Smurfberries

A red hatchback pulled up in front of Raymond’s house. A young lady got out. This wasn’t her— or him. Raymond had been staring out the window for half an hour now. He knew his appointment was going to show up around 5:00 PM. Raymond set the deal up over Telegram. He saw a call on Craig’s List and needed money quickly. His rent was overdue and he was gonna need to buy a new car after last month’s accident.

Suddenly there was knocking on a door. He didn’t see anybody pull up? A young man a few years older than him with a five o’clock shadow and a capuchon pulled over his head was standing in the doorway. He carried a guitar on his back. “Ray?”

The guy called Tim opened the guitar casket on the table. There was surely about $120,000 in it— cash. He gave a white envelope to Raymond. Tim left immediately. There were multiple bank cards in the envelope. Raymond had already received the PINs on telegram from the guy that set it up. Names like “F. H. M. Ling”, “T. J. Arroyo” or “O. Oleastro”. “Deposits around $1.200 every week. But not larger than $1.500.”

Raymond made his first deposit at an ATM in the mall in Riverside. He wore a face mask and had a hat on his head. He’d receive .txt files via Telegram on a weekly basis with digits (representing the last digits of the account numbers), amounts, and ATM locations. He made hundreds of more deposits over the next weeks and months.

Every month he received a deposit, from an American insurance company. This was the easiest way Raymond ever made money. And over the years, nobody ever asked questions. Not the IRA.

What a time to be alive.

Super Wok Explosion is a unique animated web-series about Chinese organized crime. The project is funded entirely by its audience. On this website, animator Tony Cheuk likes to share information about Asian organized crime—and world-building of the universe of the series, Chinese tongs and triads. If you're interested in learning more about the project, you can click here.