Key Figure in Smuggling Case Fails to Surface

The alleged mastermind of a failed three-month voyage to smuggle illegal Chinese immigrants into the United States skipped his brothers’ funeral Friday, disappointing a horde of police.

Immigration authorities, meanwhile, said more survivors from the rusty freighter Golden Venture may be released.

Any of the vessel’s 265 illegal immigrants still in federal custody could be freed depending on the circumstances surrounding their cases, said Tom Durand, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“As cases develop, mitigating factors become apparent, and paroling people might actually be in their best interest,” Durand said Friday.

Four teen-age girls were released Tuesday when federal authorities could not find facilities to house them, Durand said. They were not granted asylum and still face an immigration hearing.

Another INS spokesman, Duke Austin, said earlier reports that the agency planned to detain the illegal immigrants indefinitely were distorted.

Durand confirmed that an unspecified number of women aboard the Golden Venture said they were sexually abused, although it was not clear if they were attacked by the crew or other passengers. There were 27 women on the ship.

Six immigrants died in the surf off a New York City beach when the freighter grounded on a sandbar. Authorities said 269 of the immigrants were taken into custody, one was hospitalized and five escaped after the beaching early last Sunday.

New York Newsday reported an investigation was under way to determine if a gang enforcer was pushing those who could not swim into the water once the ship became stuck.

The case has focused attention on the rampant traffic in Chinese who are smuggled into the United States looking for a better life, only to wind up in virtual slavery to the gangs in order to pay smuggling fees of up to $30,000 each.

The reputed head of the smuggling operation, Guo Liang Chi, 27, disappointed investigators who had hoped to catch him at the funeral Friday of his two brothers and two other gang members.

Guo, whose goes by the aliases Ah Kay and Kwok Leung Kee, is the alleged head of the Fuk Ching gang. About 40 members of the gang, all wearing wraparound sunglasses and black double-breasted suits, turned out for the services at a Chinatown funeral home.

Guo’s two brothers and two other reputed Fuk Ching members were slain May 24 at a New Jersey hideout.

Police say they believe that a dispute with a rival faction was behind the slayings.

There were numerous police officers in the neighborhood for the funeral, including two stationed across the street, snapping pictures of the guests as they arrived.