Peg Leg Leung

Lei · June 24, 2022

Guy "Peg Leg" Leung

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guy Kam-yuk Leung (Chinese: 梁金毓; born December 8th 1984), known as "Peg Leg Leung" is a prominent criminal figure within Little Seoul’s Chinese underworld with ties to the now defunct Golden Tiger Gang. Leung is believed to have once been the acting liaison between the Hip Sing Association (Tong) and Chinese street gangs during the late 2000s.

Leung sustained a gunshot wound to his leg in the early hours of the morning on April 8th 2004 by a close friend. The two were heavily intoxicated, under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. Leung’s friend accidentally discharged his Glock 19 handgun and the bullet struck a major artery in Leung’s left leg, resulting in a permanent limp. Leung dubbed the moniker “Peg Leg Leung” thereafter.

Childhood and early life

Leung was born in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district and raised by April Chu. Leung’s father is unknown, having only been present for the first year of Leung’s life until his disappearance. Chu worked the red-light district part of Wan Chai’s district as a stripper. After Leung’s father disappeared, members of Chu’s family, who had settled down in Los Santos’ Little Seoul during the immigration wave of the 1970s, provided financial aid so that Chu and Leung could relocate to the United States.

Leung was raised in Little Seoul’s Palomino Avenue above the popular restaurant chain The Peking Duck by April Chu and his grandparents. Leung was institutionalized and struggled to adapt during his transition from Hong Kong to the United States, often mocked by his peers at school for his accent. Leung sought acceptance and friendships with the local street gangs who often acquainted the Peking Duck.

Nicky Luk

April Chu began dating one of Little Seoul’s most notorious criminal figureheads, Nicky Luk.

Luk was a notable figure in Little Seoul’s underworld that, at the time, was predominantly Hispanic and Korean heavy in regards to racket control between the 1980s and late 1990s. Luk pioneered a “taxing ring” made up of exclusively local Chinese thieves that would rob from the local Korean drug dealers and then sell to the Big Circle Gang, a triad cell operating largely out of Canada. The uproar within Little Seoul created by Luk to defend his Chinese counterparts from the growing Korean influence was gaining reputation.

Assassination attempt

In 1997, August 3rd at approximately 11:30PM, an assassination attempt on Nicky Luk was conducted where two gunmen discharged at Nicky’s vehicle. April Chu and Guy Leung were present in the vehicle also, with Leung seated in the back; Leung was 13 years old at the time. Luk was able to drive away whilst the gunfire rained upon the vehicle, however Luk was struck in the neck and once in the chest whilst April suffered gunshot wounds to her shoulder and leg. Luk raced the two of them to the hospital and both were immediately treated. Chu miraculously recovered, however Luk suffered from a crushed larynx which meant he was bound to an electrolarynx - a medical device about the size of a small electric razor used to produce clearer speech by those people who have lost their voice box.

Criminal Activity

Leung began associating with the Chinese youth that loitered up and down Palomino Avenue, which at the time was Golden Tiger Gang territory. Leung expressed to his gang affiliated peers that he was being taunted in school by his classmates. One of the gang members gave Leung a pair of brass knuckles, encouraging Leung to take violent action upon those who were mocking him, and claim allegiance to the Golden Tiger Gang. A couple days later, Leung was expelled for carrying a weapon and assault.

1997-2000 Little Seoul gang conflict & incarceration

Leung vowed for revenge after the attempted assassination. Despite the fact that the shooter behind the assassination attempt was never revealed, members of the Golden Tiger Gang that Leung pledged allegiance to, felt it was safe to assume that it was tied to members of the Korean gangs. Days later, one of the bloodiest “race wars” Little Seoul had witnessed ensued between the Chinese and Korean gangs. With his mother recovering and Luk’s impending incarceration, Leung was free to coordinate with his Golden Tiger Gang peers on a series of brawls and shootings. Affiliates of the Golden Tiger Gang dubbed Leung “Baby Luk” during his tenure as a member, honoring Nicky Luk.

Two years later, Leung was charged with 26 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem and illegal possession of a firearm. Leung beat Michael Jeong with a Colt Model 2000 and left him blind in one eye after repeatedly hitting him with the handgun. Leung was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to serve four years in prison at 16 years old. He was released in 2002.

Hip Sing Association

After his release, Leung began working as a bartender at a popular nightclub in Little Seoul’s Ginger St. run by Hip Sing Association enforcer, Vincent Chung. Chung, aware of Leung’s capability given his involvement in the war, took Leung underneath his wing to help propel his criminal enterprises. At this time, criminally influenced Tongs were not as prominent as they once were in the 1980s, however the Hip Sing Association began to delve into criminality once again after a lengthy hiatus. Chung, posing as the liaison between the Hip Sing Association and Chinese street thugs, was working on orders given by the Hip Sing’s elders. Using remnants of the now defunct Chinese street gangs, Chung was able to impose influence upon the drug market within Little Seoul, primarily ketamine and ecstasy; party drugs.

Leung quickly rose to criminal stardom in the eyes of the illicit branch within the Hip Sing Association. This caught the attention of Stanley Lau, Hip Sing treasurer and Big Circle Gang triad affiliate, in particular; Lau began schooling Leung personally in white collar crime, such as medicare fraud.

In 2006, the FBI began investigating the Hip Sing Association. Over the next two years, several members of the tong were arrested and incarcerated for racketeering charges. Leung was later sentenced to five years imprisonment, charged with one count of robbery of the first degree with a deadly weapon. This ultimately led to the decline of the Hip Sing Association’s criminal branch.

Leung was released in 2011.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Lei