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Man pleads guilty to alien smuggling
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Posted on Jun 14 1999
One of the six men charged by the federal government for bringing undocumented migrants into a U.S. territory has pled guilty to attempted alien smuggling.
Jin Hua Lin, who was assisted by his legal counsel and an interpreter, admitted to the charges last Friday and will be sentenced by the U.S. District Court on Sept. 16.
According to U.S. Asst. Atty. Kevin Seely, Jin along with five other crewmen led a ship ferrying 141 undocumented Chinese nationals on their way to Guam last April.
The ship was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard and was diverted to Tinian, where hundreds of other undocumented aliens from China were being held.
Seely told the court that the aliens boarded the ship in China at night and sailed for several days toward Guam, with the intention of sneaking “through darkness into the island.”
Jin pleaded guilty to charges of “conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S., attempted alien smuggling for financial gain, and inducing aliens to the U.S.”
Charged along with Jin were Xiao Jin Zhan, Zhi Jian Ruan, Mo Qing Wang, and Qing Zhen Wang, and Shan Lun Huang.
Six of them pled innocent to the charges earlier this month and were scheduled for jury trial on July 12. Only Jin has changed his original plea.
Last week, nine others were charged in the US District Court for the same crime.
Most of the “boat people” come from China’s Fujian province. They reportedly paid members of a human trafficking syndicate who had promised to take them to “America,” where they hope to get asylum. Members of the syndicate allegedly connive with policemen in China.
About 200 Chinese nationals who were held at the “tent city” on Tinian have been repatriated. (Marvic C. Munar)
