Barely 152.4cm tall and slightly built, Chen Jingping has mastered the art of looking frail and demure. It is a talent that has served her well -- few who have met her can believe that she is capable of harsh language, let alone acts of violence.
The truth, however, is rather different. The 37-year-old Chen, better known as Sister Ping, is one of the most ruthless gang leaders in Europe. In the past six years, she has made millions by trafficking human beings from her native China into the UK.
Ping is believed to have smuggled more than 200,000 men and women into the EU and her organization has been linked to the deaths of 58 Chinese, whose bodies were found in an air-tight truck at Dover in June 2000.
A growing,
illegal trade
According to the UK' National Criminal Intelligence Service, organized immigration crime is one of the fastest-growing areas of the underworld. At least 600,000 people enter the EU illegally each year and around 80 percent are brought in by underworld gangs known as "snakeheads." Ping was the top snakehead in Europe.
The smuggling industry is as lucrative as the drug trade -- across Europe the business is worth ?8 billion -- but for those who are caught the penalties are far lower.
Point-to-point
smuggling
A spokesman for the National Criminal Intelligence Service said: "The top snakeheads control the facilitation process from end to end. They have contacts in China, the UK and at every stop along the route."
Using a combination of violence and intimidation, Sister Ping swept all her rivals aside and cornered the people-smuggling market between Holland and Britain soon after arriving in Rotterdam in 1997.
Through her connections to the Triads -- her boyfriend is the head of the Triad gang 14k in Rotterdam -- she was able to hire muscle to do her dirty work whenever necessary. In one case, a man had several teeth broken when the barrel of a gun was pushed into his mouth. In another, a man was beaten so badly that he was left with punctured intestines.
Typical triad
negotiator
When a rival mobster tried to muscle in on Sister Ping's territory, she made a big show of inviting him to the Orient restaurant in Rotterdam's Chinatown, the headquarters of her operation, ostensibly to discuss ways of dividing the territory between them. As soon as he was inside, he was dragged up to the first floor, beaten with a hammer and then shot in both legs.
According to police, Ping's smuggling operation was a well-oiled machine. With at least a dozen people on the payroll, a fleet of eight cars, several other vehicles and at least seven safe houses, the overheads alone were ?35,000 per month.
Reorganizing
lives
Potential migrants would be approached in China and, after paying a hefty deposit, would be transported via a number of routes to Holland.
Once there, they would be held at safe houses for several weeks, waiting for an opportunity to travel to the UK. In the UK they would either claim asylum or be whisked off to work in low-paid, unskilled jobs. Ping's earnings are unknown, but in one recorded telephone conversation a key member of her organization was heard boasting that he had earned ?300,000 in two months.
The best estimates suggest that she earned at least ?15 million from her criminal activities.
Dutch police picked up Sister Ping's trail after Rotterdam-based Turkish gangster Guersel Ozkam was jailed in Holland in connection with the deaths at Dover. At the time, Ozkam was said to be the head of the smuggling operation and was given a 10-year jail sentence.
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