Home New York Press Releases 2010 Lieutenant of Chinese Organized Crime Family Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 35 Years in Prison
Info
This is archived material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function.

Lieutenant of Chinese Organized Crime Family Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 35 Years in Prison

U.S. Attorney’s Office January 04, 2010
  • Southern District of New York (212) 637-2600

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that BING YI CHEN, a/k/a "Ah Ngai," the lieutenant of a Chinese organized crime group, was sentenced today to 35 years in prison for his participation in a murder of two individuals in Toronto, Canada, on July 20, 1994, in connection with his group's heroin trafficking activities. CHEN was convicted of two counts of murder by a jury on October 23, 2007, after a month-long trial before United States District Judge DEBORAH A. BATTS. Co-defendant FRANK MA, who, according to the Superseding Indictment, was the leader, or "dai lo," of the criminal enterprise, pleaded guilty to the charges four days before trial began on September 20, 2007, and has yet to be sentenced.

According to the Superseding Indictment, the evidence at trial, and MA's guilty plea allocution:

From 1991 through 1996, MA, CHEN, and their associates were engaged in the importation of millions of dollars worth of heroin from Asia into the United States for distribution in New York City. In the summer of 1994, MA's principal heroin supplier in Hong Kong called MA and asked MA to kill his drug partner in Toronto, Canada. MA agreed to arrange the murder as a favor for the supplier and to strengthen their lucrative criminal partnership. As a result, MA summoned several of his followers from Southern California to New York City, briefed them on their mission, provided them with a photograph of and addresses for the intended victim, and then dispatched the hit team to Toronto to carry out the killing.

MA gave CHEN the task of preparing the hit team for the murders. CHEN, a lieutenant in the criminal organization and one of MA's longest-serving followers, traveled to Canada with the leader of the hit team to scout out where the intended victim lived and worked; went with the leader of the hit team to obtain guns for the murder; attempted to smuggle those guns across the Canadian border; and picked up members of the hit team from the airport, giving each of them $2000 for their trip.

On July 20, 1994, two members of MA's hit team shot their way into a business office where the intended victim was supposed to be, and killed KWAN KIN MING and YIP PAK YIN, two office workers. Neither MING nor YIN were involved in narcotics trafficking, and neither was the intended victim.

The convictions of MA, 55, and CHEN, 42, were the result of ten years of investigative work into the MA organization, which has, to date, resulted in 13 convictions.

Mr. BHARARA praised the efforts of the FBI's Asian Organized Crime Task Force, comprised of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Detectives of the New York City Police Department, for their work on the investigation. Mr. BHARARA also praised the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a Toronto-based Asian Organized Crime Task Force, and the Toronto Police Service, for the vital and ongoing assistance they have provided in the investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys JONATHAN B. NEW and MICHAEL M. ROSENSAFT are in charge of the prosecution.

This content has been reproduced from its original source.