Alleged Smugglers Hit With Criminal Charges

Criminal charges were filed in federal court Wednesday against the captain and crew of an Asian cargo ship that entered the Port of Long Beach last week carrying 54 illegal immigrants from the People’s Republic of China.

The U.S. Customs Service, acting on a tip, discovered the immigrants nine days ago during a search of the Pu Progress, a 500-foot freighter registered in Singapore. Investigators said the stowaways had paid smugglers more than $50,000 each to get to the United States.

After almost a week of investigation by immigration officials, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles filed felony charges against eight people, including Capt. Li Shu Song and Liu Jie, who is suspected of directing the smuggling attempt aboard the vessel.

All eight are accused of bringing or attempting to bring illegal immigrants into the United States without authorization. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

“This is the largest case we have had in five years,” said Special Agent Jim Hayes, who heads the Los Angeles anti-smuggling unit of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “The presence of the aliens aboard this ship was no secret to the crew.”

Hayes said the evidence indicates that eight of the ship’s 24-member crew had direct contact with the illegal immigrants aboard the ship. He added that the INS investigation is continuing to determine the extent of the smuggling operation in the United States.

Federal agents found the 54 stowaways on Oct. 5 and 6 inside two forward compartments and an aft ballast tank. INS agents said the Chinese citizens, all men and teen-age boys, have been detained pending deportation proceedings.

The immigrants later told INS agents that after making their way by airplane and train to Tiajin, China, smugglers loaded them aboard the vessel for a three-month voyage to the United States. They said the captain and other crew members helped them throughout the trip.

Court records indicate that during a phase of the voyage in South Korean waters, the Pu Progress put into port for 38 days to make engine repairs. When the trip resumed, Capt. Li Shu Song allegedly told his human cargo “to remain calm, and everyone would arrive in the United States within a few days.”

Hayes said the vast majority of immigrants aboard the ship were bound for New York, where there are ample employment opportunities in the city’s large Chinese community. According to court records, the stowaways paid smugglers up to $55,000 apiece.

Immigration officials say the Pu Progress is typical of ship-borne smuggling operations involving illegal immigrants from mainland China. In the early 1990s, the INS handled several local cases that involved ships carrying more than 100 stowaways each.

Generally, smugglers arrange transportation for their clients to reach the Chinese coast, where they are loaded onto ships bound for the United States, Mexico and Canada.

At their destinations, the stowaways are taken to so-called drop houses in and around the port. The illegal immigrants are only released to friends, relatives or potential employers when all the smugglers’ fees are paid.

This year, immigration officials have detained 113 illegal immigrants aboard ships arriving in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, four cases have involved Chinese citizens.

In one of the more recent discoveries, federal authorities in Long Beach boarded a freighter from Hong Kong and found 15 Chinese immigrants living in squalor inside a 40-foot shipping container.