85 Illegal Immigrants From China Seized Aboard Boat

Federal authorities seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel and arrested 85 illegal immigrants from China on Tuesday, cracking a criminal operation they believe is part of a burgeoning seagoing smuggling industry that has surfaced in the past six months.

Since August, federal agents have uncovered four such immigrant-smuggling operations--two in the Los Angeles area and two in Honolulu.

In the area cases, authorities believe the immigrants--some charged as much as $25,000--were ultimately headed for New York to be put to work in restaurants and factories to pay for their passage to the United States.

“We’ve had four different vessels come to the United States in the last few months laden with Chinese,” said Robert M. Moschorak, director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Los Angeles District. “It’s a new situation we’re being confronted with.”

While there have been sporadic stowaway cases over the years, the mass smuggling of Chinese immigrants by ship was unheard of in modern times until recently, authorities said.

The latest raid occurred at sea early Tuesday morning, when Coast Guard officers and INS agents boarded a 57-foot yacht, the Liberated Lady, two miles off Long Beach.

Authorities had put the vessel under surveillance after an informant told them that huge fuel tanks had been installed so it could reach deep water.

When the Liberated Lady left port Sunday morning, a Coast Guard cutter secretly followed.

The vessel was met 240 miles off the coast by a 150-foot Taiwanese fishing trawler, the Jinn Yin No. 1, which was carrying 85 illegal immigrants it had brought from the People’s Republic of China.

The immigrants were transferred to the Liberated Lady, which then headed back toward Long Beach.

Coast Guard officers stopped and boarded the Liberated Lady once it entered U.S. waters. Four hours later, the Coast Guard seized the Jinn Yin No. 1 about 400 miles off the coast of San Diego, apparently heading back toward Taiwan. The Coast Guard is entitled to seize a vessel in international waters once a violation has been discovered in U.S. waters.

Moschorak said initial interviews with the 85 apprehended immigrants indicate that they were from the Chinese province of Fujian, about 100 miles from Taiwan across the Formosa Strait.

Six suspected smugglers also were arrested and are expected to be charged with criminal smuggling today in federal court.

The seagoing smuggling of Chinese immigrants through Taiwanese traffickers first surfaced in September when INS agents raided a Garden Grove home and found 118 illegal immigrants inside.

They had been brought to the United States aboard a 200-foot Taiwanese fishing trawler and then transferred to a small excursion vessel, which brought them to San Pedro.

Last week, nearly 100 more Chinese immigrants were taken into custody in Honolulu after trying to enter aboard another Taiwanese fishing vessel.