 
|
 Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000
Smuggling suspect won't talk
By RANDY RICHMOND -- London Free Press
LONDON, Ont. - A suspected key player in a smuggling ring running
migrants through Southwestern Ontario is a Richmond Hill man charged in a
$9-million credit card fraud, The London Free Press has learned.
Hau Duong, also known as Harry Duong, 47, was charged in the fall
with possession of forged credit cards and instruments of forgery after
police found 2,500 blank credit cards in a Richmond Hill office.
Duong was also indicted by a U.S. grand jury in December after an
eight-month investigation into migrant smuggling through Walpole Island.
The U.S. government has charged Duong with transporting Asian
migrants to the Canadian-Michigan border.
"Generally, the
conspiracy smuggled Asian aliens from Toronto . . . to New York . . .
through the Eastern District of Michigan," the indictment says.
It
also says transportation of migrants from Toronto to the border was "made
or arranged" by Duong and Harold Pinnance of Walpole Island, who earlier
told The Free Press the allegations against him are "all just lies."
U.S. agents say they suspect Duong is a central player in a
migrant smuggling ring, higher up the ladder than smugglers in
Southwestern Ontario.
"No, no, no, I don't know anything about
that," Duong said when asked about smuggling charges. "I am a worker. I am
in construction," he said in a telephone interview, friendly but insistent
he had no ties to Walpole Island smugglers. "I don't know anybody down
there."
U.S. immigration authorities had been referring to Duong
as Ho Duong, but there was a mixup, said Brian Slonac, head anti-smuggling
agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Detroit. Ho
Duong is Harry's brother and is not the one under U.S. investigation.
Once migrants reach the Walpole Island area, smugglers take them
by boat across the St. Clair River, according to U.S. and Canadian
authorities. From Michigan, they are driven to New York City, where they
can find work, often to pay off the Asian gang leaders, called snakeheads,
who organize their transport.
Nine Walpole Island residents have
been charged by U.S. authorities and four others have been convicted on
smuggling charges since last May.
Several other Ontario people
also face charges.
Duong was charged in the fall after York Region
police found the fake gold and platinum credit cards -- with designs from
the TD, CIBC, Hongkong Bank of Canada and American banks and worth up to
$9 million -- in a Richmond Hill office north of Toronto.
"We had
never seen that many blank credit cards in one place," said Det. Const.
Mike Elliott, an eight-year veteran of the York fraud unit. York police
handed over information on Duong to the RCMP, Elliott said.
The
RCMP refused comment.
Duong was born in Vietnam, but his passport
shows he spent some time in China, Elliott said.
He described
Duong as five-foot-six, 160 pounds with a silver front tooth. Duong was
not at his large, two-storey home in Richmond Hill when The Free Press
visited last week. A nephew said his uncle usually leaves early in the
morning and gets back about midnight.
The office where the credit
cards were found is one of many in a three-storey commercial building. The
numbered company that operated in the unit is registered with the province
as a construction firm, according to documents obtained by The Free Press.
But employees of a neighbouring software business say they saw
little evidence of construction work. A diesel truck often visited the
office throughout the night, said one employee who often works late hours.
"They were always coming and going," he said. "But I couldn't see
anything in the truck."
Another employee who visited Duong's
office said she saw clothing hanging on the wall and three sewing
machines.
Employees of neighbouring businesses often noticed
several Asian women walking on the sidewalk outside.
Do you have an opinion about one of
our stories?Know someone who might be interested in this page?
Just type in the email address to send them the URL
|
