Cracking Down Hard On Seattle `Snakeheads'

THEY'RE called "snakeheads" - international immigrant smugglers from China who charge their clients up to $50,000 apiece for transportation to America. They promise safe passage to Meiguo (the Beautiful Country), only to force many unsuspecting customers into indentured service. Others kidnap their own clients to squeeze additional cash payments from the victims' families abroad.

On Wednesday, a federal jury in Seattle sent a clear message to these bandits: Your sordid business is not welcome in the Northwest.

A jury convicted four men - tied to snakeheads in New York - with seven counts each of conspiracy, hostage-taking and making ransom demands. The gang had kidnapped three immigrants last summer in an attempt to extort money from their relatives. A tip led agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to an apartment in Tukwila, where the victims (two men and one woman) were found beaten and bound with duct tape.

Douglas Aukland, lead FBI agent in the case, said the verdict would resonate especially in New York, where Asian organized crime is rampant.

Law-enforcement agents and the federal jury deserve the city's praise. But there's plenty of work still to be done. Two of the defendants' accomplices remain at large (one of whom allegedly raped the female hostage).

Meanwhile, Asian syndicates continue to thrive underground - and their spiral of crime touches the entire city. Some gangs employ their smuggled victims in lucrative drug, prostitution and gambling rings. Others terrorize immigrant businesses through extortion and armed, home-invasion robberies.

It will take improved ethnic relations between police and the immigrant community to break down cultural barriers and the code of silence among victims. It will also take the harsh spotlight of public scrutiny to drive the snakes out of Seattle permanently.