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CANBERRA - Pacific Island and white youths are being recruited by Asian crime gangs responsible for a series of violent crimes in Sydney.
Police have told the Daily Telegraph the Chinese Yee Tong and Sing Wah gangs are moving outside the Asian community to entice Islanders to join criminal societies whose members regard each other as "family".
The gangs use samurai swords, machetes and knives.
The Telegraph said that in July Yee Tong gang members scalped a man in the Sydney suburb of Auburn. He also lost half of one hand in an attack police described as attempted murder.
The gangs have also been accused of a kidnapping in April, a shooting in Auburn last year, and a murder and a stabbing at World Square in the centre of Sydney.
In the past 18 months, 36 suspected gang members had been arrested on charges including inflicting grievous bodily harm, drug and knife offences and perverting the course of justice, the newspaper reported.
Police said they had tracked youths of Pacific Island and European descent in gangs that had previously been exclusively Asian. Members had previously been drawn mainly from Fujian province in southern China.
But leaders entering Australia from China using student visas are now expanding operations, and gang members have been recruiting friends among Pacific Island and white school students.
Police told the Telegraph that recruiting was now following social rather than ethnic lines.
Yee Tong has also organised recruiting meetings between Australian-born Chinese gang members and international Chinese students entering Australia on student visas.
Meanwhile, records obtained by the Telegraph under freedom of information laws reveal the New South Wales Ambulance Service has blacklisted at least 350 homes and streets because of the danger of violence to its officers. Ambulances will not venture in the no-go areas without police protection.
The bans apply to areas in Sydney, Newcastle, Raymond Tce north of Sydney, the regional centre of Wagga Wagga, and Inverell and Glenn Innes in the north of the state.
Incidents reported in the affected areas included threats of shooting.
The number of assaults against ambulance officers rose from 85 two years ago to more than 100 in 2007-08, with crews seriously threatened and injured attending emergency calls. The Telegraph said officers were being spat on, punched, and threatened with knives and other weapons.
