rendezvous with smaller ships before landing. However, this didn't happen due to the gang in charge being arrested around that time. The smugglers on board directed the ship to New York City. Golden Venture ran aground on the beach at Fort Tilden in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York on June 6, 1993, at around 2 a.m. after a mutiny of sorts by one smuggler who had locked up the captain. Ten people drowned in the city early morning water in their attempts to flee the stranded ship and in their excitement get to shore in the United States. The survivors, 262 men, 24 women, and 14 children, were taken into custody by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)--six escaped—and were held in various prisons throughout the U.S. while they applied for the right of asylum. Roughly 10 percent were granted asylum after Pennsylvania congressman William Goodling entreated President Bill Clinton; minors were released, while about half the remainder were deported (some being accepted by South American countries). Some remained in immigration prison for years fighting their cases, 119 in York, Pennsylvania in a medium security prison. It was argued that this tactic was a method of isolating the prisoners from lawyers and rights groups. A number of individuals in York volunteered their time as legal aid, and in the last years there was a weekly vigil held outside the prison. Criminal leaders Lee Peng Fei, also known as Lee Hsiao Kuang and Char Lee was described at his trial as the 'mastermind' behind Golden Venture. He had not been on board the ship but had ordered the grounding from his Chinatown apartment. The Taiwan citizen was arrested in Thailand and later sentence to 20 years. One of those behind Golden Venture was a Chinese gang leader named Guo Liang Chi, known mainly by his street name of Ah Kay. He was the leader of the Fuk Ching gang, which up to early 1993, had been the most powerful Asian gang in New York City. A Chinese gangster who smuggled people to other countries, or a snakehead, he was also a cold-blooded gangster who tortured and killed numerous people throughout his career. Kay was arrested in Hong Kong and eventually extradited to the U.S. Federal investigators acknowledged that they were less interested in prosecuting Guo than in hearing what he had to say. After he cooperated with the US government