Notorious smuggler bought Belize passport in 1988

Tonight investigations continue at the Immigration Department following sensational reports in the international media that a notorious smuggler of illegal immigrants into the United States had been arrested carrying a Belizean passport. Latest information to News Five is that this woman, Cheng Chui Ping a.k.a. Big Sister Ping, was holding Belizean nationality documents in the name Lily Zheng when she was arrested by Hong Kong police. A check by immigration officials here reveal that there is a record of a Xiu Qing Zhang being legally issued a Belize passport in May 1988. Twelve years later, a new passport was issued to the same person, but this time using her English name: Lily Zhang. We understand that local authorities are now in the process of accessing those 1988 and 2000 files, which would have a picture attached, to determine if Lily Zhang and Big Sister Ping are one and the same. The records are kept in registers at the Belize Archives Department in Belmopan and Belize Nationality Officers will have to conduct a manual search of the files for the vital information. Immigration officials tell News Five that they have already determined that Zhang obtained her passport through the original Economic Citizenship Programme, initiated during the first term of the Esquivel administration. In the Manhattan Federal Court today, the first witness to take the stand, Hui Yu Weng, told the court that scores of immigrants were ordered to swim for their lives after the ship the Golden Venture ran aground off the coast of New York in June 1993. Ten would die in the icy waters. Big Sister Ping’s defence attorney continued to maintain that his client did nothing wrong.