Thursday, May 04,
2000 Canadians arrested in alleged Chinese
migrant ring
Two held in Detroit:
Official went along with bribe in sting operation
Andrew Duffy
Southam
News
OTTAWA - Two Canadians will appear in a Detroit courtroom today
after being charged with taking part in an alien smuggling ring that
brought people from China to the U.S. with bogus visas.
Hyo Young (Peter) Park, 60, of Winnipeg; and Tong (Thomas) Choe,
60, of Toronto, are among six people who face charges of conspiring
to smuggle aliens into the United States by bribing a government
official.
A hearing today in U.S. District Court will determine if they are
returned to Canada pending trial or detained in the U.S.
The INS conducted the investigation without contacting the RCMP
or any Canadian enforcement officials.
"You would think we could have been advised, but I guess they
didn't think of us," said a Canadian official.
According to the indictment unsealed yesterday in a U.S. Federal
Court, the two men paid bribes to a U.S. immigration inspector for
entry visas that were affixed to valid passports, then shipped back
to co-conspirators in China.
The indictment said the inspector was paid $260,000 (US) to
provide entry visas on 425 Chinese passports. The inspector was
working for Project Squeeze Play, an undercover operation set up by
the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Mr. Park and Mr. Choe were arrested on Tuesday after allegedly
turning over money and passports to the inspector. They were being
held in a Detroit county jail. Saul Green, a U.S. attorney, will ask
a judge to keep them in custody.
The four-month investigation was launched to penetrate a
smuggling ring believed responsible for transporting thousands of
illegal migrants to the U.S. from China's Fujian province.
According to the indictment, 16 illegal aliens from China arrived
in the U.S. during the investigation. Their whereabouts are unknown.
Two of the six people charged live in Fujian and are high-ranking
Chinese government officials. The two men, Fhang Wei and Fheng
Huang, were leaders of the smuggling operation, according to the
indictment. It is unlikely they will face trial, because the U.S.
has no extradition deal with China.
Three more Canadians were charged in Detroit yesterday with alien
smuggling as part of a related investigation. Hip Chow, 48, of
Toronto, and his daughters, Jennifer, 22, and Ellis, 21, were
charged and released.
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