On May 23, 2014, the sky in New York was gray, and dark clouds shrouded the sky, as if it were going to rain in the next second.
In this bad weather, thousands of people gathered in front of the Bowford Funeral Home in the United States and spontaneously lined up.
They were waiting for a person's body to come out of the funeral.
There were also 160 black Lincolns at the scene, which came to bid farewell.
Passing citizens were astonished and speculated, who has such a great influence?
After asking, I learned that the person they were waiting for was the most famous "smuggling queen" zheng cuiping in American history.
Figure 1 Zheng Cuiping
So, why is Zheng Cuiping, a stowaway criminal wanted by the United States worldwide, loved by so many people?
What happened to her?
Ordinary half a life
Speaking of Zheng Cuiping's story, it will start from 1949.
In 1949, Zheng Cuiping was born in the coastal city of Fuzhou, so the locals all made a living from fishing.
Because of her poor family, Zheng Cuiping's cultural level is not high, and after graduating from junior high school, she can only come out to work to supplement her family.
However, her work did not improve their family's situation.
During that time, it was popular to go to the United States to work and get high wages.
However, it is very difficult to apply for a visa to the United States.
As a result, Zheng Cuiping's father has been planning smuggling, and he works as a crew member of the Hong Kong ocean freighter.
Figure 2 Zheng Cuiping
At that time, in order to make everyone not pay attention to himself, Zheng Cuiping's father looked like an honest person on the surface, but in fact had been planning smuggling.
Finally, he found an opportunity.
When the ship docked in the port of New York, Zheng Cuiping's father secretly disembarked the ship and stayed in the United States without anyone noticing.
After working in the United States for a while, their family situation changed.
In 1977, Zheng's father was discovered and sent back to China.
At that time, Zheng Cuiping was already a mother and had a four-year-old daughter.
As early as 1973, Zheng Cuiping and her family left the mainland and came to live in Hong Kong.
After arriving in Hong Kong, Zheng Cuiping gave full play to her business mind and opened a department store in Hong Kong.
It is also this department store that has brought a turnaround to Zheng Cuiping's American dream.
Figure 3
Soon after, she saved up money and opened a garment factory in Shenzhen.
Gradually, the family's life in Hong Kong began to get on track.
Although life is good, Zheng Cuiping has always had a thought in her heart, that is, to go to the United States.
Because in the minds of people at that time, they had always stubbornly believed that working in the United States would have a higher salary, and it was also very face-saving to say it.
The same is true of her husband, Zhang Yide, who once successfully smuggled himself into the United States.
But the good times did not last long, and two years later, he was also sent back to China.
The American dream of Zheng Cuiping's family was briefly broken.
In June 1981, Zheng Cuiping's dream finally ushered in a turnaround.
An old American couple came to Hong Kong to travel, and they often went to Zheng Cuiping's shop to buy goods, so they met Zheng Cuiping.
Because they were not familiar with the local life, they became very good friends with Zheng Cuiping.
Figure 4
Dream america
When they learned that Zheng Cuiping also had an American dream, the couple expressed their willingness to take Zheng Cuiping to the United States.
However, they can only let Zheng Cuiping go to the United States as a nanny.
Zheng Cuiping did not care about this identity, as long as she could go to the United States, it was enough for her.
She rushed to the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong to apply for a visa.
Seeing Zheng Cuiping's resume as a successful businessman, the official in charge of the visa was very confused and asked her:
"I see you're a successful businessman in Hong Kong, so why would you give up everything to become a nanny in the United States?"
In fact, this problem has already appeared in Zheng Cuiping's mind ten thousand times.
Without even thinking about it, she said in her stumbling English:
"I've always had an American dream, and since I've become a good businessman, I'm going to be a good nanny."
Figure 5
Afraid that the visa officer would not give the visa, Deng Cuiping added:
"I hope that one day, I can bring my children to the United States."
The visa officer saw Deng Cuiping's sincerity and applied for a visa for her.
After walking out of the gate, Deng Cuiping finally smiled happily.
The American dream of the whole family, today, can finally be realized in her.
It was this time to go to the United States that Zheng Cuiping set up her own smuggling group of family-style workshops.
Smuggling business
On November 17, 1981, Zheng Cuiping finally arrived in the United States.
In the beginning, she just did her part here.
Later, some acquaintances heard that she had arrived in the United States, so they contacted her and asked her to help bring her to the United States.
Successful businessmen will always see business opportunities from all aspects, and Deng Cuiping is like this.
She started her own smuggling business.
Figure 6
In order to reduce the risk of smuggling, the smuggling route chosen by Zheng Cuiping can be described as extremely cumbersome.
At that time, there was a person named Wen Yuhui, who contacted Zheng Cuiping through Zheng Cuiping's relatives and wanted to smuggle herself to the United States.
Zheng Cuiping first let him travel from Fuzhou to Hong Kong.
There, Zheng Cuiping's sister received him.
