Books like The snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe

In the 1980s, waves of Chinese migrants from Fujian arrived in America, seeking work and the promise of the U.S. While many struggled in a legal gray zone, one woman—Sister Ping—rose to dominate the underworld of New York’s Chinatown. From a noodle shop on Hester Street, she ran an underground bank for illegal immigrants and, more importantly, a vast smuggling network that stretched from Fujian to Hong Kong, Burma, Thailand, Kenya, Guatemala, and Mexico. Estimated to have earned $40 million, her operation relied on family ties and violent gangs to protect her reach. The tentacles of her empire unfolded into the infamous Golden Venture tragedy of 1993, when a ship carrying 300 undocumented immigrants grounded off Queens. For nearly a decade, New York’s “Jade Squad” and the FBI untangled the sprawling criminal network, exposing the intricate underbelly of illegal immigration. Keefe’s detailed narrative, drawn from hundreds of interviews, offers a panoramic look at the clandestine economy, the gangland enforcers she employed, the law‑enforcement officers who chased her, and the desperate immigrants who endured a 17,000‑mile journey for a chance at a better life.

First publish date: 2009