Arms-smuggling Taiwanese duo snared in FBI sting plead guilty
Pair claimed to be acting on behalf of Beijing official when they tried to send hi-tech military gear to mainland; HK 'mastermind' awaits trial
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 28 September, 2014, 5:13am
UPDATED : Sunday, 28 September, 2014, 5:13am
Bryan Harris [email protected]
F-22 fighter jet technology was on the list of desired items. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Two Taiwanese accomplices of an alleged Hong Kong smuggling mastermind face decades in US prisons after being caught trying to export high-grade military technology to mainland China.
The pair claimed to be acting on behalf of a senior Beijing official when they were snared in an FBI sting, FBI reports and legal documents seen by the Sunday Morning Post show.
Charlie Shen Hui-sheng, 47, and Alice Chang Huan-ling, 43, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey court on Monday to both the arms charge and their involvement in a drug-smuggling operation led by Hongkonger Kow Soon-ah. Kow was extradited to the United States from the Philippines in 2012 and faces 14 drug and contraband charges that could see him jailed for life.
The reports and court documents show how both drug and arms smuggling operations came undone at the hands of undercover agents. The FBI officers infiltrated Kow's syndicate over three years, posing as individuals capable of moving illicit materials past US authorities.
The agents worked their way into the good graces of the gang in 2009 after reaching an agreement with then-72-year-old Kow to move millions of dollars of contraband, such as cigarettes and footwear, from China to the US.
After successfully importing several containers through the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal - the largest container port on the US' eastern seaboard - they began to discuss drugs. This was the point at which the agents were introduced to Shen and Chang.
Shen - a self-described logistics expert - represented the interests of wealthy dealers who had been trafficking drugs for more than 25 years, Kow reportedly told the agents during a meeting in Manila. The agents asked for a sample of the drugs, and hours later, they received a dose of methamphetamine courtesy of Kow's associates in Hong Kong, according to an FBI report.
Another shipment was arranged; this time the syndicate would move 1kg of meth from Taiwan to the US for a payment of US$70,000, covering the cost of the drugs and shipping as well as Kow's brokerage fee.
On August 9, 2011, the drugs were seized by US law enforcement agents, who found the package hidden, exactly as predicted by the undercover agents, in three bags of tea inside a computer. The drug was later found to be 93.7 per cent pure, according to the FBI report.
Further, larger shipments were discussed, including plans to move hundreds of kilograms of the highly addictive stimulant into Japan under the guise of tsunami relief provisions, legal documents show.
Meanwhile, Shen and Chang moved to deepen their unwitting partnership with the FBI and asked to buy US military technology on behalf of a senior Chinese official, according to court documents.
"The people we met, they come from Beijing … They work for Beijing government … Some kind of intelligence company for Chinese government - like CIA," court documents quote Shen as saying. "These people are high-level, but the money belongs to the government."
During a meeting in Las Vegas in October 2011, Chang listed their desired items. These included an entire E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, F-22 stealth fighter jet technology, a number of drones as well as "nuclear information".
"We know that this is big stuff," court documents quote Chang as saying.
On February 20, 2012, the Taiwanese were shown a Raven RQ-11B drone, which they discussed moving offshore using scuba divers.
Four days later, US law enforcement swooped and arrested both Shen and Chang while they were photographing documentation relating to the unmanned aircraft.
Kow was caught the following day by special agents in the Philippines as he stepped off a Dragonair flight from Hong Kong. He now faces 14 counts of drug and contraband offences.
Shen and Chang will be sentenced on January 5.
