Johnny Eng

Johnny Eng Siu-hang, a.k.a. Johnny Eng (born ca. 1958) , also known as Onionhead or Machinegun Johnny, is a Hong Konger former Triad gang leader and international drug trafficker. As the former boss of the Flying Dragons gang, Eng was one of the biggest heroin traffickers in New York City during the late 1980's. He was later sentenced to 24 years in prison after being convicted of importing and distributing over 200 kilograms of uncut "China White" heroin sourced from the Golden Triangle.

Early life Born in British Hong Kong, a teenaged Johnny Eng Siu-hang emigrated to New York City with his parents in 1971. Eng soon got involved in criminal activity such as demanding extortion money from restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown, as well as clashing with members of the Genovese crime family operating out of Little Italy. Eng eventually came to the attention of Hip Sing Association leader Benny "Uncle Seven" Ong, and paid him a weekly US$10,000 cut from his criminal revenues. Eng was arrested at least five times in the 1970's on various criminal charges including assault, possession of an automatic firearm and promoting illegal gambling. Authorities believed Chen's murder was the result of an internal power struggle within the Flying Dragons' leadership, with Chen wanting the gang to stick with extortion along with running illegal Pai gow and Fan-Tan clubs while Eng wanted to expand into drug trafficking. Investigating officers also theorized Chen was killed by someone he knew and trusted, as he would not have hastily attended an unexpected meeting in the middle of the night with strangers.

In the run up to his takeover, Eng had ruthlessly moved against any perceived threat to the Flying Dragons territory, and was suspected by the NYPD of personally leading a hit team who launched a late night gun attack in December 1982 against the rival White Tigers and Free Mason gangs at the Golden Star Restaurant on East Broadway, which resulted in 3 deaths and 8 people being rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds. Eng's willingness to use automatic weapons during the incident earned him the nickname "Machine Gun Johnny". A 1988 confidential report issued by the Justice Department called Eng "one of the five major heroin dealers in New York City." although it was intercepted by federal agents in Boston before the narcotics could be distributed.

However, the primary method used by Eng involved sending packages via regular postal service from the Far East, supposedly containing food items and boxes of Chinese tea, to various addresses in the New York area. The packages actually contained an average of 7 kilograms of heroin hidden amongst legitimate goods (such as odour masking spices), and the apartment owners were paid US$20,000 in return for receiving each package and then handing them over to Eng's lieutenants. Eng's gang had recruited Chinese Americans with no criminal records, but with substantial illegal gambling debts to Flying Dragons loan sharks, to allow their homes to be used as delivery addresses for the shipments. These same people were later flown to Hong Kong at Eng's expense to secretly deliver hundreds of thousands of US dollars in cash to the local trafficker who was sending the shipments of heroin to America. Authorities later estimated the approximately 84 kilograms of heroin sent via mailed parcels, which Eng paid an average of $25,000 per kilo for in Hong Kong, to be worth more than US$64 million at street dealing level in the United States. however he was arrested there in August 1989 by Independent Commission Against Corruption during an unrelated investigation. When the I.C.A.C raided Eng's office at the Silvercord complex in Tsim Sha Tsui they discovered US$500,000 in cash along with the details of several local bank accounts containing substantial amounts of Hong Kong dollars. After running his details through their systems, they realised Eng was subject to a Interpol notice and was wanted by American federal authorities, then remanded him in custody.

Despite being represented by top defense attorney Gerald Shargel, in December 1992 Eng was found guilty of 14 of the 17 criminal charges he was indicted on related to the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute along with the importation and distribution of 228 kilograms of heroin, and in March 1993 he was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined $3,500,000 by Federal District Court judge Reena Raggi.

Aftermath On 8 November 2010, Eng was released from prison and was reported to have promptly moved to the People's Republic of China. On 13 July 2011, Eng's wife, Lori Eng , was fatally shot by Flying Dragons member David Chea at her apartment in Flushing, Queens, New York. Chea then committed suicide.