Saturday, August 6, 2016

Notorious Chinatown gangster 'Shrimp Boy' gets life in prison

Chow insisted he was innocent and simply a victim of lying prosecutors, a biased judge and incompetent defense attorneys. Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow, 56, has been jailed for life for 162 charges including murder and racketeering, after a massive San Francisco Chinatown corruption case. The case against Chow, who was born in Hong Kong in 1960 before moving to the US as a teen, exposed the underworld in one of the nation's oldest Chinatowns.

Chow ordered the slaying of the head of a Chinese organized crime organization which he then took over. The group had ties to drug trafficking, money laundering and the sale of stolen cigarettes and top-shelf liquor such as Johnny Walker Blue Label and Hennessey XO.
'I not apologize to the victims,' Chow, who used a translator during the trial, said in English. 'I feel sorry for them because they did not get the right guy. I'm not the man they're looking for. That is a total fail in the justice system.' Lead prosecutor William Frentzen stood just a few feet away from Chow, shaking his head.

'This is a man who is a parasite. He lived off of this organization and other people's criminal activities,' the prosecutor said during the sentencing hearing, pointing at Chow. Chow moved to the United States at age 16 and was reportedly nicknamed 'Shrimp Boy' by his grandmother due to his small stature. Chow - who stands at just 5ft 5in tall - became an enforcer for, and later leader of, the Hop Sing Boys.
The probe nailed former California state Senator Leland Yee