Hundreds of police were assigned to the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where Chen’s body was flown in on a chartered flight around noon.

Hundreds of male and female gang members clad in black escorted the body of the legendary underworld chief to his make-shift shrine adjacent to the Geant store in suburban Dazhi of Taipei.

Police in uniform and plainclothes were seen along the roads and streets leading to the shrine to monitor the activities.

There were also police posted at the shrine, which was adorned with a large photo of Chen, while his family bowed and thanked people who trooped there to offer condolences.

Chen is survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters.

In addition the staff of the fire prevention equipment company set up by Chen, Buddhist priests were on hand to perform religious rites.

Under the coordination of the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the National Police Agency, police branches in Taipei City, Taipei County, and adjacent Taoyuan County have stepped up surveillance of gang activities in their districts.

The formal memorial service for Chen — dubbed the “gang funeral of the century” by local media — early next month is expected to draw several thousand mourners from numerous organizations in both Taiwan and neighboring nations.

CIB officers have warned gang leaders against their mobilizing members for the event, collaborating with each other for escalated and tumultuous group movements, wearing identical clothes or signs, or taking actions conceived as exalting gang activities.

Kao Cheng-shen, deputy CIB chief, said all these will send a wrong message to teenagers who might be misguided and wrongfully take gang chieftains as heroes.

He said the CIB and all police departments are determined to maintain public security and crack down on anyone who might use the occasion to cause and stir up a commotion.

President Chen Shui-bian has criticised the local media, especially the cable TV news channels, for extensive coverage of the whole event.

“The media should not mislead adults and children into believing that ... Chen Chi-li, a gang boss, is a hero. This is bad education,” he said.

Chen Chi-li, who turned the Bamboo Union into one of Taiwan’s largest gangs, had been a highly controversial figure.

Chen was wanted in Taiwan for organized crime. He had been living in self-imposed exile in Cambodia since 1996. He was hospitalized in August in Hong Kong after his health worsened.

He was known for his involvement in the October 1984 shooting death of an alleged “triple intelligence agent” in the United States.

Details still remain murky, although unconfirmed reports form sources alleged that Chen and an accomplice were assigned to the U.S. punish the agent, who had received military training in Taiwan before emigrating to the U.S.

The agent was categorized by some as a traitor for writing a book criticizing the Taiwan government and then President Chiang Ching-kuo, but at the same time passing sensitive information to Beijing and Washington.

Chen was nabbed in Taiwan one month after the killing during a crackdown on organized crime. He said at trial that the murder was ordered by a Taiwan military intelligence agency chief for “patriotic” reasons.

The chief and another intelligence officer were jailed for recruiting Chen for the job.

Chen himself was sentenced to life in prison but released on parole in 1991 after a pardon. He later fled to Cambodia during another government crackdown on organized crime.

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