WEBVTT - Episode 1: Lucky Bird 0:00:15.411 --> 0:00:15.891 Pushkin. 0:00:19.610 --> 0:00:22.851 Hey everyone, before we get into this episode, I wanted 0:00:22.851 --> 0:00:24.410 to let you know that you can listen to the 0:00:24.451 --> 0:00:28.011 full season of The Chinatown Stinging add free right now. 0:00:28.371 --> 0:00:32.371 By signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, 0:00:32.771 --> 0:00:36.370 full audiobooks, and other true crime binges from your favorite 0:00:36.371 --> 0:00:40.611 Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the Chinatownsting 0:00:40.771 --> 0:00:45.051 Show page on Apple Podcasts. We're at pushkin dot fm, 0:00:45.091 --> 0:00:51.371 slash plus. On February ninth, nineteen eighty eight, David Shean 0:00:51.531 --> 0:00:54.651 was working his usual shift. He was a US customs 0:00:54.691 --> 0:00:56.291 agent at JFK Airport. 0:00:57.251 --> 0:00:58.171 His phone rang. 0:01:00.491 --> 0:01:06.171 I was talking through a customs agent in California who says, hey, 0:01:07.450 --> 0:01:10.891 we just got three shipments of heroin and three different 0:01:10.931 --> 0:01:15.131 bailed parcels. Do you guys want the case? So I 0:01:15.131 --> 0:01:16.891 said absolutely, we'll take it. 0:01:18.131 --> 0:01:20.731 The parcels were on their way from Hong Kong to 0:01:20.811 --> 0:01:24.691 New York. Customs agents were looking inside packages more often 0:01:25.211 --> 0:01:28.611 ever since President Reagan in Congress had ramped up the 0:01:28.651 --> 0:01:32.411 war on drugs. David Chian was part of this special 0:01:32.451 --> 0:01:36.131 task force to combat and narcotic smuggling, so they got 0:01:36.171 --> 0:01:38.731 calls about drugs coming into New York City all the time. 0:01:39.971 --> 0:01:43.411 This call was special, though, because inside each of these 0:01:43.451 --> 0:01:49.731 packages was about seven million dollars worth of heroin. In 0:01:49.771 --> 0:01:55.771 today's money, that's something like eighteen million dollars per package. 0:01:55.851 --> 0:01:59.331 Peter Mattesser was an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration. 0:02:00.171 --> 0:02:02.771 He really wanted to know who was waiting for those boxes. 0:02:04.451 --> 0:02:05.771 I know it was going to be a big case 0:02:05.771 --> 0:02:08.451 because there was a lot of heroin and the focus 0:02:08.571 --> 0:02:10.851 was on China white heroin at the time, because a 0:02:10.891 --> 0:02:13.371 lot was coming into New York. A lot heroin was 0:02:13.370 --> 0:02:16.491 coming in from China to Hong Kong then into New York, 0:02:17.691 --> 0:02:21.171 and it sounded like a good opportunity to work a 0:02:21.171 --> 0:02:21.691 big case. 0:02:23.291 --> 0:02:28.131 On February seventeenth, the boxes arrived at the airport. Peter 0:02:28.211 --> 0:02:30.411 and David knew they were at the beginning of something big, 0:02:31.011 --> 0:02:45.611 but they didn't know how big. My name is Liddy 0:02:45.691 --> 0:02:49.251 Jin Kott. As a journalist, I often report on law 0:02:49.331 --> 0:02:52.851 and power. I've written an audiobook about the Supreme Court, 0:02:53.171 --> 0:02:56.810 covered the federal trial of the crypto Billionaire, and investigated 0:02:56.851 --> 0:03:00.770 the fallout of the legalization of sports bedding. I'm interested 0:03:00.811 --> 0:03:04.011 in how throughout American history we've used the law as 0:03:04.011 --> 0:03:07.051 a tool to make our country both more and less. 0:03:07.251 --> 0:03:11.531 Just a few years I came into possession of a suitcase. 0:03:12.131 --> 0:03:15.770 It was full of thousands of pages of court documents. 0:03:16.171 --> 0:03:18.891 They were all about a case a prosecutor spent years 0:03:18.931 --> 0:03:22.211 trying to build against a criminal who refused to be caught. 