Former Chinese Soldier Arrested for Attempted Murder Linked to “Mafia of the Hangers”
April 7, 2025, 1:15 PM PDT — A former Chinese soldier turned underworld operative was arrested Monday in Los Angeles on charges of attempted murder, with authorities alleging ties to a shadowy organized crime syndicate dubbed the “Mafia of the Hangers.” The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Liang Wei, a one-time People’s Liberation Army (PLA) commando, is accused of orchestrating a botched hit on a rival gang member in a sprawling Chinatown warehouse late Saturday, April 5—an incident that left two bystanders wounded and exposed a violent turf war over the city’s illicit garment trade.
The arrest, announced by the LAPD and FBI in a joint press conference, stems from a predawn raid on a San Gabriel Valley stash house where Wei and three accomplices were nabbed with a cache of weapons, including a modified QBZ-95 assault rifle—a PLA staple—and thousands of rounds of ammunition. LAPD Chief Michel Moore described Wei as a “highly trained enforcer” whose military background made him a prized asset for the “Mafia of the Hangers,” a Fujianese-rooted triad faction known for extorting textile businesses and laundering cash through clothing exports. “This isn’t just street crime—it’s a sophisticated network with global reach,” Moore said, noting the group’s alleged ties to China’s southern underworld.
A Shooting Sparks a Crackdown
The attempted murder charge traces back to Saturday’s chaos at a warehouse off East Cesar Chavez Avenue. Witnesses reported Wei, masked and wielding a silenced pistol, firing at a 29-year-old target—identified only as “Chen”—during a heated exchange over a $500,000 shipment of counterfeit designer jackets. Chen escaped with a grazed arm, but stray bullets struck a warehouse worker and a delivery driver, both now stable. Security footage, obtained by KTLA, captured Wei fleeing in a black SUV, later traced to a Monterey Park rental linked to the syndicate.
The “Mafia of the Hangers,” a moniker coined by investigators for its control of garment racketeering, has surged in prominence amid America’s illicit trade boom, from marijuana to knockoff goods. A 2024 ProPublica exposé tied such Fujianese groups to over $44 billion in illegal commerce, often with tacit nods from Chinese state players—an accusation Beijing denies. Wei’s arrest marks the latest blow to this network, following a March sting that nabbed 12 members in Oklahoma’s marijuana fields. “He’s no lone wolf—his PLA skills were honed for combat, not chaos,” said FBI agent Carla Nguyen, hinting at a broader probe into ex-military recruits in U.S. triads.
From Soldier to Syndicate
Wei’s journey from elite commando to alleged hitman reads like a crime novel. Born in Fujian, he joined the PLA in 2005, serving in a special forces unit until 2015, when he vanished from military records. Sources say he surfaced in Hong Kong’s underworld by 2017, smuggling arms for the 14K triad before crossing to the U.S. on a forged visa in 2020. Posts on X paint him as a “ghost soldier,” with one user noting, “Ex-PLA in the Mafia of the Hangers? That’s China’s shadow war on our streets.” His arrest dossier lists prior busts for extortion and weapons possession, though he evaded jail until now.
Saturday’s target, Chen, is believed to lead a splinter faction challenging the Hangers’ grip on L.A.’s garment rackets—a feud spilling blood as Trump’s tariffs jack up smuggling profits. “This is about control, not just cash,” Nguyen said, pointing to $2 million in seized textiles at the scene. Wei’s lawyer, speaking anonymously to Reuters, claims he’s a scapegoat in a gang war he didn’t ignite, but prosecutors say wiretaps and a bloody glove with his DNA tell a different story.
Global Stakes, Local Fallout
As Wei awaits arraignment, the case reverberates beyond L.A. China’s embassy called the triad link “baseless slander,” while Trump, golfing in Florida, seized on it via Truth Social: “Biden let these Chinese killers flood in—time to deport them ALL!” With markets tanking over his tariff rollout—a $5 trillion S&P 500 hit—the arrest fuels his narrative of foreign threats. Locally, Chinatown merchants fear retaliation, with one telling LA Times, “We pay protection or we pay in blood.”
For now, Wei sits in federal custody, facing life if convicted. His arrest peels back the curtain on a nexus of military precision and mafia muscle—one that’s thriving in the chaos of 2025’s trade wars. As one X post quipped, “From PLA to L.A., the Hangers just lost their sharpest blade.” The question lingers: how many more like him are out there?