He was bought locally for clothes and some basic necessities and then sent him to an apartment.
Only then did Zheng Cuiping appear.
In order to maintain her secrecy, Deng Cuiping never chats with any stowaways.
But her words and deeds tell the stowaways that this ordinary woman is the decision-maker here.
At that time, the commission charged by Zheng Cuiping, although lower than that of the same industry, was also worth a lot, and many people had to borrow money everywhere in order to pay the commission.
Figure 7 Stowaways
Wen Yuhui was like this.
In order to pay a commission to Zheng Cuiping, he also carried a debt.
When he arrived in the United States, he had to work from morning to night to earn money and pay off his loans.
Zheng Cuiping saw that he was unaccompanied in the local area and found him a job.
Thanks to Zheng Cuiping's help, Wen Yuhui often goes to Zheng Cuiping's shop to help when she is fine.
The contact between the two gradually increased, and later Zheng Cuiping also took Wen Yuhui on this road.
He became a "snakehead" and transported stowaways with Zheng Cuiping.
Later, because wen Yuhui was arrested and accused Zheng Cuiping of things, there was a series of enmity and entanglement between the two.
Later, more and more people wanted to smuggle themselves to the United States, and some villages in Fujian even became empty villages.
Figure 8
Deng Cuiping also made a lot of money during this time, because the commission was fair and there was credit, and many people sought her smuggling.
Deng Cuiping is also a visitor who does not refuse, helping more and more people to realize their dreams of the United States.
Although these stowaways came to the United States through illegal means, after working for a period of time, they also accumulated a certain wealth.
But they simply can't send those savings home.
Many people are in a hurry to find people, but in a foreign country, what can they do.
When Zheng Cuiping saw this phenomenon, she immediately found a business opportunity.
Because she has connections in Hong Kong, Fuzhou, New York and other places, she can easily switch between the US dollar and the renminbi.
She said she could help the smugglers send money back to China.
At that time, the Chinese who needed to send money back to the country only needed to hand over the US dollars to Zheng Cuiping and leave the names and contact information of their relatives.
Figure 9
Usually, in less than two or three days, their families will receive money sent by Zheng Cuiping.
Of course, Zheng Cuiping is not free to help.
She charges a 3% commission per order, and the lack of a business makes her addicted to it.
In this way, the commission income alone has brought Zheng Cuiping a huge fortune.
Although her behavior belongs to the fire robbery.
However, because of her actions, it has brought a lot of convenience to the local overseas Chinese, so Zheng Cuiping's reputation in the local area is very good.
At that time, there was no mobile phone payment at all, and Deng Cuiping's property was countless, but what was certain was that the absolute amount was not cheap.
With more and more money in her hands, Ms. Zheng also lent it to stowaways who couldn't afford to pay it, and then charged interest.
At that time, almost no one in the entire Chinatown knew about Zheng Cuiping.
Almost every Fuzhou person who smuggled over had borrowed money from Zheng Cuiping.
Figure 10
Gangster cooperation
With more and more wealth, Zheng Cuiping has long been less cautious than she once was.
She became more ambitious and began to construct her own smuggling kingdom.
It just so happened that at that time, the Fuqing gang also changed to smuggling business, and their boss Guo Liangqi found Zheng Cuiping and wanted to cooperate with her.
With the support of gangsters, how could Zheng Cuiping disagree, and soon they began to cooperate.
They use ships to transport stowaways to the United States, a ship can transport hundreds of stowaways, and each stowaway needs a commission of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.
Such huge profits made Zheng Cuiping want to stop.
High returns naturally carry great risks.
Sure enough, in the process of a cooperation, there was a sudden accident.
It was 1993, and their cargo ship was sailing to a small island in Kenya when it suddenly had an accident.
More than three hundred people smuggled in were forced to stay on the island.
Figure 11
The first time Zheng Cuiping encountered this situation, she knew that she must be responsible for these people.
So they re-purchased cargo ships from Singapore.
Due to the hasty purchase, only one ship that had been abandoned for many years was bought.
Finally, in order to facilitate the departure of the personnel, Zheng Cuiping contacted the speedboat in advance and agreed to pick up the stowaways when their cargo ship was about to arrive on the other side.
The ship was rusty, and 300 stowaways, staring blankly at the cargo ship, hesitated to board the ship.
However, there were only two paths ahead of them, either to stay on the island or to fight.
Soon, everyone was on board.
The ship was repainted with a resounding name: "Golden Adventure"
The stowaways embarked on a journey.
Unexpectedly, this sea trip lasted for 127 days before they finally saw the other side.
Figure 12
Everyone waited for the speedboat to come to pick them up, but they didn't expect the change to happen again.
Speedboats are not coming!
In desperation, hundreds of people could only jump into the sea together.
It was the night of June 6, hundreds of people jumped into the sea together, and the incident directly alarmed the police in the United States because of the large noise.
