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SCMP Reporter

FBI officers have swooped through New York's Chinese community, arresting 14 suspects and hunting six more in a crackdown on the notorious Fuk Ching illegal immigrant smuggling gang.

  The raid followed the arrest in Hong Kong of alleged Fuk Ching leader Kwok Ling-kay, 27, last Friday.

  Kwok, remanded in custody pending extradition proceedings to begin tomorrow, was charged early this morning in New York with ordering the execution of two Fuk Ching members.

  The FBI swooped on a Chinese funeral in Brooklyn, and the Manhattan offices of the Fujian American Association, from which two boxes of evidence were seized.

  Kwok, also known as Guo Liangchi and Ah Kay, is wanted in the US in connection with the attack on January 8 of rival gang member Lin Xindan in a Chinatown electronics store.

  Two Fuk Ching members were killed but Lin escaped and travelled to China looking to take revenge on Kwok, who allegedly ordered the shooting, US officials said yesterday.

  FBI officers are concerned Kwok will put up a tough legal battle in Hong Kong against extradition.

  The Fuk Ching has been linked to many illegal immigrant smuggling operations, including the ill-fated Golden Venture, which ran aground off New York in May, killing 10 people.

  The 14 alleged gang members arrested were also charged with various crimes this morning.

  They are Alan Tam, Ronald Chau, Phong Seng Khen, Yeung Cho Yee, Shan Dung Fai, Yau Ping Song, Tang Xue Dan, Lin De Kang, Guo Qi Rui, Jing Cheung, Guo Qi Wu, Lin Mi Yee, Wong Sui Su and Chen Hui.

  They have been charged with a range of offences, including kidnapping, assault, possession of guns and illegal immigrant smuggling.

  According to the indictment, the Fuk Ching is a group of about 25 Fujianese based in a gambling house in Eldridge Street, Manhattan. Since 1989, Kwok has allegedly been its leader.

  The officials said that several of those arrested were intercepted after their telephones were bugged and they were heard discussing the illegal immigrant smuggling operation, including recruiting people in China, delivering them by boat or plane to the US, and holding them captive in apartments in New York until their smuggling fees had been paid.

  The charges against some of those arrested also described an attack on July 4, 1992, on a person who was believed to be in a rival gang. The victim was attacked with a machete and a metal pipe.

  The charges also detailed the alleged kidnapping by Fuk Ching members of three students, who were filming scenes for a school project. The gang members believed the students were invading their territory and so attacked them in the incident on April 17, this year.

  On March 6 this year, Fuk Ching members, including Li Xinghua, allegedly took a victim hostage, stabbed him, hit him with a hammer and threatening to kill him unless his family paid money to the gang.

  Li Xinghua, who is also in Hong Kong pending an extradition hearing, was charged with kidnapping.



FBI swoops on smuggling gang