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A woman accused of masterminding an international people-smuggling ring had a 'bad feeling' before the 1993 Golden Venture tragedy that claimed 10 lives in the sea off New York, a court heard yesterday.

Cheng Chui-ping, 51, also known as 'Big Sister Ping', watched the tragedy of the vessel hitting a sandbar on TV news reports in her New York home, an alleged associate involved in the operation said.

'When I arrived Sister Ping told me she had a bad feeling about the boat,' Weng Yu-hui said in a statement read to Eastern Court. 'I told her she shouldn't worry too much because she only had two customers on board. She said she worried nonetheless, because she had had a run of bad luck recently.'

Cheng is fighting an extradition order to the United States, where she faces seven charges including hostage-taking and trafficking in ransom proceeds.

She is also accused of running money laundering operations and helping illegal immigrants transfer money back to the mainland. Some of the offences carry life sentences, the court heard.

Senior government counsel Wayne Walsh told the court that Cheng had been involved in human smuggling since 1984, helping people from Fujian province gain illegal entry into the US.

Magistrate Lo Pui-yin was told that on several occasions, Cheng employed members of the notorious American-Chinese Fuk Ching gang to help in the operations.

Gang members forcibly detained illegal immigrants, and also threatened to kill and injure them, the court heard. Cheng's first contact with the gang was in September 1992, when she sought its assistance in picking up 130 mainlanders who had arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, the court heard. Gang leader Guo Liang-qi sent members to retrieve the immigrants with a fishing boat.

An unidentified gang member who participated in the operation gave a full account of the incident in a witness statement, admitting they used violence to gain co-operation.

'We forced the aliens to jump on to the fishing boat. One member used a handgun to fire a shot towards the sky and ordered the migrants to keep in order,' he said.

Cheng agreed to pay Guo US$750,000 (HK$5.8 million) for helping in the operation, the court heard. Guo eventually received US$450,000 from Cheng, and Cheng also invested US$300,000 on Guo's behalf in the Golden Venture operation, it was alleged.

The Golden Venture tragedy began in the spring of 1993 when the vessel picked up 300 mainlanders stranded in Kenya from a failed 1992 smuggling operation, the court heard.

Twenty of the stranded passengers were Cheng's customers but only two of them boarded the vessel, Weng said in his statement.

The mainlanders had been abandoned in Kenya when the captain of another vessel, the Najid II, refused to take them to the US. The Najid II operation was organised by Weng, who entered the US as an illegal immigrant in 1984 - allegedly with the help of Cheng.

The Golden Venture was intended to take the 300 mainlanders to Boston, but the freighter was redirected to New York.

When the aliens arrived in New York, Fuk Ching members did not meet them in open water as planned and the vessel ran aground soon afterwards.

The gang member said in his statement that by the time the vessel was due to arrive in New York in June 1993, the gang was in disarray. Guo, who was also known as 'Ah Kay', had left for Hong Kong after his brother was killed. He was later arrested and extradited to the United States.

The case continues today.



Woman accused of people smuggling said she was worried about Golden Venture operation