Wiseman said the defendants — Shixu Huang, Li Hua Yi, Jingfan Zhang, Pingping Zhang, and Zhan Shan Zhang — “shall not be removed from the Corrections facility without an order from the court or direction from the U.S. Marshals Service.”
All of the defendants are unemployed, except for Li Hua Yi, 34, female, who listed her employer as Irene Beauty Spa. $726 was seized from her.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Schuler is prosecuting the case.
In his affidavit, U.S. ICE Special Agent Isra Harahap said the five individuals were loaded in two inflatable boats, together with their personal belongings, when they were intercepted by federal agents, together with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Cutter Washington and a marked CNMI law enforcement vessel, while attempting to cross the waters from Rota to Guam in the early morning of Jan. 30, 2010.
Guilty
Also yesterday, Wiseman accepted the plea agreements of Zhi Guo Li and Lei Xu — two of the 24 defendants who admitted that they attempted to enter Guam illegally last Jan. 5.
Court-appointed attorneys Steven Pixley and Richard W. Pierce represented them.
The court sentenced Li and Xu to one-year probation commencing immediately.
They were remanded to U.S. Marshals Service for processing and they will be turned over to an authorized immigration official for deportation proceedings.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric O’Malley prosecuted the case.
So far, 15 of the 24 defendants have already signed plea agreements.
Personal effects
The five who were arrested on Jan. 30 carried personal effects that included construction-type hand tools, Harahap said.
“Both boats carried items that were not consistent with a day of recreational boating,” he added.
Harahap said the inflatable boats appeared to be overloaded with a combination of people, personal effects, and fuel containers.
Each boat’s water resistance storage wrap were utilized to store the passengers’ personal belongings.
The items included were a construction worker hardhat, a bag containing various construction-type hand tools, an electric rice cooker, and other personal effects.
“These items are consistent with an attempt to relocate to Guam,” Harahap said.
He added, “It is believed that the success of [a] Chinese national’s entry into Guam [in July 2009] is known among the Chinese community in Saipan” and this had encouraged individuals to illegally enter Guam.
On Dec. 9, 2009, Harahap said he received information from a concerned resident of Saipan regarding “human smuggling” from Rota to Guam.
The informant said 45-year-old Shixu Huang — who was among those arrested — was interested in buying a boat to smuggle people from Rota to Guam.
Harahap said he received information from the CNMI Attorney General’s Office that two Chinese nationals were boarding a plane to Rota, with two inflatable boats and outboard engines: Shixu Huang and Jingfan Zhang.
The two didn’t have return tickets and claimed that the purpose of their Rota trip was to take pictures of marine life.
They also had two life vests and two new five-gallon gas tanks.
Law enforcement monitored Huang and Zhang when they arrived on Rota.
The two hitched a ride from the airport and went to the Memorial Plaza in Songsong village.
Shixu Huang went to the east harbor and surveyed the area. He also went to a gas station and asked for the gas prices, Harahap said.
On Jan. 27, Harahap said two inflatable boats and outboard engines arrived on Rota from Saipan.
Shixu Huang and Jingfan Zhang continued surveying Rota’s east and west harbors in the early afternoon of same day.
In broken English, Shixu Huang asked information from a Rota police officer for directions to Tinian and Guam.
In the evening, Shixu Huang and Jingfan Zhang again approached the same police officer.
Shixu Huang asked for other locations where he could buy gas and oil.
He also inquired if the ocean was calmer at night and if they could swim in the waters if they had fallen from a boat.
At about 10 a.m. on Jan. 28, Zhan Shan Zhang arrived on Rota from Saipan.
A rental blue Toyota Corolla picked up Shixu Huang and Jingfan Zhang from their hotel, and they met with Zhan Shan Zhang at the airport.
The three then picked up the two inflatable boats and outboard engines that arrived a day earlier and proceeded to the hotel’s room.
Two adult orange life vests and two five-gallon gas tanks were purchased from a hardware by Shixu Huang and Jingfan Zhang.
On Jan. 29, Zhan Shan Zhang drove Shixu Huang to a gas station and filled four 5-gallon fuel tanks. They then checked out of the first rented hotel room, with all of their belongings.
On same day, Pingping Zhang and Lihua Yi purchased one-way airfare tickets and flew from Saipan to Rota, Harahap said.
On Jan. 30, just before 2 a.m., the defendants started to travel many times to the west harbor and back to the hotel, loading and unloading the inflatable boats and outboard engines and other personal belongings.
At about 4 a.m., Zhan Shan Zhang and Pingping Zhang boarded the first rubber boat, followed by Shixu Zhang, Jingfan Zhang, and Lihua Yi who boarded the other boat.
When law enforcement personnel arrived at Rota’s west harbor, Harahap said Zhan Shan Zhang cast off his boat’s mooring line and sped away toward the channel leading to the ocean.
Zhan Shan Zhang refused to slow down or stop when U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Washington energized its blue light.
A marked CNMI law enforcement vessel, with energized blue light, then maneuvered in front of their rubber boat, forced them to turn around back to the harbor.
During the same period, Harahap said Shixu Zhang was attempting to pull start his boat’s outboard engine to no avail.
Law enforcement personnel later arrived and ordered him to secure the engine.
