Ten-year prison terms possible

Thursday, March 16, 2000

By SCOTT SUNDE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Two Chinese men accused of taking part in a smuggling operation that brought 37 illegal immigrants to North America in cargo containers pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Seattle.

Yu Zheng, 35, and Sheng Ding, 29, face up to 10 years in prison.

The case marks the first successful prosecution of a scheme in which Chinese immigrants -- paying up to $60,000 apiece -- were smuggled in to the West Coast in containers stacked on freighters. There have been 15 such incidents in the last year, including seven this year.

It's unclear whether yesterday's developments will lead to additional prosecutions. Zheng and Ding apparently have not cooperated with prosecutors and did not agree to do so as part of yesterday's plea agreement.

When they arrested the pair in January, immigration agents found cellular telephones and pagers, from which they obtained telephone numbers in New York and Hong Kong. But they have yet to make additional arrests, said Donald Reno Jr., special assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle.

Zheng and Ding, themselves illegal immigrants who had been living in New York, agreed to a plea bargain in which prosecutors dropped charges of conspiracy and bringing Chinese nationals illegally into the United States.

In return, the men pleaded guilty to a single count of trying to transport illegal aliens. They are linked in court documents to one of the 12 men in the container who had a cellular telephone with which he alerted smugglers that the ship had arrived.

The 12 were to be taken to New York City, probably by train or bus, Reno said.

Zheng and Ding face likely deportation after they serve their sentences, which they will receive June 2 from U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein.

The defendants admitted that they knew 12 illegal immigrants were in a container that had been loaded on the OOCL Faith cargo ship in Hong Kong on Dec. 19.

The freighter arrived at Seattle's Terminal 18 on Jan. 2. Officials in Hong Kong say they tipped off agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service about the OOCL Faith. INS agents were waiting for the ship and found the 12 stowaways.

Ding and Zheng showed up in a rented van near the ship on Jan. 2. Immigration agents stopped, questioned and arrested them. An investigation turned up bills of lading for the container in which the 12 illegal immigrants were stowed away. Agents also found a bill of lading for a second ship, the California Jupiter. Canadian customs agents found 25 illegal immigrants in two containers on the California Jupiter on Jan. 4 in Vancouver.

Reno said the agents' stop of the defendants could have presented problems and that helped to persuade prosecutors to seek a plea deal.

A judge might have ruled that the agents violated the men's right against unreasonable search and seizure, Reno said. Then all the evidence tying them to the OOCL Faith and California Jupiter would have been thrown out.

A federal investigation continues into the 18 illegal immigrants smuggled aboard the NYK Cape May. Three of the 18 were dead when the Cape May arrived in Seattle on Jan. 10. They died of malnutrition and dehydration.

The INS is referring any questions about the deaths to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

But Jim Lord, the federal prosecutor to whom questions have been referred, will not say whether the deaths are still under investigation.

P-I reporter Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or scottsunde@seattle-pi.com