Lo Fu-chu

Its main rivals are "mainland" gangs: those with roots in the 1940s Kuomintang Exodus to Taiwan.

Lo Fu-chu (born 2 July 1943) is a former Taiwanese legislator and a self-described leader of the "Celestial Alliance" organized crime group.

By the early 1980s, Lo was a mid-level figure in the Taiwanese underworld.

Lo's brother was murdered by another figure in the Taiwanese mafia, but Lo was not senior enough to take revenge.

In 1984 Lo was detained for three years following Operation Clean Sweep, an effort by Taiwanese police to target organized criminal organizations and their members.

Including Lo, 2,346 alleged "gangsters" were arrested in Operation Clean Sweep.

Following his release, Lo joined, and became a leader of, a new criminal organization named the "Celestial Alliance", which was formed by a coalition of mob bosses who had been jailed together during Operation Clean Sweep.

Lo's leadership contributed to the growth of the Celestial Alliance, and it eventually became one of the three largest organized criminal organizations in Taiwan.

The Celestial Alliance has become involved in a wide variety of legal and illegal operations, including construction, entertainment, the hotel industry, waste disposal, real estate, extortion, illegal logging, cyber crime, human trafficking, arms and drug smuggling, loansharking, illegal gambling, and prostitution.

They later spread to mainland China, where they made investments in the hotel and entertainment industries in and around Beijing and Shanghai.

Some members have been elected to lower-level political positions, where they are often perceived as working more effectively and efficiently than their rivals.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s he was known as the most notorious person involved with organized crime then holding public office, and was reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in Taiwan.

In 1990 the Taiwanese government launched another initiative targeting organized crime, Operation Thunderbolt, and Lo was personally identified by Hau Pei-tsun, the Taiwanese premier, as the operation's chief target.

Lo evaded detention by fleeing Taiwan, and remained abroad until 1992.

While Lo was abroad, two of his sons were elected to public office: one, Lo Ming-tsai, was elected to Legislative Yuan as a Kuomintang representative, and the other was elected to the municipal assembly of Xindian.

Following his return to Taiwan, Lo became a successful entrepreneur and businessman.

His investment in the construction and real estate industries, and (allegedly) in illegal gambling operations led him to become one of the wealthiest men in Taiwan.

In order to establish a good relationship with the people of his hometown, Xindian, he organized a local charitable organization for the elderly and made several large public donations to the community.

In 1995, motivated partially because he believed it would assist him in avoiding criminal investigation, he ran for a seat in Taiwan's Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate, and won.

(In Taiwan, sitting legislators are immune from arrest or imprisonment unless a majority of their fellow legislators vote otherwise).

Lo was elected in 1995, and was re-elected in 1998.

Following his election to the legislature, Lo led a small bloc of 11 independent legislators, informally referred to as the "Non-Party Alliance".

Because neither of Taiwan's two major political parties (the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)) had clear majorities, Lo's bloc often held the deciding swing votes.

He quickly acquired a reputation as a mediator and arbitrator within the government.

In 1996 an independent legislator, Liao Hsueh-kung, publicly accused Lo of being a "gangster".

In 1998 Lo was appointed to the legislature's judicial committee.

Because of Lo's reputation as an organized crime boss, Taiwan's Justice Minister, Liao Cheng-hao, refused to attend the justice committee's meetings while he was a member.

He generally sided with the KMT on important issues, but sided with the DPP in 2000 in order to keep the DPP president, Chen Shui-bian, from being impeached.

Because of the good relationship that Lo developed with KMT legislators, he was appointed to both attend and chair numerous government committees, including transportation, construction, and several associated with business.

In 2000 Lo was appointed to be one of the three co-chairs of the judicial committee, but because of Lo's reputation his appointment was widely protested and criticized by the Taiwanese media, public, and judiciary.

In the 2000 presidential election the KMT vice-president, Lien Chan, attempted to utilize Lo's underworld connections in order to help him run for president.

Public anger against Lo's public support of Lien was one of the factors leading to the victory of Lien's rival, Chen Shui-bian.

During Lo's first term he gained a reputation for being "verbally and physically violent".

He was often at the center of several brawls that occasionally occurred within the Taiwanese legislature, once allegedly swinging an aluminum bar at his political rivals during a dispute.

He threatened legislators who opposed him, telling one rival: "One day, you may not know how you die."

He once insulted a DPP legislator for twenty minutes during a legislative session.

While in office he was described by other legislators as "verbally and physically violent", and he was arrested the same day that his second legislative term ended, in 2002.

After leaving office Lo fought and appealed many charges over the next decade, but was eventually convicted in 2012 for money laundering and insider trading and sentenced to four years in prison.

Following his conviction Lo was released on bail and subsequently disappeared.

Officials at the Taiwanese Criminal Investigation Bureau believe that he has probably fled to China, where he has investments in the hotel and entertainment industries.