Chinatown woman get 35 years for human smuggling
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-17 09:28

A Chinatown businesswoman was sentenced to 35 years in prison Thursday for immigrant smuggling, including a 1993 voyage that ended in the deaths of 10 Chinese in the waters off New York City.

Cheng Chui Ping, 57, pleaded for more than an hour for leniency, saying she was a hardworking immigrant who loved America and had been terrorized by Chinatown gangs.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey listened patiently, then dismissed the speech as "simply incredible" and gave Cheng the maximum.

He said evidence at the trial had shown conclusively that she was a leader in a ring that took millions of dollars from illegal immigrants, transported them in inhumane and dangerous conditions, and used violent gangsters to collect debts.

Among the decrepit cargo ships that carried Cheng's human cargo was the Golden Venture, a hulk that ran aground near Queens. Ten immigrants died trying to swim to shore.

Prosecutors said Cheng financed that voyage, as well as a deadly 1998 trip in which a ship capsized off Guatemala, killing 14 people.

Cheng was arrested in Hong Kong in 2000 after six years as a fugitive.