0:03:23.611 --> 0:03:26.611 There was mention of a criminal syndicate powerful enough to 0:03:26.651 --> 0:03:31.571 take on the Italian mafia, an attempted assassination, a global manhunt, 0:03:32.131 --> 0:03:36.971 congressional hearings, international press coverage, a standing room only trial. 0:03:37.811 --> 0:03:39.851 And none of it would have happened without a group 0:03:39.931 --> 0:03:43.731 of ordinary people, people who in time would have to 0:03:43.731 --> 0:03:48.771 make a decision about who to protect and who to betray. 0:03:49.531 --> 0:03:52.731 But that afternoon in nineteen eighty eight, one of these 0:03:52.771 --> 0:03:53.891 people was just. 0:03:53.851 --> 0:03:55.011 Waiting for a box. 0:03:59.771 --> 0:04:14.291 This is the Chinatown Staying, Episode one Lucky Bird. Court 0:04:14.331 --> 0:04:17.811 documents would later describe the exact contents of each box 0:04:17.851 --> 0:04:21.690 that landed in New York, twenty small bricks made up 0:04:21.731 --> 0:04:24.931 of white compressed powder, wrapped up in either brown tape 0:04:25.130 --> 0:04:28.811 or duct tape. In one of the packages, the heroin 0:04:28.891 --> 0:04:31.570 was hidden inside these red and white tea boxes that 0:04:31.651 --> 0:04:34.890 had Chinese characters on them, and the other two. The 0:04:34.931 --> 0:04:40.570 heroin was hidden among stuffed animals. Now Peter Mtesser and 0:04:40.651 --> 0:04:45.371 the DA could get to work. Step one, take out 0:04:45.411 --> 0:04:48.811 the heroin and replace it with decoy heroin. It was 0:04:48.851 --> 0:04:51.731 made out of wooden blocks, cut and tape together. 0:04:51.851 --> 0:04:54.090 Except you leave a sample of the heroin in there. 0:04:54.491 --> 0:04:59.811 We'd put the stuffed animals back in. Our goal was 0:04:59.851 --> 0:05:02.611 to get someone opening up that box and going through it. 0:05:02.731 --> 0:05:03.531 That was our goal. 0:05:04.331 --> 0:05:06.971 So when someone on the receiving end lived inside the boxes, 0:05:06.971 --> 0:05:08.291 they should notice nothing weird. 0:05:09.411 --> 0:05:09.891 Step two. 0:05:10.571 --> 0:05:14.171 The Feds hid thin wires in a transmitter inside each box. 0:05:14.651 --> 0:05:17.051 Whoever was looking through the box would break the wires 0:05:17.411 --> 0:05:20.331 and that would trigger a silent electric signal that would 0:05:20.331 --> 0:05:22.811 be picked up by these special machines in the hands 0:05:22.811 --> 0:05:26.450 of law enforcement. And this receiver had only two signals. 0:05:26.931 --> 0:05:30.690 It was a slow beep you're listening in to like 0:05:30.731 --> 0:05:33.650 a computer almost and you hear the beat beat beeping 0:05:33.731 --> 0:05:37.291 in When a rapid beap goes beppp beat, that means 0:05:37.291 --> 0:05:37.890 it's been open. 0:05:39.251 --> 0:05:42.010 The dagents set up their trap as fast as they could. 0:05:42.451 --> 0:05:44.251 They didn't want the people who were waiting for the 0:05:44.291 --> 0:05:46.051 packages to get suspicious. 0:05:46.811 --> 0:05:48.971 They know how long it takes from point A to 0:05:49.011 --> 0:05:51.011 point B, so as soon as you get a day 0:05:51.091 --> 0:05:56.371 or two late, you're investiation could be compromised. 0:05:57.571 --> 0:06:00.811 Step three. Each of these boxes had to be dropped 0:06:00.851 --> 0:06:03.770 off at exactly the same time they were to be 0:06:03.811 --> 0:06:08.091 delivered by postal inspectors who were working undercover. Vans full 0:06:08.131 --> 0:06:11.291 of agents were waiting nearby, listening in on their little 0:06:11.291 --> 0:06:13.450 computers and ready to spring into action. 0:06:14.131 --> 0:06:15.971 You have to cover all the different parts of the 0:06:16.051 --> 0:06:18.571 locations because if someone takes the box and runs out 0:06:18.571 --> 0:06:21.051 the door, then we have Heroin on the street. 