Salakau

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Salakau, which literally means '369' in Hokkien, also known as "Sah Lak Kau", is a street gang or secret society based in Singapore. The numbers 3, 6 and 9 add up to 18, which was the name of an older gang; the number signified the 18 lohans (principal disciples) of Shaolin.^[1]

In the late 1980s and early 1970s, the gang furiously attacked rival gangs and started many turf wars. It also started recruiting many members from the Indian & Malay community after relaxing the Chinese-only rule. In the 1970s, more Malays were reported to be joining it after being introduced to gang members during tea dances in discos. This was because Malay gangs were smaller and more loosely structured due to the drastic drop of the Malay population and increase of the Chinese population.^[2].

369 also made profits from narcotics, extortions and prostitution. Attacks on rival gangs such as the '303' gang (Sakongsa in Hokkien), the Omega gang and the 18 SYH gang were somewhat of a routine occurrence. The police cracked down on gang activity in the early 1980s and gang wars came to a screeching halt as many of the leaders were jailed. Many other notorious 'headmen' fled to neighbouring countries or were killed in gang attacks.^{[citation needed]} In the mid-90s, some teenagers in "pseudo street gangs" claimed affiliation to 369 to be "cool" but didn't engage in activities as violent as those engaged in by the real gang^[3]; in 1993, there were at least 9 separate teenage gangs calling themselves '369'^[4].

• Secret societies in Singapore