Smuggler of Chinese
aliens gets 10-year sentence

Shi Jie Pan took part in beating
passengers, at least 1 alien testified

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

A 29-year-old Chinese national convicted of conspiring to smuggle Chinese aliens into the United States was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in federal prison.

Shi Jie Pan, according to government prosecutors, was a radio operator on board the Yu Zhing No. 2, a 140-foot coastal freighter rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in August 1999.

Pan was convicted last August for conspiracy and six counts of smuggling and faced between 108 to 135 months in prison.

Through an interpreter, Pan told the court he was not an organizer of the operation and that all he wanted was to come to the United States and make some money.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Omer Poirier said Pan held an important leadership role in the operation, relaying communications between the organizers of the trip and those in charge on the ship.

"It is sheer luck nobody lost their lives in this venture," Poirier said.

Defense attorney Don Wilkerson said the sentence was unduly harsh and that Pan was simply a passenger who was trying to make the best of the situation.

Pan happens to speak several Chinese languages and knew how to operate the radio, so he was put in a position to relay information to those steering the ship, Wilkerson said.

The freighter had left China for the United States in early July 1999 with about 120 passengers on board and was at sea for about 20 days when a propeller shaft broke.

The U.S. Coast Guard received a distress call Aug. 24 from the freighter, claiming it was a disabled fishing vessel with 15 people on board.

When Coast Guard crews located the freighter about 300 miles off Midway, they discovered most of the 120 people on board in the hold below.

The freighter, formerly used to transport freight, had been gutted and the bottom filled with sand.

The passengers were fed mostly rice and slept on the sand only a few inches apart, Poirier said.

They were allowed to go to the top for bowel movements but urinated in buckets that were lowered into the hold and raised when full.

When enforcers became upset with the passengers, the buckets were not raised. Many passengers became seasick, so after they had been at sea for a while, the conditions in the hold were foul, Poirier said.

Passengers told authorities they paid about $35,000 a head for passage to the United States.

At trial, at least one passenger who was beaten testified Pan had participated in the beating.

Five other people were also charged in the case. All but Pan pleaded guilty. They received sentences ranging from 21 months to five years and eight months.