The Snakehead

by Patrick Radden Keefe

  284 Stuchiner pleaded guilty: He was sentenced to forty months in prison, but because of a technical error in the prosecution’s original charges against him, he was resentenced. See “Ex-Official Resentenced in U.S. Passport Case,” Washington Post, May 20, 1997; Patricia Young, “Man Jailed for Wrong Crime,” South China Morning Post, April 18, 1997.

  284 But as the July 1, 1997, deadline: Larmer and Melinda, “Smuggling People.”

  285 The gambit succeeded: William Branigin, “Hong Kong Set to Free Jailed Former INS Agent,” Washington Post, June 13, 1997.

  285 For reasons that were never explained: Confidential interview with a current ICE official.

  285 Some speculated: Larmer and Liu, “Smuggling People.”

  285 Others wondered if the Golden Venture: Confidential interview with a current ICE official.

  286 “The only person”: Confidential interview with a former INS agent.

  CHAPTER 17: CATCHING LILLY ZHANG

  This chapter is based chiefly on interviews with law enforcement officials who were involved in the handling of Ah Kay during his long cooperation or in the capture of Sister Ping, or both. In describing Ah Kay’s cooperation I relied on letters written by federal prosecutors before each of his two sentencing hearings, which spell out in detail the help he offered in over a dozen cases. (I was surprised to find that these letters had been quietly unsealed and were sitting unnoticed in his case file at the courthouse.) The transcripts and other court documents in Ah Kay’s case, and in Cheung Yick Tak’s, were also helpful, as was the testimony during Sister Ping’s trial of Detective Sze-To Yuk Yee, the arresting officer from the Hong Kong police.

  287 Ah Kay gazed directly: Footage from CBS Evening News (New York), April 13, 1994.

  287 By agreeing to cooperate: Ah Kay testimony, Sister Ping trial.

  287 Because the gang leader: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

  288 “I’m benching three hundred”: Interview with Tom Trautman, May 3, 2007.

  288 Like the Fat Man before him: Interview with Luke Rettler, December 8, 2005.

  288 When Mr. Charlie was captured: Interview with Jodi Avergun, May 24, 2007.

  288 Ah Kay admitted that he: Letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Chauncey Parker to Hon. Judge John S. Martin, Jr., re: United States v. Kwok Ling Kay, July 27, 1998.

  288 When Dan Xin Lin and the other: Interview with William J. Murray, April 19, 2007.

  288 Nor did Ah Kay merely assist: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005; interview with Luke Rettler, December 8, 2005; interview with Chauncey Parker, May 29, 2007.

  289 So extensive was this proactive: Sentencing hearing in United States v. Kwok Ling Kay, 93 Cr. 783 (JSM), December 4, 1998.

  289 “The one thing about Ah Kay”: Interview with Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

  289 Over the years, Ah Kay assisted: Letter from Parker to Martin, re: United States v. Kwok Ling Kay.

  289 The result was the criminal equivalent: Interview with Chauncey Parker, May 29, 2007.

  289 Before long, Luke Rettler joked: Interview with Luke Rettler, July 26, 2007.

  289 Upon his return to the United States: Judgment in a criminal case, U.S. v. Kwok Ling Kay, 93 CR 783, December 18, 1998. The specific charges to which Ah Kay pleaded guilty were participation in racketeering activity, murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to murder.

  290 Finally one day in 1998: Sentencing hearing in United States v. Kwok Ling Kay, December 4, 1998.

  290 The federal prosecutor Chauncey Parker: Letter from Parker to Martin, re: United States v. Kwok Ling Kay.

  290 Neither Ah Kay nor Shargel: Joseph P. Fried, “Ex-Underboss Given Lenient Term for Help as Witness,” New York Times, September 27, 1994; Selwyn Raab, “Singing for Your Sentence: How Will It Pay Off?” New York Times, September 26, 1994.

  290 “In these five years”: Sentencing hearing in United States v. Kwok Ling Kay, December 17, 1998.

  290 But the judge, John Martin: Ibid.

  291 The first thing Ah Kay did: Interview with Gerald Shargel, July 14, 2008.

  291 But after his sentencing: Letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Brown to Judge Michael B. Mukasey, re: United States v. Qui Liang Qi, aka “Ah Kay,” S3 93 CR. 783, August 2, 2005.

