Trial for "Mother of All Snakeheads" who brought Chinese immigrants illegally to America and used violent gangs to hold them hostage

Gail Appleson:

Human trafficking by Cheng Chui Ping, 56, also known as "Sister Ping", had been linked to major shipments of illegal immigrants in which more than 20 people died, Assistant US Attorney David Burns said at the woman's federal trial in Manhattan.

Ms Cheng is also accused of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars from the smuggling operations and using some of the money to finance the 1992 voyage of a rickety freighter, Golden Venture, which carried 300 illegal Chinese immigrants.

The ship ran aground off New York in June 1993 and 10 people drowned while trying to swim ashore. The tragedy sparked global concern over human trafficking.

If convicted, Ms Cheng faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The title of "Mother of all Snakeheads" stemmed from accusations that she headed a human trafficking operation that could be traced back to the 1980s, Mr Burns said.

Over the years, she rose "to become one of the most powerful and one of the most successful aliens smugglers of our day", he told the New York court.

"This is a case about the brutal business of smuggling human beings into the United States for profit. Sister Ping promised hope and prosperity, but she only delivered misery and suffering while fattening her purse."

The term snakehead is a slur meaning "alien smuggler", typically from China into Hong Kong. It stems from an image of slithering from point to point along clandestine routes.

Mr Burns said those smuggled were mostly from China.

They were crammed into ships where their life at sea was a "nightmarish hell", the court heard. They were confined to "dungeon-like conditions", and one bathroom served hundreds of people.

After arriving in the United States, they were turned over to a violent street gang and held until family members could pay smuggling debts that could run as high as $US50,000 ($65,858), Mr Burns said.

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