In 1988, postal officials intercepted a package of heroin from China being sent to New York. DEA Agents followed the shipment to the door of a young mother living in Chinatown. Tina Wong told them she was paid by a high school friend to receive packages and pass them along to a street gang. Officials learned women in local mahjong parlors were being recruited to take part in a massive drug trafficking operation. Prosecutors leaned on Wong to betray her friend and take down the gang. But as they moved in on the Flying Dragons, its leader named “Onionhead,” fled to Hong Kong.

From Pushkin Industries comes the podcast “The Chinatown Sting.” Host Lidia Jean Kott and co-reporter Shuyu Wang talk to key figures in the crime who’ve never spoken before. In addition to reviewing the investigation, they dig into the challenging cultural landscape faced by those growing up in New York’s Chinese neighborhoods during the 1980s.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE CHINATOWN STING" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 10 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: Legal technicality.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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