  291 Ah Kay had volunteered: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 19, 2007.

  291 “That’s what he was waiting for”: Confidential interview.

  291 During the years: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005; interview with FBI Special Agent Carlos Koo, who also worked on the Sister Ping case during the 1990s, July 2, 2008.

  292 Eventually Motyka and McMurry: Ibid.

  292 Occasionally Motyka and McMurry would know: Interview with Carlos Koo, July 2, 2008.

  292 On one occasion the FBI: Confidential interview.

  293 The FBI requested: Interview with Wayne Walsh, Hong Kong Department of Justice, February 19, 2007; confidential interview.

  293 Because she had a range: INS, “Passenger Activity Report (Official Use Only),” Zhang, L., December 10, 2004.

  293 Indeed, it was rumored: Interview with Carlos Koo, July 2, 2008.

  293 Yick Tak did not like: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, January 10, 2009.

  293 The original criminal complaint: Sealed complaint, United States of America v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” Cheng Yick Tak, Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, December 16, 1994.

  294 According to the FBI: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 19, 2007.

  294 Bill McMurry and another agent: Interview with Carlos Koo, July 2, 2008.

  294 “Since 1993, I have been working”: United States v. Yick Tak Cheng, 98 CR. 38, sentencing hearing before Judge Deborah Batts, July 14, 2003.

  294 His lawyer said the same: Ibid.

  294.On January 16, 1998: All events and dates relating to Yick Tak’s subsequent legal history are drawn from the docket in USA v. Cheng, 1:98 CR 38 DAB, before Judge Deborah Betts in the Southern District of New York.

  295.According to one prosecutor: Confidential interview.

  295 But the biggest mystery: Confidential interview with a current official at ICE.

  295 Either Yick Tak: One former INS official who spoke to me on the record and floated the suggestion that bribery could have been involved was James Goldman. Two other officials who would not speak for attribution because they currently work for ICE independently offered the same possible explanation.

  295 When he was finally sentenced: United States v. Yick Tak Cheng, 98 CR. 38, sentencing hearing before Judge Deborah Batts, July 14, 2003.

  295 But along with both: I spent several fruitless months appealing to prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in both Buffalo and New York City to find some record of the cooperation that Yick Tak provided to law enforcement over the years and some explanation of how he managed to evade any substantial punishment for his crimes. When a sentence is reduced on the basis of cooperation, prosecutors generally write a letter to the judge detailing that cooperation. There is some dispute over whether these letters should be made available to the public, and even if a presumption in favor of making them available is adopted, it still depends on the discretion of the judge in each particular case. Criminal defendants might be less inclined to cooperate with law enforcement if they think that a prosecutor will be describing their every betrayal of their former criminal associates in a letter that will soon be available to anyone who goes to the courthouse to look it up. But it does seem slightly odd that two letters describing Ah Kay’s extensive cooperation have been unsealed and now sit in his case file at 500 Pearl Street in downtown Manhattan for the perusal of the general public, but no one familiar with the precise details of Yick Tak’s cooperation is willing to release them.

  295 Bill McMurry and Konrad Motyka: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 19, 200
7.

  296 Once McMurry and Motyka: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005.

  296 One day in early 2000: Confidential interview with a former INS agent.

  297 On April 11, 2000: Unless otherwise indicated, the account of Sister Ping’s arrest at the airport in Hong Kong is drawn from testimony of Detective Sze-To Yuk Yee of the Hong Kong police, in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Sze-To Yuk Yee testimony, Sister Ping trial).

  298 But it appeared: Bill McMurry testimony, Sister Ping trial. The passport-stamp description is drawn from my own examination of a photocopy of the pages of the passport, provided to me by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York.

  298 In three months: Closing arguments of Leslie Brown, Sister Ping trial.

  298 Belize has a program: Anne Sutherland, The Making of Belize: Globalization in the Margins (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1998), p. 27.

  298 When the agents contacted: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

  298 But perhaps the most interesting thing: Bill McMurry testimony, Sister Ping trial. Also I saw a photocopy of the book, along with a translated copy, which was used as an exhibit at trial and provided to me by the U.S. attorneys office.

