Thread: NYC Gangster Resurfaces As Gov't Witness

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€

[quote="Charlesoakisland"]By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 21, 3:01 PM ET



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.


Working out of Chinatown storefronts, Cheng smuggled thousands of immigrants who endured perilous journeys on dilapidated cargo ships like the Golden Venture, prosecutors said. She also allegedly employed Fuk Ching members to hold illegal immigrants hostage in safehouses while collecting smuggling fees of up to $40,000 a person.

"That's what happened in the past," he said Cheng told him when he tried to apologize. "We're talking business now."


Testifying in Chinese through an interpreter, he told jurors his prospects in the coastal region were bleak. So after he quit school at age 14, his family hired a snakehead in 1981 to smuggle him out of China â€â€

"Witnesses like Ah Kay, said defense attorney Lawrence Hochheiser, were living proof the government had "made deals with the devil."


Like Bush with Fox.

[quote="Sixx"][quote="Charlesoakisland"]By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 21, 3:01 PM ET



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.


Working out of Chinatown storefronts, Cheng smuggled thousands of immigrants who endured perilous journeys on dilapidated cargo ships like the Golden Venture, prosecutors said. She also allegedly employed Fuk Ching members to hold illegal immigrants hostage in safehouses while collecting smuggling fees of up to $40,000 a person.

"That's what happened in the past," he said Cheng told him when he tried to apologize. "We're talking business now."


Testifying in Chinese through an interpreter, he told jurors his prospects in the coastal region were bleak. So after he quit school at age 14, his family hired a snakehead in 1981 to smuggle him out of China â€â€