0:06:23.291 --> 0:06:27.291 On February twenty third, the mail packages, the vans full 0:06:27.331 --> 0:06:31.051 of agents, and the undercover postal workers, they were all 0:06:31.171 --> 0:06:34.491 ready to go. Two of the packages were addressed to 0:06:34.531 --> 0:06:38.651 Manhattan's Chinatown and one was going to Brooklyn. Peter and 0:06:38.690 --> 0:06:41.931 the customs agent David Shan followed the two packages that 0:06:41.971 --> 0:06:43.051 were going to Chinatown. 0:06:43.571 --> 0:06:48.130 The thrill of the chase really becomes just it sort 0:06:48.131 --> 0:06:48.931 of takes you over. 0:06:51.491 --> 0:06:54.690 That day, like on any other day, Chinatown was bustling. 0:06:55.690 --> 0:06:59.770 The sidewalks were crowded with vendors selling cucumbers, eggplants, bockjoy, 0:07:00.251 --> 0:07:03.611 dried mushrooms. People were walking shoulder to shoulder. 0:07:03.651 --> 0:07:04.531 On the main streets. 0:07:05.411 --> 0:07:08.091 There are neilon signs everywhere saying go this way or 0:07:08.131 --> 0:07:11.611 go that way. And there was always a truck somewhere 0:07:11.651 --> 0:07:15.051 squeezing its way down these narrow streets full of fresh wares. 0:07:16.131 --> 0:07:18.771 That's all to say, Chinatown wasn't an easy place to 0:07:18.811 --> 0:07:22.251 find parking, especially not for a van full of non 0:07:22.291 --> 0:07:24.811 Asian undercover federal agents. 0:07:25.611 --> 0:07:28.971 We were underneath the highway in the hend the East 0:07:29.051 --> 0:07:32.731 River Drive War and that's where we had thirty agents 0:07:33.131 --> 0:07:36.891 all lined up ready to go with shotguns and rifles 0:07:36.891 --> 0:07:37.691 and un davy. 0:07:38.931 --> 0:07:42.411 There were two wired up packages addressed to two apartment 0:07:42.411 --> 0:07:46.251 buildings right next to each other. So the undercover postal 0:07:46.251 --> 0:07:49.571 inspector buzzed at one address and then he buzzed at 0:07:49.611 --> 0:07:55.251 the other. No answer, he left behind mail slips. Peter 0:07:55.331 --> 0:07:58.491 and David waited to see what would happen next, and 0:07:59.211 --> 0:07:59.971 waited some more. 0:08:01.691 --> 0:08:04.491 One of the guys from DA took a leak in 0:08:04.571 --> 0:08:08.331 the East River, and believe it or not, two sanitation 0:08:08.491 --> 0:08:10.891 police guys ca him up to him and said, hey, 0:08:12.251 --> 0:08:13.291 you can't pee in the river. 0:08:15.251 --> 0:08:17.691 David Shean could feel his hopes of catching anyone in 0:08:17.771 --> 0:08:22.011 Chinatown pissing away to nobody was coming to collect the packages, 0:08:22.251 --> 0:08:24.530 even though their street value was supposed to be huge. 0:08:25.131 --> 0:08:29.291 Maybe someone had tipped them off. The whole operation now 0:08:29.371 --> 0:08:32.131 hinged on the third box, the one that was going 0:08:32.131 --> 0:08:36.011 to Brooklyn. We heard the beep go off. Peter Mattessa 0:08:36.170 --> 0:08:38.931 rushed over to the Brooklyn address to meet the agents. 0:08:38.971 --> 0:08:39.211 There. 0:08:39.810 --> 0:08:41.970 We knocked on the door or broke down the door. 0:08:42.050 --> 0:08:44.330 There's the package open. The stuffed animals were out. 0:08:45.210 --> 0:08:48.011 Peter found himself face to face with a thirty eight 0:08:48.050 --> 0:08:51.130 year old woman, a mother of two, an accountant at 0:08:51.131 --> 0:08:56.170 a bank. Peter explained she was under arrest. 0:08:56.731 --> 0:09:01.891 Read her rights, you know in Cantonese, amandarin. I forgot 0:09:01.891 --> 0:09:05.011 exactly which one it was. She was very upset, crying, 0:09:06.491 --> 0:09:10.530 and your goal is to try to calm the situation 0:09:10.651 --> 0:09:13.931 down as soon as you can and then hopefully move 0:09:14.011 --> 0:09:14.611 up the ladder. 