Alhambra Man, Indicted in Taiwan, Ordered Deported

A federal immigration judge on Friday ordered the deportation of a suspected Asian organized crime member who has been indicted on murder and robbery charges in Taiwan.

U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Judge Roy J. Daniel also set bail at $85,000 for Kuei-chun Tung, 35, who was arrested Monday in his Alhambra home on a charge of holding a false Filipino passport.

Tung is one of 10 people charged by the Taiwanese government in the murder and robbery of seven members of a family, including three children, in the Philippines. Eight defendants have been convicted, said John Salter, an INS attorney. Taiwanese law allows trials of citizens suspected of crimes in other countries.

Salter had asked that Tung be held without bail so he could not flee before his deportation, but Daniel denied the request. Daniel will decide where Tung will be deported on Sept. 27.

“This individual is a threat to society,” Salter said. “He is an extreme flight risk.”

INS officials and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department investigators believe Tung is the strongman for a San Gabriel Valley cell of the United Bamboo, a Taiwan-based organized crime ring linked to drug dealing, extortion and illegal gambling parlors in the United States.

Tung, who uses the name Benson Wang, was questioned, but never charged, two years ago in connection with a pai gow parlor in Bradbury believed to be run by United Bamboo. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy William Howell, an investigator in the case, said Tung was suspected of threatening to kill a man who could not pay his debt to the gambling parlor, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence.

As a result of the investigation, authorities received a tip that Tung was wanted in Taiwan, and launched an investigation that led to Monday’s arrest.

Salter said that when investigators searched Tung’s home, they found documents and charts showing his ranking in the gang. They also found a cache of 15 weapons, including a .22-caliber derringer and three 9-millimeter machine pistols, one equipped with a laser sight. Tung was charged with illegally concealing the derringer at the time of his arrest, a misdemeanor.

Tung’s lawyer, R. Wayne McMillan, would not comment on the murder case.

The deportation order was based solely on Tung’s illegal status in the United States, not on the criminal charges, because Taiwan does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.