Almost all Vietnamese grocers whose shops have recently sprung up across the Czech Republic must pay protection fees to Vietnamese mobsters, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes today, referring to the annual report of the Office for Uncovering Organised Crime (UOOZ).
The shop owners regularly pay a part of their profits to the organised gangs, LN writes.
In the past year, a group of "soldiers" dubbed Bo Doi gained strength in the Vietnamese community, LN writes.
There is the rule among the Vietnamese that those with stronger soldiers have a stronger position within the ethnic minority, it adds.
"It is a sort of executive unit of heads of the Vietnamese mob, with a focus on violence," UOOZ head Robert Slachta told the paper.
"These are those who go to the ordinary Vietnamese and collect the protection fees," Slachta said.
Slachta said their methods were tough. They include kidnapping and death threats.
The police admit that it is all but impossible to resolve the cases, LN writes.
The Vietnamese community is more secluded than any other in the Czech Republic, LN writes.
"It is very difficult, one can hardly work with its members. It is a kind of parallel world living in its own right," an expert in international organised crime is quoted as saying.
The police do not know the exact sums the owners of the groceries and cosmetic parlours pay to the blackmailers. However, experts estimate that they may reach up to 40 percent of the profit, LN writes.
However, racketeering is not a problem only within the Vietnamese community as other gangs exact protection fees also from some Czech businesspeople, it adds.
Organised groups single out owners of discos or nightclubs, offering "protection" to them, LN writes.
The "protection" relates not only to the customers who fail to pay, but also to the competition, it adds.
Some of the owners accept the deal voluntarily, while others are forced to do so by the blackmailers, LN writes.
At the beginning, the fees are bearable, but the gang continually steps up its pressure. It may happen that the owners eventually do not have any money and the blackmailers force them to give up their firm, it ads.
"This is a new trend. The owner is forced to transfer the firm to the people dictated to him/her by the blackmailers," Slachta said.
