A Chinese female prosecutor and a former New York City Police Department detective are among nine people charged with stalking and harassing US residents in a bid to pressure them to return home to China.
The nine people were named in a superseding federal indictment filed in Brooklyn on Thursday that accuses them of working as illegal spies to stalk Chinese citizens living in the US.
The indictment alleges that the nine defendants were acting on direction from officials in the People's Republic of China in a brazen campaign called Operation Fox Hunt.
Two defendants also are charged with obstructing a federal investigation into the operation.
The brazen plan included targeting a New Jersey man, who was supposedly wanted by the Chinese government for accepting bribes, and his family.
The New Jersey man is a former Chinese government employee.
The nine people were named in a superseding federal indictment filed in Brooklyn on Thursday that accuses them of working as illegal spies to stalk Chinese citizens living in the US. Pictured is one defendant Zheng Congying who was taken into custody last year
The defendants allegedly engaged in a campaign to 'threaten, harass, surveil and intimidate' the man and his family in a bid to force him to return to China to face charges.
One of the female defendants, Tu Lan, worked as a prosecutor with Hanyang People's Procuratorate. She is accused of traveling to the US and directing the harassment campaign, according to the indictment.
She also allegedly ordered a co-conspirator to destroy evidence to obstruct the federal investigation into the operation.
Lan, as well as another defendant Zhai Yongqiang, were both added to the indictment Thursday.
Charges against six others first surfaced in October last year. One defendant's name remains under seal.
One of the prior defendants is Michael McMahon, who lives in New Jersey and is a retired NYPD detective.
The 53-year-old, who worked as a private investigator after retiring, is accused of working with other defendants to gather intelligence on and locate the New Jersey man and his wife.
McMahon has since claimed that he didn't know he was working for the Chinese government.
Those charged are: Tu Lan, Zhai Yongqiang, Hu Ji, Li Minjun and Zhu Feng. They remain at large.
Michael McMahon, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong were all arrested last year and will be arraigned in