  299 “The arrest of Cheng Chui Ping”: Press release by U.S. Consul General Michael Klosson, April 21, 2000.

  CHAPTER 18: THE MOTHER OF ALL SNAKEHEADS

  The trial transcripts from Sister Ping’s case form the basis of this chapter, along with my notes from the sentencing hearing and various other court documents. The details regarding Sister Ping’s extradition battle are drawn from court documents obtained in Hong Kong and from an interview with Wayne Walsh of the Hong Kong Department of Justice, who represented the government in the proceedings.

  301 For Bill McMurry: Interview with Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005.

  301 After her arrest in April 2000: “Hong Kong: Prison Conditions in 1997,” Section VII, “Special Categories of Prisoners,” Human Rights Watch, 1997; interview with Wayne Walsh, Hong Kong Department of Justice, February 19, 2007.

  301 When a Hong Kong court: Interview with Wayne Walsh, February 19, 2007; Cheng Chui Ping and Superintendent of Tai Lam Centre for Women & Another, Decision by the Court of First Instance (Hong Kong), Constitutional and Administrative Law List, No. 1985 or 2000, 26–27 September 2000.

  302 She sued the government: Hong Kong Department of Justice time line, “Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping,’” undated document supplied by Wayne Walsh; Mo Pui Yee, “Big Sister Ping’ in Last-Ditch Court Bid,” South China Morning Post, September 27, 2000.

  302 Amid the flurry: James Harder, “Mother of All Snakeheads,” Insight on the News, February 5, 2001.

  302 In December 2002, Sister Ping: Sara Bradford, “Extradition Blow for Big Sister Ping,” South China Morning Post, December 13, 2002.

  302 “In the execution of law”: Ibid.

  302 Sister Ping told the court: Ibid.

  302 The appeal was unsuccessful: Peter Michael and Sara Bradford, “Big Sister’ Ping to Be Extradited,” South China Morning Post, June 12, 2003.

  302 A young FBI agent: Unless otherwise indicated, details of Special Agent Becky Chan’s experience escorting Sister Ping from Hong Kong to the United States are drawn from an interview with Becky Chan, January 3, 2006.

  303 When they arrived at Newark: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

  303 Before her capture in 2000: Ibid.

  303 There were five counts: See United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” aka “Ping Jai,” 94 Crim. 953, superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York, June 6, 2000. Two additional counts that had been in the indictment were dropped because the Hong Kong Department of Justice deemed them “non-extraditable” offenses.

  304 “Hostage-taking and alien smuggling”: Closing arguments of Leslie Brown, Sister Ping trial.

  304 “Cheng Chui Ping had nothing”: Closing arguments of Larry Hochheiser in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Closing arguments of Larry Hochheiser, Sister Ping trial).

  304 “It wasn’t Cheng Chui Ping”: Opening arguments of Larry Hochheiser in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Opening arguments of Larry Hochheiser, Sister Ping trial).

  305 Mukasey had heard cases: See Dong v. Slattery, 870 F. Supp. 53 (S.D.N.Y. 1994).

  305 “This is a case”: Opening argument of David Burns in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Opening argument of David Burns, Sister Ping trial).

  305 “She said that she had bad feelings”: Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.

  305 Various former underlings: Testimony of Cho Yee Yeung and Li Xing Hua, Sister Ping trial.

  305 Larry Hay, the undercover: Larry Hay testimony, Sister Ping trial.

  305 Kenny Feng, the Taiwanese: Kenny Feng testimony, Sister Ping trial.

  305 A Fujianese woman: Testimony of Li Hui Mui in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953.

  306 When he strode: Interview with Konrad Motyka, December 15, 2005.

  306.For three days he testified: Ah Kay testimony, Sister Ping trial.

  307.Hochheiser hammered at the credibility: Opening argument of Larry Hochheiser, Sister Ping trial.

  307 “Make no mistake”: Opening argument of David Burns, Sister Ping trial.

  307 Prior to Sister Ping’s trial: See Harder, “Mother of All Snakeheads;” and Chuck Bennett, “Sister Ping Ventures Back Home,” New York Daily News, June 30, 2003.