0:09:17.330 --> 0:09:20.690 By move up the ladder, Peter means this woman might 0:09:20.731 --> 0:09:23.651 have information that would help the FEDS figure out who's 0:09:23.690 --> 0:09:26.771 in charge of importing the heroin. The first rung of 0:09:26.771 --> 0:09:30.690 the ladder was right here in this house. Peter needed 0:09:30.690 --> 0:09:33.891 to know the box's next destination, and to find that out, 0:09:34.251 --> 0:09:38.131 he needed this woman to act totally normal. She needed 0:09:38.170 --> 0:09:40.371 to call whoever she was going to call after the 0:09:40.410 --> 0:09:43.050 box's arrival. They needed her to go from being an 0:09:43.050 --> 0:09:46.251 accomplice to being a cooperating witness quickly. 0:09:47.050 --> 0:09:50.491 I tell her the man of heroin here, you're facing 0:09:50.970 --> 0:09:53.891 ten years to life because it's so much Harwin. This 0:09:54.050 --> 0:09:57.011 is your time to help out yourself. We can't guarantee 0:09:57.011 --> 0:09:58.851 you how much jail time you do, but it'll be 0:09:58.930 --> 0:10:02.970 brought to the attention of the judges. Will know how 0:10:03.210 --> 0:10:05.211 much you've helped out in this case. And it's a 0:10:05.251 --> 0:10:08.731 courageous decision to make. We try to tell them we 0:10:08.731 --> 0:10:12.251 think it's the right to make. To help us, then 0:10:12.330 --> 0:10:12.851 we help you. 0:10:14.530 --> 0:10:16.811 But the person this woman was going to call was 0:10:16.851 --> 0:10:21.371 her friend. If she cooperated, that would mean betraying her friend. 0:10:21.970 --> 0:10:24.731 But if she didn't cooperate, she might not see her 0:10:24.731 --> 0:10:27.810 two children grow up. She had to make an impossible 0:10:27.851 --> 0:10:31.611 decision as the agents hovered over her the clock was ticking. 0:10:35.611 --> 0:10:37.971 This woman agreed to cooperate. Her name is in the 0:10:38.011 --> 0:10:40.690 court documents, but she never responded to her request for 0:10:40.731 --> 0:10:44.451 an interview. Anyway, her name's not that important to the story. 0:10:44.851 --> 0:10:47.610 What's important is the chain of events she set off 0:10:47.690 --> 0:10:51.050 by giving the federal agents the name of her contact. 0:10:53.011 --> 0:10:56.091 Over the next few days, agents were arresting moms like 0:10:56.131 --> 0:10:57.971 her all over in New York City. 0:10:58.810 --> 0:11:01.370 It was like the first time we've ever seen anything 0:11:01.450 --> 0:11:04.730 like that. Really, basically your stay at home moms were 0:11:04.771 --> 0:11:07.651 picking up these you know, these lodge of matsa heroin 0:11:07.851 --> 0:11:10.370 and I'm sure I knew it was drugs. 0:11:11.371 --> 0:11:13.611 It turned out that all of these women, women who 0:11:13.651 --> 0:11:16.490 received packages of heroin sent to their homes, all to 0:11:16.570 --> 0:11:21.371 each other from playing mahjong. Mahjong is a game of 0:11:21.491 --> 0:11:24.611 luck and skill. You play with domino like tiles instead 0:11:24.611 --> 0:11:29.690 of with cards. They have different designs on them, stones, bamboos, dragons, 0:11:30.210 --> 0:11:32.490 and the goal is to end up with four pairs 0:11:32.530 --> 0:11:35.851 of three tiles and one pair of two tiles. That's 0:11:35.851 --> 0:11:39.570 called the eyes. Different hands are with different amounts of points. 0:11:40.131 --> 0:11:43.570 There were majong parlors all over Chinatown. These are places 0:11:43.570 --> 0:11:45.530 where people could play for a bit of money or 0:11:45.570 --> 0:11:48.410 a lot of money. The parlors were a place to 0:11:48.450 --> 0:11:51.771 catch up with old friends and make new ones. But 0:11:51.891 --> 0:11:55.690 now many of these friends were under arrest and they 0:11:55.690 --> 0:12:01.011 were being forced to turn on one another. Customs agent 0:12:01.131 --> 0:12:03.771 David Shechan was doing a lot of that forcing. 