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Wednesday January 26 6:13 AM ET
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A U.S. court has sentenced a Chinese national to 15 years in jail for heading a smuggling operation that sought to bring hundreds of Chinese illegally to the United States via Guam, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The statement, made available by the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong on Wednesday, said Peng Shi, 27, was sentenced by a district court on Tuesday in the U.S. Pacific Island of Saipan.
``During his trial in October, witnesses testified that Shi served as the lead 'enforcer' on a smuggling vessel and that many of the passengers on that vessel were severely beaten,'' it said.
Describing the sentence as ``one of the stiffest ever imposed in connection with an alien smuggling case,'' the statement quoted Johnny Williams, western regional director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, saying it sent out ''a powerful message to all those associated with the smuggling trade.''
U.S. authorities have intercepted several container ships carrying illegal Chinese immigrants to ports on the U.S. West Coast in recent months.
Hidden in containers with scant food or water for weeks, the journey is a hellish experience for the passengers who end up on U.S. shores malnourished and dehydrated.
Three Chinese men were found dead in one such container which ended up in Seattle earlier in January.
Shi was on board a smuggling ship intercepted off Guam by the U.S. Coast Guard last May, the statement said.
``Subsequent investigation revealed that some of the ship's passengers, who paid in excess of US$7,000 for passage to the United States, were repeatedly beaten with fists, sticks, pulley belts, chairs and threatened with a meat cleaver,'' it said.
``Testimony at Shi's trial indicated that one alien was beaten so severely that he lay unconscious on board the ship three days.''
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