  307 After pleading guilty: Sister Ping returned on July 1: United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, “Queen Snakehead’ Sister Ping Is Extradited from Hong Kong to New York to Face Alien Smuggling and Hostage Taking Charges,” press release, July 1, 2003. The events and dates relating to Yick Tak are drawn from the docket in USA v. Cheng, 1:98 CR 38 DAB, before Judge Deborah Batts in the Southern District of New York.

  308 In Bill McMurry’s view: Interview with Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005.

  308 “Sister Ping sat atop”: Closing arguments of Leslie Brown, Sister Ping trial.

  308 In his closing arguments: Closing arguments of Larry Hochheiser, Sister Ping trial.

  309 It could not have helped: Kareem Fahim, “New Jersey Man Shot to Death in a Restaurant in Chinatown,” New York Times, June 16, 2005.

  309 Hochheiser was especially troubled: Trial transcript, Sister Ping trial.

  309 Copies of the city’s: Interview with Chan Ching Chuen, president, Fukienese American Association, January 21, 2006.

  309 There was a great upswell: Zhang Huiyu, “Sister Ping: Living Buddha of Shengmei Village,” World Journal, May 23, 2005.

  309 Ninety percent of the villagers: Zhang Huiyu, “Sister Ping on Trial, Villagers Voice Support,” World Journal, May 22, 2005.

  309 “My sister was just thinking”: Barnes, “Two-Faced Woman.”

  309.Chinatown residents made frequent: Ibid.

  310.After spending so many years: Interview with Konrad Motyka, December 15, 2005.

  310 “There are people”: Interview with Konrad Motyka, October 31, 2005.

  310 For Justin Yu: Interview with Justin Yu, now president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, January 4, 2006.

  311 Throughout the trial: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

  311 The press took little notice: For a discussion of the legal case and the degree to which the atomized, fluid structure of cross-border criminal organizations like Sister Ping’s present challenges for federal prosecutors, see Andrew J. Sein, “The Prosecution of Organized Crime Groups: The Sister Ping Case and Its Lessons,” Trends in Organized Crime 11, no. 2 (2008).

  313 Yet in 2004 one of the men: Interview with Beverly Church, December 11, 2005.

  313 “They’re picking t
hem off”: Ibid.

  313 So at the beginning: See for instance H.R. 975, A Bill for the Relief of Certain Aliens Who Were Aboard the Golden Venture, 110th Congress, First Session, February 8, 2007.

  313.“They paid the penalty”: Caryl Clarke, “Ten Years Later: The Ship That Altered Lives,” York Daily Record, February 25, 2007.

  314.“You should see it”: Interview with Craig Trebilcock, October 5, 2005.

  314 In the spring of 2006: The film is titled Golden Venture and features inter views with several of the passengers. Information on the film is available at www.goldenventuremovie.com. I attended the event; quotes and descriptions are from my notes.

  314 “When we saw”: Authors notes from the event, April 26, 2006.

  314 “We almost died”: Ibid.

  314 He had come from Philadelphia: Interviews with Sean Chen, February 6, 2008, and June 5, 2008.

  315 After perfunctory statements: All quotes from Judge Mukasey and Sister Ping are drawn from the March 16, 2006, sentencing hearing, Sister Ping trial.

  319 “The potential if she had cooperated”: Interview with Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005.

  319 Prosecutorial calculus: Closing statement of Leslie Brown, Sister Ping trial.

  319 “I’ll be candid with you”: Sentencing hearing in United States v. Guo Liang Qi, 93 CR 78, September 29, 2005.

  320 “He’s serving pizzas in Idaho”: Interview with Konrad Motyka, December 15, 2005.

  321 Bill McMurry was thrilled: Interview with Bill McMurry, October 19, 2007.

  EPILOGUE

  323.After President George W. Bush: For biographical background on Gary Locke, see Gary Locke, “The One Hundred Year Journey,” in Don T. Nakanishi and James S. Lai, eds., Asian American Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), pp. 359–60. For the 2003 speech, see Carl Hulse and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Democrats Say the Nation Heads in ‘Wrong Direction,’” New York Times, January 29, 2003; Chang, The Chinese in America, p. 389.

  324.Migration scholars and refugee advocates: According to figures maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, an estimated 11.8 million “unauthorized immigrants” were living in the United States in January 2007. See Michal Hoffer, Nancy Rytina, and Bryan C. Baker, “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2007,” Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security, September 2008.