LEADER OF CHINESE ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY
AND TOP LIEUTENANT CONVICTED OF
TWO NARCOTICS-RELATED MURDERS

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SUI MIN MA, a/k/a “Frank Ma,” the leader of a Chinese organized crime group, and BING YI CHEN, a/k/a “Ah Ngai,” were both convicted in Manhattan federal court of murdering two individuals in Toronto, Canada on July 20, 1994 in connection with their heroin trafficking activities. MA pleaded guilty to the charges on September 20, 2007, four days before the trial was set to begin. Today, CHEN was found guilty by a jury of two counts of murder. According to the Indictment, the evidence at trial, and statements made during MA's guilty plea:

MA was the “dai lo,” or leader, of a criminal enterprise -- alleged as the “Frank Ma Organization” -- that was engaged throughout most of the 1990s in heroin trafficking, the export of stolen vehicles to China, the robbery of computer chip manufacturers, illegal gambling, and alien smuggling. The Frank Ma Organization committed five murders and one attempted murder in furtherance of its criminal activities. Although the Frank Ma Organization had connections in Hong Kong and China, it operated principally in New York and California.

From 1991 through 1996, MA, CHEN, and their associates were engaged in the importation of large, wholesale quantities of heroin worth millions of dollars from Asia into the United States for distribution in New York City and other locations. Around the summer of 1994, MA’s principal heroin supplier in Hong Kong called MA and asked him 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 the intended victim or were involved in narcotics trafficking.

MA and CHEN both face a maximum term of imprisonment of life and a mandatory minimum of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the two murder charges. Sentencing is presently scheduled for January 2008.

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

Mr. GARCIA 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. GARCIA 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 W.S. WILSON LEUNG, JONATHAN B. NEW, and MICHAEL M. ROSENSAFT are in charge of the prosecution.

07-257

###