The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream

TO JUSTYNA

In at least some parts of nineteenth-century Norway, people called those who intended to emigrate “Americans” even before they left
.

—ROGER DANIELS,
Coming to America:
A History of Immigration and
Ethnicity in American Life

Contents

 
Dramatis Personae

 
Map of Chinatown

 1  
Pilgrims

 2  
Leaving Fujian

 3  
Eighteen-Thousand-Dollar Woman

 4  
Dai Lo of the Fuk Ching

 5  
Swiftwater

 6  
Year of the Snake

 7  
Mombasa

 8  
The Phantom Ship

 9  
The Teaneck Massacre

10  
Mutiny in the Atlantic

11  
A Well-founded Fear

12  
The Fat Man

13  
Freedom Birds

14  
The Goldfish and the Great Wall

15  
Parole

16  
Snakeheads International

17  
Catching Lilly Zhang

18  
The Mother of All Snakeheads

 
Epilogue

 
Acknowledgments

 
A Note on Sources

 
Notes

Dramatis Personae

GIVEN THE historical and geographical sweep of this story, there are, of necessity, many characters. Because
The Snakehead
is an account of people transplanted from one country to another, many of the individuals described go by more than one name. In order to minimize confusion for readers who may be unaccustomed to Chinese names, I have defaulted in many instances to the English names adopted by some of the Chinese characters. Thus Chung Sing Chau, who upon arriving in America took the name Sean Chen, will be Sean Chen for the purposes of this story. Because some of the characters in the book are involved in organized crime, and because Chinese mobsters share with their cousins in the Italian Mafia a wonderful facility for nicknames, I have opted to refer to some characters primarily by their nicknames—like Mr. Charlie, or the Fat Man—simply on the grounds that the nicknames will be easier for the reader to keep straight.

Chinese names are customarily rendered with the family name preceding the individual name, so Sister Ping’s full name is Cheng Chui Ping, Cheng being her surname. I have followed the Chinese form, with a few exceptions, such as Kin Sin Lee and Pin Lin, where through some consensus prosecutors, immigration attorneys,
Golden Venture
passengers, and the friends and associates of the individual in question have all elected to reverse the order, putting the first name first and the surname last, and for me to do otherwise would be formalistic. In what follows, the boldface name is the one used in the body of the book, nicknames are placed in quotation marks, and inside the parentheses are aliases, birth names (if the person has adopted an English name or a nickname), and traditional Chinese renderings (in the few cases where I otherwise depart from them).

“Ah Kay”
(Guo Liang Qi),
leader of the Fuk Ching gang

“Ah Wong”
(Guo Liang Wong),
younger brother of Ah Kay who assumed control of smuggling operations

Gloria Canales
,
major people smuggler, based in Costa Rica

Ann Carr
,
British immigration attorney who represented Sean Chen in York, Pennsylvania

Ying Chan
, Daily News
reporter who covered the snakehead trade

“Mr. Charlie”
(“Char Lee,” “Ma Lee,” Lee Peng Fei),
Bangkok-based boat smuggler

Sean Chen
(Chung Sing Chau),
Fujianese teenager aboard the
Golden Venture

Cheng Chai Leung
,
father of Sister Ping, early Fujianese snakehead

Cheng Chui Ping
(“Sister Ping”),
New York–based snakehead and underground banker

Cheng Mei Yeung
,
brother of Sister Ping, smuggler based in Guatemala, California, and Bangkok

Monica Cheng
(Cheng Hui Mui),
daughter and oldest child of Sister Ping and Cheung Yick Tak

Susan Cheng
(Cheng Tsui Wah),
Sister Ping’s sister, procured travel documents for smuggled migrants

Cheung Yick Tak
(“Billy”),
husband of Sister Ping

Beverly Church
,
nurse and paralegal in York, Pennsylvania, became involved with the
Golden Venture
detainees

Patrick Devine
,
Buffalo-based INS investigator

James Dullan
,
driver on the Niagara smuggling route

“The Fat Man”
(“Four Star,” Dickson Yao),
Hong Kong–based drug smuggler and informant for the DEA and the INS

Kenny Feng
,
Taiwanese snakehead and associate of Sister Ping, based in Guatemala

Foochow Paul
(Kin Fei Wong),
original head of the Fuk Ching gang

Ed Garde
,
investigator with the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department

Richard Kephart
,
driver on the Niagara smuggling route

Ray Kerr
,
head of the FBI’s C-6 squad, handled Dan Xin Lin

Kin Sin Lee
(Lee Kin Sin),
Mr. Charlie’s deputy, chief snakehead enforcer aboard the
Golden Venture

Dougie Lee
,
detective with the NYPD’s Jade Squad

Peter Lee
,
FBI special agent, handled Sister Ping

Dan Xin Lin
(Lin Dan Xin),
Fuk Ching gang member, defected to start his own smuggling operation

Li Xing Hua
(“Stupid”),
Fuk Ching gang member, bodyguard to Ah Kay

Sam Lwin
,
Burmese first officer of the
Golden Venture,
subsequently took control of the ship

Joan Maruskin
,
Methodist minister in York, Pennsylvania, became involved with the
Golden Venture
detainees

Billy McMurry
,
FBI special agent, responsible for the Sister Ping investigation after 1997

Doris Meissner
,
commissioner of the INS, appointed by President Clinton after the
Golden Venture
incident

Don Monica
,
Nairobi-based INS officer

Konrad Motyka
,
FBI special agent who worked on both the Fuk Ching and the Sister Ping case

Joe Occhipinti
,
head of the INS’s Anti-Smuggling Unit and lead investigator on Operation Hester

Benny Ong
(“Uncle Seven,” Ong Kai Sui),
adviser for life to the Hip Sing tong in Chinatown

“Paul”
(Min Hoang),
Vietnamese smuggler based in Canada, piloted boats across the Niagara River

“Peter”
(Cheng Wai Wei),
brother-in-law of Sister Ping, husband of Susan, ran the Niagara smuggling route

Pin Lin
(Lin Pin), Golden Venture
passenger represented by Craig Trebilcock

Pao Pong
,
Pattaya Tourist Police officer, interrupted loading of the
Golden Venture
in Thailand

Grover Joseph Rees III
,
general counsel of the INS

Luke Rettler
,
prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, specialized in Asian gangs

Mark Riordan
,
Bangkok-based INS officer

Eric Schwartz
,
National Security Council staffer, coordinated the Washington response to the
Golden Venture
incident

Gerald Shargel
,
prominent criminal defense attorney, represented Ah Kay

Sterling Showers
,
retired factory worker in York, Pennsylvania, befriended
Golden Venture
detainees

Bill Slattery
,
district director of the INS in New York City

Song You Lin
,
Fuk Ching gang assassin

Jerry Stuchiner
,
INS officer in charge in Hong Kong and then in Honduras

Alan Tam
(“Ha Gwei”),
half African American Fuk Ching gang member, driver and fixer for the gang

Amir Tobing
,
Indonesian captain of the
Golden Venture

Craig Trebilcock
,
York, Pennsylvania, litigator, led pro bono legal effort on behalf of Golden
Venture
detainees

Wang Kong Fu
,
close smuggling associate of Sister Ping’s, introduced Sister Ping to Ah Kay

Herbie Weizenblut
,
associate of Jerry Stuchiner’s, installed as Honduran consul in Hong Kong

Weng Yu Hui
,
Fujianese man smuggled by Sister Ping, later became a key
Golden Venture
snakehead