johnny over to Chinatown. Jake told Mark he must then lure the Triads over to Holywell Row where he claimed he and some of the boys would be waiting to help Mark massacre all the Triads that followed. Mark believed him and carried out the job.
After dumping the dead body of Johnny Chai in Chinatown, Mark took off and lured the Triads to Holywell Row. Upon arrival, Mark quickly learned the whole job was a setup and that the spot he'd taken them to was actually a Yardie base. Mark quickly took cover as the Triads arrived to kill Mark. Seeing the Triads arrive at their base, the Yardies tried to kill the approaching Triads. Another gang war took place between both gangs once again. This time the battle took place in a front yard which was a part of the Yardie base that was a Drug Factory.
Once again there were heavy casualties from both sides, with the Triads and Yardies losing a lot of men. Knowing that both gangs wanted him dead, Mark knew he'd have to finish off the last surviving gangsters from the war, or else they'd try and kill him also. After the gunfire died down, Mark finished off the last surviving gang members. Both the Triads and Yardies lost the war and Mark Hammond emerged as the sole survivor of the battle. He fled the base not long after as police arrived to reports of the gunfire.
Third War[]
Both battles caused big casualties from both sides, and neither had been victorious in either war. With chaos erupting all across London due to Mark Hammond, each gang agreed on the fact that they wanted him dead for all the trouble he'd caused. After getting a phone call from Charlie Jolson, who told them both he'd captured Mark Hammond, he agreed to hand him over to them at a boat he owned called the Sol Vita. Both Shan Chu Lee and Jamahl agreed to Charlie's proposal and headed to the boat with their men.
After arriving, another gang war erupted, not only between the Triads and Yardies but also between the Bethnal Green Mob and the Collins Gang. More Yardies and Triads were killed in the carnage. Again, neither side won the war and all that happened was more casualties from both gangs.
End of the War[]
Eventually, the gang leaders arrived in one of the cargo holds on the ship to find Mark, after all the gunfire had died down. For the first time, Jamahl and Shan Chu Lee met and finally agreed with each other that they should kill Mark for all the trouble he'd caused. However, once Mark explained his story and it was concluded that Charlie Jolson had been behind it all, both Jamahl and Shan Chu Lee agreed to let him go. It appeared as though both gangs had put their differences aside and finally were at peace with one another. Both had suffered heavy losses from the war and no longer wanted to be involved.
After making peace, the Triads and Yardies were keen to kill Charlie Jolson who had been behind it all. However, things went wrong when Charlie took out the detonator for a bomb he'd placed on the ship. Knowing it was over, Charlie went mad and decided to kill himself along with everyone else. The bomb had a countdown timer which caused everyone to panic. Once again, the Triads and Yardies were at each other's throats, along with everyone else, all trying to flee the ship as quickly as possible and kill whoever got in their way. After three minutes, the ship exploded, killing anyone who was still on board.
Jamahl succeeded in escaping the Sol Vita before its explosion and survived the war. Although his gang suffered heavy losses, he himself got off the boat alive and fled back to Shoreditch with his men. He carried on running his gang as normal.
The Triads fate is unknown. Shan Chu Lee and many of his gang members were on board the ship, but whether they escaped the explosion or not is unknown. If they did escape, they still suffered heavy losses.
Follow up[]
Jamahl thrived the most from the Gang War of 2002. As such, it can be argued that he and the Yardies overall won the gang war. After the war, Jamahl and his gang grew and expanded their turf.
Although it could be argued the Yardies won the war against the Triads, it was Charlie Jolson who brought an end to this specific war rather than the Yardies themselves, as he was the one who activated the bomb that ended the war.
Whether the two gangs continued to clash after these events is unknown. As the Triad's fate is unknown it is difficult to know. However, given the Yardies appear to be occupied with the Collins Crew in 2004 during another war, the Collins-Yardies War, it seems the two gangs either made peace or left each other alone if the Triads did survive.
Trivia[]
- It's unknown if the two gangs had any other conflicts prior to the incident in Chinatown.