page_title: Chinatown bus lines
section_title: Organized crime ties
hierarchical_section_title: Chinatown bus lines / History / Organized crime ties
caption_attribution_description: English: A Chinatown bus (2000 Coach/New Century Travel) shortly after depositing its passengers in NYC. August 2004. © 2004 Joseph Barillari
context_page_description: Chinatown bus lines are discount intercity bus services, often run by Chinese Americans and Chinese Canadians, that have been established primarily in the Chinatown communities of the East Coast of the United States and Central Canada since 1998, although similar services have cropped up on the West Coast. They operate in 24 U.S. states and 3 Canadian provinces. The vast majority of Chinatown bus lines are based out of the Northeast U.S.
  The buses have been subject to controversy because of safety issues, with several fatal incidents having happened over the years. Some companies have been shut down either temporarily or permanently by regulatory authorities, while others continue to operate subject to increased safety checks. The low-overhead, low-fare services have been popular, helping to drive down the prices of competing services such as Greyhound, Megabus and BoltBus.
context_section_description: The bus lines have drawn scrutiny from law enforcement authorities for possible connections to Chinese organized crime gangs. In 2003 and 2004, a number of bus arsons, driver assaults, murders, and other gang violence in New York City were linked to the possible infiltration of Asian organized crime gangs into the industry.
  Among the crimes believed to have been associated with gang activity was a deadly shooting in May 2003, on a busy street, which may have been in retaliation for a driver having backed his bus into a rival; as revenge, two buses were set on fire in 2004. There was a fatal stabbing in October 2003, as well as another, unrelated stabbing in 2004. In January 2004, the boyfriend of a bus worker was lethally shot in what appeared to be a bus feud, and in March 2004, a Chinatown bus operator was killed in another fatal shooting. In a June 2004 incident tied to criminal gangs, two people—a Chinatown bus driver and a bystander—were murdered in a bar in Flushing, Queens, and another was shot in the leg. The accused shooter was arrested in Toronto in 2011 and extradited to the United States. After the 2004 shootings, the New York City Police Department started enforcing Chinatown bus rules more strictly.
  In 2008, the New York Post linked the "Banya Organization" gang with Chinatown buses. The gang allegedly inflicted brutal beatings to coerce private bus and van companies, who were not identified. In 2013, police confiscated 254 guns and arrested 19 people in the largest gun-smuggling ring in New York City's history; the suspects were accused of shipping guns from North Carolina and South Carolina to the Northern United States via Chinatown buses. For the most part, however, bus feud crime has largely subsided.
caption: A 2000 Coach bus in New York City
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A80", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2004:08:01 17:23:06", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2036", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5996", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:08:01 17:23:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:08:01 17:23:06", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "133/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "125/16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1704", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2272", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1704", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1844", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "56800/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "56800/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}