TT: How was the Tiendaomeng structured?
Yang: The Tiendaomeng had a number of committees, six branch offices and a main office. Lo, the lawmaker, was the chief of the main office.
In the six branch offices, there were six leaders as well as six deputy leaders. The deputy leaders were inmates chosen by the leaders for not having any mafia links. The branch office leaders also assigned committee captains. In turn, the committee captains appointed inmates without previous mafia links to be their deputy committee captains. There was no limit on the number of committee members.
The gang's leaders were always real mafia guys and the deputy leaders had to be people without mafia links who were in jail on misdemeanor offenses.
Also, membership fees were not required. However, we still do not know what the gang's rules were, its code of conduct or how they identified each other.
The Taipei Prison was the original location where the gang began to expand. Gang members took advantage of being transferred to other prisons to invite more inmates to join the organization.
Whenever a convict finished his term, he would be told to report to an assigned location and a person on the outside.
Also, whenever a gang member was about to be jailed, the contacts on the outside tell the prison-bound member who to report to inside the jail.
That's how they built up such a huge gang organization and how it kept growing.
TT: Is this recruitment we just discussed still going on in Taiwan's prisons? Does the Tiendaomeng still exist?
Yang: Two years ago, Minister of Justice Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪) asked all domestic gangs to disband, saying that if they failed to do so, the gang's leaders would be directly sent to the Green Island once caught. So technically, there shouldn't be any gangs on the island.
However, it is absurd [to believe] that these people do not have any contact with each other anymore, even if their gang no longer exists.
And it is impossible for us to assume that they are not engaging in illegal activities.
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