CHICAGO (MCT) — Jun Yue Zhang says he ran from the police in China, sprinting into the mountains near his tiny village after he compared government authorities to “mobsters” for levying fines against him and his wife for having a second child, according to federal court documents.

A fugitive, Zhang fled his communist homeland in 1988 and over five years journeyed through Thailand, Burma and other countries. Along the way, a “snakehead” smuggler exposed him to the art of using fake IDs and bribes to gain illegal entry into the U.S., court filings say.