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The Rise of Chinese Organized Crime in Chile 

China-linked criminal networks employ legal businesses to conceal illicit activities ranging from human trafficking to scam and drug operations.

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........

© The Diplomat