True CrimeSociety & CultureDocumentary

The Chinatown Sting

Pushkin Industries

In the late 1980s, a group of women connected through the mahjong parlors in Manhattan’s Chinatown were caught in a massive undercover drug bust. This bust was just the beginning of an even bigger case. Host Lidia Jean Kott and co-reporter Shuyu Wang interview sources who’ve never spoken on record before, including witnesses, defendants, and federal prosecutors, to reconstruct a case that still has repercussions today.

The Chinatown Sting drops weekly on Tuesdays.

Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows.

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10 episodes
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Avg 30 min
English

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Monday · 33 min
The Good Cop | From Examined: The Backfire Effect
Lidia Jean's been working on a new project — Examined: The Backfire Effect. It asks what happens when a system decides it already has an answer, when admitting a mistake feels harder than living with one, and when closing a case starts to matter more than getting it right. Examined: The Backfire Effect tells the story of Scott Macklem’s death, a murder that happened nearly 40 years ago in the parking lot of a community college in Michigan. The police quickly found their suspect. There was just one problem: The man they claimed did it was nowhere near the scene of the crime, and he had the alibi to back it up. Host Josie Duffy Rice — a journalist, former lawyer, and expert in the criminal legal system — tells a story of how justice and prosecutorial misconduct works in America, and why sometimes a case is about much more than innocence versus guilt. Find more episodes of Examined: The Backfire Effect wherever you get podcasts. Binge the full series now with a Pushkin+ subscription — sign up on the Examined Apple show page or at pushkin.fm/plus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Oct 28, 2025 · 29 min
Grandson of a Paper Son
Judge Denny Chin serves on the US Court of Appeals in New York and he’s an expert on Asian Americans and the law. Every year, he helps to stage reenactments of landmark cases in which Asian Americans fought for their legal and civil rights. Judge Chin speaks with Lidia Jean Kott about his family history and why he became a judge. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Oct 21, 2025 · 28 min
Life as a Flying Dragon
Cowboy, now known as CB, was once a member of the powerful Flying Dragons gang, led by Johnny Eng, aka Onionhead. CB speaks with Lidia Jean Kott about why he joined the gang, about street-violence PTSD, and how he wound up in prison for 16 years. He also has an update on what Johnny Eng is up to today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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S1 · E6
Oct 14, 2025 · 32 min
Episode 6: A Sense of Order
After five days of deliberation, a jury finally returns a verdict in the case of Johnny Eng. Its ultimate meaning depends on whom you ask — and the lessons it taught the justice system may already be forgotten. For more: Mike Moy’s memoir book Bad to Blue and his Chinatown Gang Stories channel on YouTube. Rong Xiaoqing’s article in Documented, "Ghosts of Chinatown." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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S1 · E5
Oct 7, 2025 · 33 min
Episode 5: The Mastermind
Flying Dragons gang leader Johnny Eng faces so many separate counts of heroin smuggling that prosecutors from various jurisdictions have to join forces. But Eng’s defense lawyers ably attack the government’s cooperating witnesses in court. And Beryl faces a personal deadline that might make sticking around to the end of the trial impossible. For more check out: Gerald Posner’s book Warlords of Crime. Fredric Dannen’s pieces in The New Yorker, "Revenge of the Green Dragons” and “Defending the Mafia.” Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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S1 · E4
Sep 30, 2025 · 32 min
Episode 4: A Ghost Hand
Lidia Jean and Shuyu search for traces of Johnny Eng, aka “Onionhead,” the elusive leader of the Flying Dragons gang. He’s nowhere to be found in his former estate in rural Pennsylvania. Back in the late 1980s, he was nowhere to be found at all. Could prosecutor Beryl Howell ever bring him to justice? Meanwhile, Tina Wong is caught in the gamble of her life. For more check out the documentary: Machine Gun Johnny: Johnny Eng Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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S1 · E3
Sep 23, 2025 · 36 min
Episode 3: What’s a Friend?
Being only half Chinese, Tina Wong felt like an outsider growing up in Chinatown. But then she met another girl who was a natural leader and included her in the pack. After they grew up, that friend would eventually recruit her to accept and move packages of heroin. Now Tina faces a choice: betray her old friend, or condemn her baby daughter to growing up without a mom. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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S1 · E2
Sep 16, 2025 · 40 min
Episode 2: Onionhead
Tina Wong finds herself in handcuffs in the Brooklyn office of a new federal prosecutor, Beryl Howell. Beryl’s goal is to get Tina to tell her everything she knows about the people who recruited her. But Chinatown is a dangerous place in the 1980s, and few low-level suspects want to talk. We hear from Chinatown author Henry Chang and former gang members Mike Moy and Peter Chin about the violence and impossible choices Chinatown residents faced in those days. For more, check out: Henry Chang’s series Detective Yu Investigations. Mike Moy’s Chinatown Gang Stories channel on YouTube. Peter Chin’s book, In the Ghost Shadows. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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S1 · E1
Sep 16, 2025 · 38 min
Episode 1: Lucky Bird
After a major bust in 1988, DEA agents are in a race against time to find out who’s behind a scheme to import millions of dollars worth of heroin to the US. They stumble upon some unlikely suspects: young mothers like Tina Wong, who were paid to accept packages in the mail. These women will have to make a choice between protecting or betraying their friends. Lurking behind it all: the history of American Chinatowns, which developed to protect immigrants from a hostile society. For more, check out: Ellen Wu’s The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority. Michael Luo’s Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Sep 2, 2025 · 3 min
Introducing: The Chinatown Sting
In the late 1980s, federal authorities laid a trap. They’d gotten a tip that huge amounts of heroin were being mailed to New York City inside boxes filled with tea. The investigation would uncover a network of drug smugglers who used women recruited at mahjong parlors in Chinatown. Host Lidia Jean Kott and co-reporter Shuyu Wang interview sources who’ve never spoken on record before, including federal prosecutors, to reconstruct a years-long effort to bring down one of the most powerful gangsters in Chinatown. The Chinatown Sting drops weekly on Tuesdays starting September 16. Get early, ad-free access to the entire season of The Chinatown Sting by subscribing to Pushkin+. Subscribers also get bonus episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and early ad-free listening for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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