They quickly set out to rescue more than 200 Chinese people who jumped into the sea, but ten people still lost their lives in the sea.
Because of this incident, Guo Liangqi, Wen Yuhui and others of the Fuqing Gang were arrested one after another.
Prison disaster
Seeing that her accomplice had been arrested, Zheng Cuiping immediately decided to leave the United States.
Although he had just experienced failure, he also caused ten lives.
However, this did not affect Zheng Cuiping's reputation.
After arriving at her hometown in Fuzhou, many people still asked her for help in smuggling to the United States.
Zheng Cuiping also committed crimes again, and she constantly smuggled villagers into the United States.
Figure 13
Often walking by the river, how can you not get your shoes wet.
In 1998, she piloted a human smuggling operation in which the ship on which the stowaways were travelling capsized and 14 people drowned.
The U.S. government immediately imposed a global arrest on Zheng Cuiping.
In the face of the wanted by the US government, Zheng Cuiping is not afraid, and she has long thought of a way out of the crime for many years.
She took out her fake passport that she had earlier obtained and left the United States.
This made the US police feel very annoyed, because they could not find Zheng Cuiping, and the US police had no way to do anything.
The case did not turn around until the beginning of 2000.
U.S. consulate officials in Hong Kong, while sorting out their missing airport green cards, found the name of Ms. Cheng's son there.
He felt that this was a good opportunity and immediately contacted the Hong Kong police.
Figure 14
He believes that if Zheng Cuiping's son is in Hong Kong, then Zheng Cuiping will definitely meet with him.
So the Hong Kong police made a covert deployment.
And in the name of the airport, he sent a letter to Zheng Cuiping's son, inviting him to go to the airport to handle the procedures for the loss of his green card.
Subsequently, the police monitored the whereabouts of Deng Cuiping's son.
It wasn't until 11 a.m. that police found a stocky Chinese woman at the airport.
Through the portrait provided by Wen Yuhui, the police determined that this person was Zheng Cuiping.
An arrest was immediately carried out against her.
On Deng Cuiping's body, the police found a passport photo of a stowaway and a fake passport that did not belong to her.
After the identity was determined, the police immediately put Tang Cuiping in a Hong Kong prison.
Zheng Cuiping began her prison career!
Figure 15
After two years in prison in Hong Kong, because the United States strongly demanded the extradition of Zheng Cuiping, she was sent to the United States to continue to live in prison.
In May 2005, Zheng Cuiping set foot on American soil.
The city has carried countless memories for her, but it has also brought her countless regrets.
She knew she was doomed this time, and unsurprisingly, Zheng Cuiping was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
In 35 years, maybe she will never get out of prison alive again!
Although it crossed national borders, the verdict of the trial was also transmitted back to China with the word of the local Chinese.
Many local villagers even said they were willing to serve Zheng Cuiping's sentence for a period of time.
After serving her sentence, Zheng Cuiping has not been dead hearted and insisted on the above.
Over the years, there has been no interruption.
It wasn't until October 2010 that she gave up hope of an appeal.
Figure 16 Zheng Cuiping
In a letter to a reporter from the American "Overseas Chinese Daily", she wrote:
"I have long lost confidence in my own imprisonment and will not continue to appeal. I just hope there is a person who will have a sense of justice and stand up and tell the truth. ”
However, Zheng Cuiping did not wait for that day at all.
In prison, her body is not as good as a year, her cholesterol and blood lipids are high, the medical conditions in prison are extremely poor, and there is no one to take care of her.
On April 24, 2014, Zheng Cuiping died of pancreatic cancer in prison.
She was defined by the American media as a triad, and spent the rest of her life in prison, but helped countless Chinese people realize their dreams of the United States.
At that time, her funeral ceremony was carried out according to traditional Chinese funeral rites.
Countless people followed Deng Cuiping's portrait and silently sent her off.
Figure 17
Different from the underworld that people think, either fierce and evil, or cold and gorgeous, Deng Cuiping's appearance looks so ordinary.
On the portrait, she has short hair and is dressed in an extremely ordinary way, which seems to be no different from an ordinary Chinese housewife.
Only those familiar with her, though, know that the woman has built the most sophisticated smuggling network in the world.
She helped smuggle at least 3,000 people into the United States, making a profit of $40 million.
Because of this, although she violated the laws of the United States, there are still many people who like her.
At that time, other smuggling criminal gangs treated stowaways with unparalleled cruelty.
Figure 18 Related reports
However, Zheng Cuiping will always argue with them, insisting that:
"As long as the stowaway pays, it should be considered a customer, not a crime."
Although at that time, countless people said that the "snake head" was bad, no one said that Zheng Cuiping was bad.
A generation of "stowaway queens" has since come to an end.
The so-called gentleman loves money and has a way to get it.
Although Zheng Cuiping has helped many people realize their dreams of the United States, this has also violated the law.
Knowing that the law is sacrosanct, all those who try to break the law for profit will be punished by the law.