Gangster History: 6 Female Mafia Heads You Should Know About

Sister Ping, aka the “Snakehead”

Cheng Ping was a very known figure in New York’s Chinatown, and despite her sinister Chinese nickname for a smuggler (that’s where Snakehead comes from), there are still people who do not see the wrongs she has done. Sister Ping, as she was known back then around Chinatown, was a known smuggler and extortionist back in the 1980s and 1990s, but the main activity of her criminal empire was smuggling people from mainland China to the United States.

Back then, it got harder and harder to be able to get a visa, and she offered to get people’s families in the country or sold the mirage of a better future to people in the United States, charging exorbitant sums for her services. When she was finally prosecuted for all her criminal activity, it was revealed that she used to charge up to about $40,000 per person to smuggle them into America and that she amassed a fortune of tens of millions of dollars.

Her wrongdoings didn’t stop there, as she was also a loan shark, besides a known gangster. She used to give money to the people that needed it in Chinatown, and when they couldn’t pay her back, she would send violent thugs and various other gangs that worked under her to get her money back and set precedent. She ruled with fear, and in the 1980s and 1990s, everyone knew about her, making her a notorious New York gangster!

And if you’re hungry for more information about American gangster history, we recommend you read our article about the people you wouldn’t think wreaked as much havoc as they did here!