0:12:04.410 --> 0:12:07.330 We're going to seize all your assets, We're gonna take 0:12:07.330 --> 0:12:09.450 all your kids away from you, and you're gonna go 0:12:09.570 --> 0:12:12.810 to jail, and they're going to go to Forster care 0:12:13.131 --> 0:12:15.491 and things of that nature. 0:12:15.570 --> 0:12:18.330 You know you're doing that because you really need their 0:12:18.930 --> 0:12:20.410 help to get to the person at the top. 0:12:20.450 --> 0:12:23.691 I guess absolutely, Yeah, you need somebody, and you know 0:12:23.810 --> 0:12:26.050 you need more than one person to cooperate. 0:12:25.810 --> 0:12:27.330 Because you need it to be cooperated. 0:12:27.611 --> 0:12:27.891 Yes. 0:12:33.651 --> 0:12:35.731 After I got that suitcase full of court documents on 0:12:35.771 --> 0:12:38.771 the Chinatown drug trials, I realized I need help from 0:12:38.771 --> 0:12:42.131 someone who spoke Cantonese. That's the language that's spoken by 0:12:42.131 --> 0:12:43.890 many of the people in the documents. 0:12:45.450 --> 0:12:48.211 My name is Shu Yu Wang. I'm a practicing attorney 0:12:48.290 --> 0:12:49.570 in the city in New York. 0:12:50.651 --> 0:12:52.651 I met she Used through a friend of a friend. 0:12:53.371 --> 0:12:54.971 We met up at a bar and I told her 0:12:55.050 --> 0:12:56.450 all about the Chinatown case. 0:12:57.410 --> 0:13:00.771 It was a very interesting story to me personally. I 0:13:00.810 --> 0:13:03.811 came from the Cantonese area in China, which is like 0:13:03.891 --> 0:13:06.410 super close to Hong Kong, where a lot of those 0:13:06.450 --> 0:13:10.410 people in the story were originally from. My major in 0:13:10.450 --> 0:13:13.651 college was actually journalism, so that sort of like opened 0:13:13.731 --> 0:13:14.850 up a part of my brain. 0:13:15.970 --> 0:13:18.810 So she joined me in reporting out this story. We 0:13:18.851 --> 0:13:22.450 went over court documents together, and we visited Chinatown together 0:13:22.731 --> 0:13:23.370 for months and. 0:13:23.371 --> 0:13:25.891 Months loss. 0:13:30.651 --> 0:13:31.170 Podcast. 0:13:31.611 --> 0:13:32.970 Yeah, that's that. 0:13:35.251 --> 0:13:37.050 For most of the time that I've lived in New York, 0:13:37.530 --> 0:13:40.251 Chinatown's been a place where I'd get dinner or drinks 0:13:40.251 --> 0:13:41.050 with friends. 0:13:41.570 --> 0:13:44.330 For sure, you was a neighborhood where she got groceries. 0:13:45.491 --> 0:13:48.610 You are certain ingredients that's a rare fine in a 0:13:48.690 --> 0:13:52.971 non Chinese grocery stores, like chicken feet. There are like 0:13:53.011 --> 0:13:55.851 certain things that I can only get here at a 0:13:55.891 --> 0:13:56.451 good price. 0:14:01.330 --> 0:14:03.651 But we've been learning that Chinatown's a place with one 0:14:03.731 --> 0:14:05.251 hundred and fifty years of history. 0:14:05.970 --> 0:14:09.371 So Chinatown's today we think of as these tryst destiny, 0:14:09.930 --> 0:14:12.011 and you know, they're fun places to go to get 0:14:12.530 --> 0:14:15.570 you know, trash keys or jim sum and have kind 0:14:15.570 --> 0:14:18.371 of a colorful urban experience or you know, a fun 0:14:18.491 --> 0:14:23.371 meal or something. But the reason Chinatowns exist in the 0:14:23.411 --> 0:14:27.651 first place is really about a history of racial segregation. 