Smuggler of Chinese Pleads Guilty
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A Monterey Park woman has pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring with Asian organized crime syndicate members to smuggle Chinese nationals into the United States, sometimes extorting money from their relatives back home.
Ai Qin Chen, 32, told U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall on Tuesday that the illegal immigrants were smuggled from China through Cambodia, Thailand and Brazil before being brought to the United States for about $30,000 a person.
According to court documents, the immigrants were charged a $2,000 down payment before leaving China and were to pay the remainder when they reached the United States.
If someone was unable to pay the full amount, Chen said, members of the organized crime syndicate would track down a relative in China. Some relatives were assaulted and beaten, she testified.
A co-defendant, Xian Feng Li, 26, pleaded guilty late last year in a New York federal court.
The case was investigated by the Monterey Park police, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI.
Chen faces a statutory maximum of 25 years in prison when she is sentenced on May 3.
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