By Joe Anuta
The leader of a violent Chinese gang that operated in Flushing and similar enclaves throughout the city and country was sentenced to life in prison on racketeering charges, which included those related to the 2001 stabbing death of a bouncer at a Main Street karaoke club.
Guang Ju Lin, 34, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan.
“Guang Ju Lin was an inveterate and unrepentant gangster who left a trail of crimes from coast to coast,” Bharara said. “He and his cohorts would stop at nothing, including murder, to increase their power and intimidate their rivals. With this life-sentence, this very dangerous man will now be off the streets forever.”
Lin’s gang, called the Ah Jun Organization, was responsible for murder, attempted murder, narcotics trafficking and operating illegal gambling businesses in New York and Los Angeles, according to Bharara.
Lin was tied to several shootings as well as efforts to extort businesses and to push marijuana, Ecstasy and ketamine, the U.S. attorney said.
In particular, Lin and a cohort named Yudi Liu were both charged in the 2001 killing of Danny Cabezas, who was employed as a bouncer at Moneybox, a karaoke bar on Main Street, Bharara said.
On Dec. 11, Lin and Liu got into an altercation with Cabezas, which ended with Liu stabbing him several times and killing him, according to Bharara.
Directly following the murder, Lin fled New York City and settled in Los Angeles, where he set up a satellite gang replete with replicas of the gambling and narcotics trafficking operations he ran in New York, according to Bharara.
Liu eventually pleaded guilty to murdering Cabezas in 2011.
Just three weeks before Cabezas’ death, Lin and Liu brought two handguns into a Chinatown restaurant in Manhattan and squeezed off a few rounds at the leader of a rival gang, Jian G. Liu, according to Bharara.
The rival leader was injured, along with a 2-year-old bystander.
In August 2006, Lin and a few other gang members stabbed, beat and shot a man named Xiu Kang Xiao in Los Angeles, killing him, Bharara said. The man had been involved in a business dispute with one of Lin’s underlings, according to the U.S. attorney.
Lin joined the gang in the 1990s in Manhattan’s Chinatown when it was run by a man named Huang Ming Yong, also known as “Ah Jun,” where the gang derives its name.
Lin rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Yong’s lieutenant and developed a following of his own underlings, according to Bharara.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
