Homeland Security

DATE=8/22/2005

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U.S. / SMUGGLING ARRESTS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-326699

BYLINE=MEREDITH BUEL

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: US Authorities Arrest 59 In Alleged Asian Criminal Enterprise

INTRO: U.S. law enforcement authorities say 87 individuals have been indicted and 59 arrests have been made on charges related to international conspiracies to smuggle counterfeit currency, weapons and drugs into the United States. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details in this report from Washington.

TEXT: Undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) posed as smugglers, arms traffickers, drug dealers and as associates of organized crime to defeat efforts by Asian criminal enterprises to import an array of illegal items into the United States.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John Richter says the arrests were the result of two parallel undercover investigations on the West and East coasts of the United States called Operations Royal Charm and Smoking Dragon.

/// RICHTER ACT ///

"This essentially was an organization that was willing to be a one-stop shop for illegal goods. We seized more than four-million dollars of highly deceptive currency, what some call loosely super-notes. It is the largest seizure of its kind. We did it before it could enter circulation and before it could do any damage to our economy."

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Richter says law enforcement authorities seized 36-thousand ecstasy pills and other drugs, along with hundreds of millions of counterfeit cigarettes.

He says the organized crime group was planning to smuggle large amounts of weapons into the United States.

/// 2ND RICHTER ACT ///

"We charged members of this organization with arms trafficking, and with conspiring to import more than a million dollars worth of weapons, including silenced pistols, silenced submachine guns, assault rifles and other weapons including rocket launchers."

/// END ACT ///

One of the more unusual aspects of this case was the use of a fake wedding to lure suspects from various countries to come to the United States where they were arrested.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie of the District of (the U.S. Northeastern State of) New Jersey says phony invitations were sent out around the world to members of the alleged organized crime group.

/// CHRISTIE ACT ///

"The male and female (undercover) agents who were in the invitation supposed to be married had been working on the investigation for a lengthy period of time, had represented themselves as being romantically involved to the people they were involved in this operation with. Eventually when it came time to bring this investigation to a conclusion, the idea of staging a wedding in order to bring these people to New Jersey to be able to apprehend them was developed. The people came into Atlantic City, New Jersey expecting that they were going to a wedding and instead they were arrested."

/// END ACT ///

Investigators would not name the nationalities of those arrested in the case, saying some are U.S. citizens.

The Justice Department says the plants that allegedly manufactured the counterfeit cigarettes are in China. (Signed)

NEB/MB/RH