0:14:28.931 --> 0:14:29.691 That's Ellen Wu. 0:14:30.291 --> 0:14:34.131 She teaches history at Indiana University, Bloomington, and she talked 0:14:34.131 --> 0:14:37.251 to us about how Chinatowns arose in American cities in 0:14:37.291 --> 0:14:42.491 the face of anti Asian laws and violence. US immigration 0:14:42.571 --> 0:14:46.331 laws also helped create chinatowns, especially a law called the 0:14:46.451 --> 0:14:51.370 Chinese Exclusion Act, which passed in eighteen eighty two. Another 0:14:51.491 --> 0:14:54.850 historian We spoke to is Michael Luo. She's an editor 0:14:54.851 --> 0:14:57.011 at The New Yorker, and he wrote a book on 0:14:57.090 --> 0:14:59.891 Chinese immigration called Strangers in the Land. 0:15:00.371 --> 0:15:03.610 It was the Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Field, 0:15:03.651 --> 0:15:07.531 who wrote the opinion, referred to the Chinese as strangers 0:15:07.611 --> 0:15:10.611 in the land, talking about how how they could never 0:15:10.811 --> 0:15:15.130 assimilate with our people, and I feel like the stranger 0:15:15.291 --> 0:15:22.130 label remains imprinted on Asian Americans today. 0:15:22.251 --> 0:15:25.691 She says she's felt what Michael Lewe was describing, especially 0:15:25.731 --> 0:15:28.251 when she first moved to the US for law school. 0:15:29.171 --> 0:15:31.971 So it was kind of like surprised at how friendly 0:15:32.731 --> 0:15:36.051 people were surrounding me. But also to that I'm sensing, 0:15:36.131 --> 0:15:38.171 like your people out there just kind of like, oh, 0:15:38.210 --> 0:15:41.250 you're different, and you can tell by their gestures, by 0:15:41.291 --> 0:15:43.771 their like facial expressions, things like that. 0:15:46.531 --> 0:15:49.611 As a white person, I've never experienced that, but I 0:15:49.691 --> 0:15:51.771 do know how bad it feels to be viewed as 0:15:51.771 --> 0:15:55.171 a stranger. My family moved to the US from Poland 0:15:55.210 --> 0:15:58.291 when I was eight. My English was kind of weird, 0:15:58.731 --> 0:16:01.531 but I wanted to fit in so badly. When I 0:16:01.571 --> 0:16:04.171 look at pictures of myself, it's embarrassing. I was like 0:16:04.210 --> 0:16:06.370 a parody of what I thought an American kid was 0:16:06.371 --> 0:16:09.691 supposed to look like. And the more she You and 0:16:09.731 --> 0:16:12.730 I looked into this Chinatown case from where we came 0:16:12.731 --> 0:16:14.731 to see that it's also about someone who was trying, 0:16:15.330 --> 0:16:18.371 in their own way to feel like they belonged. 0:16:37.251 --> 0:16:41.091 Whong Tina date of birth nineteen fifty eight in New York, 0:16:41.171 --> 0:16:47.131 New York, Chinese female citizen US height five foot nine inches, 0:16:47.491 --> 0:16:51.251 weight one hundred and twenty pounds, brown eyes, black hair. 0:16:52.970 --> 0:16:54.730 As sure you and I went through that suitcase full 0:16:54.731 --> 0:16:57.491 of documents together, we kept coming across the name of 0:16:57.531 --> 0:17:01.811 one woman sometimes called Tina Wong, sometimes called Tina. 0:17:01.851 --> 0:17:06.731 A'll say in or about in between early August nineteen 0:17:06.771 --> 0:17:10.291 eighty seven and late this summer nineteen eighty seven, within 0:17:10.330 --> 0:17:13.731 the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, the defendant 0:17:14.091 --> 0:17:18.131 Tina Asse did knowingly and willfully import into the United 0:17:18.131 --> 0:17:21.610 States from a place outside there of a quantity of 0:17:21.731 --> 0:17:25.411 heroin a Schedule one narcotic drug controlled substance. 0:17:27.731 --> 0:17:32.531 So this is a complaint against Tina. Asse what situation 0:17:32.731 --> 0:17:35.051 is Tina in if they have this information? 0:17:36.091 --> 0:17:38.731 So like, first of all, it got an informant which 0:17:38.771 --> 0:17:42.491 said I delivered the packages to Dina, and I'm just 0:17:42.811 --> 0:17:45.291 quite interested in the last paragraph when they said that 0:17:45.331 --> 0:17:49.731 they had a recording between informant and the ultimate recipient 0:17:49.811 --> 0:17:52.491 of the drugs. Tina is kind of like a middleman, 0:17:53.171 --> 0:17:56.171 just like someone caught in between who gave her the 0:17:56.211 --> 0:18:00.211 package and who she was supposed to give the packages to. 0:18:00.931 --> 0:18:02.091 And apparently the. 0:18:01.971 --> 0:18:06.771 Prosecution had information from both ends, so Tina was kind 0:18:06.771 --> 0:18:09.251 of trapped in a situation like she can't get away 0:18:09.291 --> 0:18:09.571 with that. 0:18:10.891 --> 0:18:14.171 At first, Tina just seemed like another low level drug smuggler. 