By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 21, 3:01 PM ET



NEW YORK - Notorious gangster Ah Kay turned government witness last week in the federal trial of the reputed mastermind of a deadly 1993 smuggling attempt.

Ah Kay arrived in Manhattan in 1981, an illegal immigrant with little education and no money but a mean streak that would leave Chinatown at his mercy. Over the next decade, Ah Kay built a lucrative criminal empire as head of the Fuk Ching street gang through cold-blooded murders, extortion and human trafficking.
"I'm trying to change as best I can," Ah Kay said when a defense attorney challenged him to explain his reinvention as a cooperator.

Ah Kay, 39, testified against Cheng Chui Ping, his alleged partner in the doomed smuggling ship Golden Venture, which ran aground in the waters off New York at the end of a 16,000-mile trip. Ten of the nearly 300 illegal immigrants aboard died.

Prosecutors claim Cheng, known as "Big Sister Ping," was once Chinatown's reigning "snakehead" â€â€