Triads

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

The Triads are the Chinese organised crime groups that recur across Grand Theft Auto. GTA Wiki traces a Triad-style syndicate back to Uncle Fu's gang in the 1997 original, and full Triad gangs appear in GTA III, Liberty City Stories, San Andreas, Chinatown Wars and GTA V. Each universe has its own version with its own leaders.

Who are the Triads in GTA?

In real life, Triads are Chinese secret societies tied to organised crime. Rockstar has used the name for gangs in almost every era of Grand Theft Auto, but they are not one continuous group. GTA Wiki splits them by universe: the 2D games, the 3D games that began with GTA III, and the HD games that began with GTA IV. Characters and history do not carry over between those universes.

The earliest entry GTA Wiki lists under the Triads is Uncle Fu's Crime Syndicate from the original Grand Theft Auto. Wikipedia describes Uncle Fu as the head of a Chinese gang in the city of San Andreas, locked in a feud with El Burro's Latino gang. The game itself does not use the word Triad, so the label is a fan grouping.

What do the Triads do in GTA III?

The 3D-era Liberty City Triads hold Chinatown and Callahan Point in Portland, according to GTA Wiki, and run two fish factories as fronts. They drive the Triad Fish Van and carry bats, pistols and Uzis. In GTA III (released 23 October 2001 on PS2 in North America, per Wikipedia), they are the first big enemy Claude faces while working for the Leone family. Wikipedia sums up that stretch of the story as Claude helping the Leones win a gang war against the local Triads.

GTA Wiki lists the missions involved, from Farewell 'Chunky' Lee Chong to Triads and Tribulations, where three Triad warlords are killed, and Blow Fish, where a Leone truck bomb destroys the Callahan Point fish factory. The wiki notes the gang is weakened but probably not wiped out.

Were the Triads in Liberty City Stories and Advance?

Yes. Liberty City Stories, set in 1998, shows the same gang three years earlier. Wikipedia says Salvatore Leone's warehouse is ambushed and destroyed by the Triads. GTA Wiki adds that Toni Cipriani kills the gang's unnamed leader in Big Rumble in Little China, and that the Triads moved on the Leones in Chinatown once the Sindaccos were pushed out of Portland. In Grand Theft Auto Advance, set in 2000, GTA Wiki says they wear light blue tracksuits and drive a van called the Mr. Wongs.

Who are the Mountain Cloud Boys and the Red Gecko Tong?

They are the Triads of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released on PS2 in North America on 26 October 2004 and set in 1992. GTA Wiki describes three groups. The Mountain Cloud Boys are the street gang you meet in San Fierro's Chinatown, led by the blind Wu Zi Mu. The Blood Feather Triad is a second faction that the Da Nang Boys massacre during the story. The Red Gecko Tong is not a street gang at all but the council the others answer to, headed by the Mountain Master Ran Fa Li.

Wikipedia's plot summary says Carl Johnson meets Wu Zi Mu while exiled in the countryside, later works with Cesar Vialpando and the Triads to destroy the Loco Syndicate's drug factory, and becomes co-owner of a Las Venturas casino with Wu Zi Mu and Ran Fa Li. Pressure from the Mafia-run Caligula's Palace next door leads CJ and Woozie to rob it. GTA Wiki says the Triads' own casino is the Four Dragons, and that they drive Elegys, Stratums and Sultans.

What role do the Triads play in Chinatown Wars?

The HD-era Liberty City Triads are the heart of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which launched on the Nintendo DS in North America on 17 March 2009. Wikipedia calls Hsin Jaoming the elderly head of the syndicate. Huang Lee arrives to give the family sword to his uncle Kenny, and the plot turns on who will succeed Hsin. Our Huang Lee page covers the story and ending in full.

GTA Wiki splits this organisation into the Jaoming, Lee and Ming families, and places its turf in Chinatown and parts of Algonquin and Dukes. The same gang turns up in a smaller way in GTA IV, mostly through heroin shipments, and in its two episodes.

Who are the Triads in GTA V?

Grand Theft Auto V, released on 17 September 2013, has the Los Santos Triads under the kingpin Wei Cheng. According to GTA Wiki, Wei had planned to partner with Trevor Philips in Blaine County before choosing the O'Neil brothers instead. The Triads later capture Michael De Santa at a slaughterhouse, and Franklin Clinton rescues him. Wikipedia says that in the ending where nobody is betrayed, Cheng is one of the targets the three men kill.

In GTA Online, the Triads link to the Cheng family, whose members bring the player into the Diamond Casino Heist storyline, according to GTA Wiki.