The New York Daily News published a weird cruise story this morning about a man from Malaysia who smuggled nine illegal Chinese immigrants into Brooklyn aboard the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested five women and four men after the luxurious QM2 arrived at the New York Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.

Fatt Kwee Wong told the federal agents that he was paid $3,000 for each of the nine passengers who also paid him around $500 each when they boarded the cruise ship in Dubai.  Wong aroused the suspicion of the U.S. immigration officials when he was stumped when asked the names of his nine travelling companions.

The illegal immigrants were not stowaways and their names appeared on the boat’s manifest.

It is a rather amazing spectacle for nine Chinese people to board a cruise ship in Dubai and sail into the harbor in New York.  So much for Cunard’s security protocols.    

Photo credit:  AFP