0:18:14.651 --> 0:18:16.651 She was one of about a half a dozen people 0:18:16.851 --> 0:18:20.251 federal authorities arrested. This was after that at Countant in 0:18:20.251 --> 0:18:23.131 Brooklyn got caught with that wired up package, setting this 0:18:23.211 --> 0:18:26.451 whole investigation off. But as she you and I went 0:18:26.451 --> 0:18:29.251 through the court documents, it started to look like Tina 0:18:29.411 --> 0:18:32.171 was actually at the absolute center of the government's case. 0:18:33.011 --> 0:18:37.571 Without her, everything might have played out entirely differently. She 0:18:37.651 --> 0:18:40.571 and I were desperate to talk to Tina. She, like 0:18:40.611 --> 0:18:43.330 all the women who received mail packages, had never spoken 0:18:43.411 --> 0:18:46.251 to a reporter before about this time. But I found 0:18:46.331 --> 0:18:48.851 what I thought was her address. It was in Manhattan, 0:18:49.331 --> 0:18:53.011 and we rang her bell twice three times. 0:18:53.371 --> 0:18:54.211 She was never home. 0:18:55.611 --> 0:18:58.251 Then we showed up with a box of Italian cookies 0:18:58.571 --> 0:19:01.011 that we had picked up from a bakery nearby. I 0:19:01.051 --> 0:19:02.971 know that sounds weird, but I thought it would seem 0:19:03.011 --> 0:19:05.291 friendlier than showing up with just a microphone. 0:19:05.851 --> 0:19:07.251 It was a brick apartment building. 0:19:07.371 --> 0:19:10.411 Yeah, we entered a building, not knowing if Tina is 0:19:10.491 --> 0:19:13.211 in this room this time, but we went up to 0:19:13.531 --> 0:19:14.771 her floor, went to. 0:19:14.851 --> 0:19:17.931 Her door, the door opened, this woman was standing there 0:19:18.491 --> 0:19:19.491 and I said nothing. 0:19:20.011 --> 0:19:22.491 Yeah, I think I was the one who broke this silence. Right, 0:19:22.771 --> 0:19:25.571 So where the journal is stacking here? So I just 0:19:25.611 --> 0:19:29.691 wondered that if we can have Sai about this project. 0:19:31.331 --> 0:19:31.531 Check. 0:19:32.731 --> 0:19:36.090 She's like, yeah, come on in, and whoever your impressions 0:19:36.091 --> 0:19:36.371 of her? 0:19:38.051 --> 0:19:42.651 She looked cool, She's got short haircut, and she's got 0:19:42.651 --> 0:19:45.651 super thick eyeliners. 0:19:45.651 --> 0:19:47.531 I would say, yeah, she had like black eyeliner. 0:19:47.811 --> 0:19:51.451 And also she looks totally unbothered even though we're clearly 0:19:51.491 --> 0:19:55.731 bothering her in her family. She's kind of like, well, Okay, 0:19:55.851 --> 0:19:58.051 they've been bugging me for long enough, let's just see 0:19:58.051 --> 0:19:58.931 what they have to offer. 0:19:59.531 --> 0:20:00.811 What do you remember about the apartment? 0:20:01.731 --> 0:20:06.811 So it's very homey, I would say. And there's a 0:20:06.971 --> 0:20:10.571 huge cage in the center of the living room, and 0:20:10.691 --> 0:20:12.531 that might be one of the very first things that 0:20:12.531 --> 0:20:14.091 you would notice once you stepped in. 0:20:14.291 --> 0:20:16.931 It was an African gray parrot inside. I think the 0:20:16.971 --> 0:20:20.051 first thing I said, right was tell me about your parrot. 0:20:20.331 --> 0:20:24.451 Oh that's a lucky bird. And I had him full. 0:20:25.811 --> 0:20:28.571 Like twenty five years es he said something. I want 0:20:28.611 --> 0:20:29.171 to record it. 0:20:30.451 --> 0:20:32.691 He knows a stranger, so you won't talk, but if 0:20:32.691 --> 0:20:34.291 he gets to know, he starts to talk. 0:20:36.331 --> 0:20:39.330 We weren't actually there to interview the parrot. We wanted 0:20:39.411 --> 0:20:41.811 Tina's story. 0:20:42.011 --> 0:20:43.571 She was born in the nineteen fifties. 0:20:44.091 --> 0:20:46.931 She was living outside of Chinatown at a time when 0:20:46.971 --> 0:20:49.411 Chinatown was way smaller. She was one of the few 0:20:49.491 --> 0:20:54.411 Chinese kids. Her dad was Chinese and her mom was 0:20:54.411 --> 0:20:55.971 from was Portuguese. 0:20:56.091 --> 0:20:59.851 Yeah, yeah, yeah, we were like the first Chinese family. 0:20:59.851 --> 0:21:03.610 I mean not the first, but the few. We used 0:21:03.651 --> 0:21:05.811 to fight. We used to get picked on a lot. 0:21:06.171 --> 0:21:08.771 Everybody that was Asian used to get picked on one 0:21:08.771 --> 0:21:12.771 time or another a stupid kid's stuff like ching chong, 0:21:13.211 --> 0:21:15.731 and then you know, you fight back. 0:21:17.451 --> 0:21:20.651 It's weird now to think of a Chinatown without kids, 0:21:20.971 --> 0:21:23.371 but for a long time, there just weren't very many 0:21:23.451 --> 0:21:27.331 Chinese kids in the US period, the Chinese Exclusion Act 0:21:27.371 --> 0:21:29.971 made it hard for any new Chinese immigrants to come, 0:21:30.331 --> 0:21:33.291 and it took nearly a century until nineteen sixty five 0:21:33.731 --> 0:21:37.370 for Congress to finally ban immigration quotas based on ethnicity. 0:21:38.451 --> 0:21:40.451 Tina was seven years old at the time when all 0:21:40.451 --> 0:21:43.691 these new Chinese immigrants started to show up and Chinatown 0:21:43.771 --> 0:21:47.011 was becoming a family neighborhood. Tina talked about how it 0:21:47.051 --> 0:21:49.491 was so great to be included in this new world 0:21:49.811 --> 0:21:53.251 of all these kids her age, but still she felt 0:21:53.251 --> 0:21:54.851 a little different from them. 0:21:55.291 --> 0:21:57.451 I think they were kind of little racist on me 0:21:57.691 --> 0:22:02.611 since I wasn't, you know, like because I'm only half Chinese. Yeah, 0:22:02.651 --> 0:22:08.891 there was a little racism there, but that didn't stop me. Yeah, 0:22:08.971 --> 0:22:15.651 so that's why I learned MJ Mahjong. And you know, 0:22:17.291 --> 0:22:20.851 when I would play MJ with them and I beat them, then. 0:22:20.771 --> 0:22:23.331 I feel they go, Yeah, the joke sing. 0:22:24.811 --> 0:22:28.611 It's pretty good and joke saying is someone who who's 0:22:28.611 --> 0:22:29.731 American born Chinese. 0:22:29.931 --> 0:22:31.811 Yeah. 0:22:31.851 --> 0:22:35.211 As an adult, Tina kept playing majong. She went to 0:22:35.251 --> 0:22:38.451 these special places that were kind of like speakeasies. You 0:22:38.491 --> 0:22:40.610 had to know someone who knew about them and then 0:22:40.611 --> 0:22:43.610 they could tell you where they were. Tina's favorite was 0:22:43.611 --> 0:22:45.611 on the second floor of a building on one of 0:22:45.731 --> 0:22:48.131 Chinatown's main streets, Canal Street. 0:22:48.531 --> 0:22:57.891 It's like a Chinese green wallpaint, Uh, smoky and a 0:22:57.931 --> 0:22:59.251 lot of majong noise. 0:22:59.811 --> 0:23:01.851 Is there music playing or is it just people talking 0:23:01.891 --> 0:23:03.330 on the clack of the tiles. 0:23:03.731 --> 0:23:05.931 Yeah, I think it's just the clacking of the tiles. 0:23:06.411 --> 0:23:08.611 People don't want to hear the music that might disturb though. 0:23:08.811 --> 0:23:11.851 The focus and what sort of people were there? 0:23:12.411 --> 0:23:15.051 Oh, people, young people, all kinds? 0:23:16.691 --> 0:23:18.171 And how good did you get on like a scale 0:23:18.251 --> 0:23:18.771 one through ten. 0:23:20.051 --> 0:23:23.411 I didn't have like really good skills, but I had. 0:23:23.531 --> 0:23:28.330