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Agence France-Presse

The alleged ringleader of Asia’s biggest crime syndicate and one of the world’s most wanted men has been arrested in the Netherlands, with Australian authorities pushing for his extradition to face trial.
Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national, was detained on Friday at the request of Australian police, who led an investigation that found his organisation dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade, Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said.
Tse, an ex-convict who formerly lived in Toronto, has moved between Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years, according to counter-narcotics officers from four countries and documents previously reviewed by Reuters.
In a statement on Sunday, Australian authorities said a man “of significant interest” to law enforcement agencies had been detained. A police spokeswoman confirmed his name as Tse Chi Lop.
Revealed: the China-born drug kingpin in the ‘same league as El Chapo’
Tse has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
He has been named by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as the suspected leader of the Asian mega-cartel known as “Sam Gor”, a major producer and supplier of methamphetamines globally.
Sam Gor – or Brother Number Three in Cantonese – is said to be one of Tse’s nicknames. The syndicate is believed to launder its billions in drug money through businesses springing up in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region – including casinos, hotels and real estate.

Australia’s federal police said Friday’s arrest followed an operation in 2012 to 2013 that nabbed 27 people linked to a crime syndicate spanning five countries.
The group were accused of importing “substantial quantities of heroin and methamphetamine” into Australia, long a lucrative market for drug traffickers.
“The syndicate targeted Australia over a number of years, importing and distributing large amounts of illicit narcotics, laundering the profits overseas and living off the wealth obtained from crime,” the Australian police said.
As part of the raids across Melbourne in 2012 to 2013 , police seized A$9 million (US$7 million) worth of assets, including cash, designer handbags, casino chips and jewellery.
Asia’s biggest drug bust: fentanyl seizure in Myanmar shows gangs shifting to opioids
The arrest of Tse almost a decade after that operation’s launch is a major breakthrough for Australian authorities.
“Tse Chi Lop is in the league of El Chapo or maybe Pablo Escobar,” Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia and Pacific representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said in 2019, referring to Latin America’s most notorious drug lords.
Australia’s attorney-general will now begin preparing a formal extradition request for the alleged drug lord to face trial.

Most of Asia’s meth comes from “Golden Triangle” border areas between Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and southwest China which are pumping unprecedented quantities of synthetic drugs into global markets.
The production of methamphetamine – either in tablet “yaba” form or the highly potent crystallised “ice” version – as well as ketamine and fentanyl, take place primarily in Myanmar’s eastern Shan state, but much of the precursor chemicals needed to cook them flows across the border from China.
Thailand in 2018 netted more than 515 million yaba tablets, 17 times the amount for the entire Mekong region a decade ago, said the UNODC.
Drug hauls feature near daily in headlines across the region, with traffickers finding more creative ways to ship out their illicit products.
Drug crackdowns in Asia surge as illicit trade unaffected by Covid-19
The illicit trade has boomed even as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted supply chains worldwide.
In May last year, police in Myanmar announced they had discovered more than 3,700 litres of liquid fentanyl, one of Asia’s largest drug busts in history.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the scale of the bust was unprecedented and Myanmar’s anti-drug authorities had “dismantled a significant network” during a two-month operation involving police and military.
Last November, Thailand reportedly seized ketamine worth nearly US$1 billion, amounting to a total of 11.5 tons.
Additional reporting by dpa, Reuters


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The Netherlands

Dutch police arrest Chinese-Canadian man described as Asia’s ‘El Chapo’

Suspected drug syndicate kingpin Tse Chi Lop is pictured in this undated handout image taken at an unknown location. Photo: Reuters

Heroin and meth concealed in petrol tank seized by the Australian Federal Police in 2013. Photo: Handout

Myanmar law enforcement authorities burn seized illegal drugs worth 187 million USD, marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking during a ceremony in Yangon on June 26, 2018. The ceremony was among several destruction events that took place on June 26 across Southeast Asia, home to the infamous "Golden Triangle", a zone bisecting Thailand, Myanmar, China and Laos that is the world's second largest drug producing area. / AFP PHOTO / Ye Aung THU

Mexican drug cartels are targeting Australia, say police after busting a record A$1.29 billion of meth in joint US-Australia investigation

Drugs, passports, money and other evidence are displayed during a police press conference in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday. Photo: EPA

epa07351856 Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Tess Walsh (L) speaks to the media during a police press conference in Melbourne, Australia, 08 February 2019. According to media reports, 1.7 tonnes of methamphetamine has been seized in the United States bound for Australia. A joint USA/Austrlalia investigation led to the seizure of the drugs, and six people in Australia have been arrested as a result. The methamphetamine, as well as smaller amounts of heroin and cocaine, were hidden inside electronics equipment and had an estimated value of over 911 million US dollar. EPA-EFE/ERIK ANDERSON AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT

epa07351859 Drugs, passports and money are displayed among other evidence during a police press conference in Melbourne, Australia, 08 February 2019. According to media reports, 1.7 tonnes of methamphetamine has been seized in the United States bound for Australia. A joint USA/Austrlalia investigation led to the seizure of the drugs, and six people in Australia have been arrested as a result. The methamphetamine, as well as smaller amounts of heroin and cocaine, were hidden inside electronics equipment and had an estimated value of over 911 million US dollar. EPA-EFE/ERIK ANDERSON AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT

epa07351858 AFP Assistant Commissioner Organised Crime Bruce Hill (C-R) speaks to the media during a police press conference in Melbourne, Australia, 08 February 2019. According to media reports, 1.7 tonnes of methamphetamine has been seized in the United States bound for Australia. A joint USA/Austrlalia investigation led to the seizure of the drugs, and six people in Australia have been arrested as a result. The methamphetamine, as well as smaller amounts of heroin and cocaine, were hidden inside electronics equipment and had an estimated value of over 911 million US dollar. EPA-EFE/ERIK ANDERSON AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT

Narcos: the hidden drug highways linking Asia and Latin America

Police hunt suspected kingpin of massive Asian meth syndicate: a China-born Canadian in the ‘same league as El Chapo’

A small meth lab, which police suspect was used to experiment with new recipes, is seen inside a raided compound belonging to Sue Songkittikul, a suspected Sam Gor syndicate operations chief, in Mae Sot, Thailand May 13, 2019. Picture taken May 13, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva To match Special Report ASIA-CRIME/METH

A homeless drug user demonstrates using an empty piece of foil how he usually prepares drugs for use at his tent in Loikan, Shan State, Myanmar January 25, 2019. Picture taken January 25, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer To match Special Report ASIA-CRIME/METH

Police officers stand around suspects arrested during an operation that, according to police, resulted in the seizure of 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine in Geraldton, Australia in 2017. File photo: Reuters

Asia’s biggest drug bust: fentanyl seizure in Myanmar reveals gangs have shifted focus to opioids

Precursor chemicals used to make illicit drugs such as methamphetamine, ketamine, heroin and fentanyl seized by Myanmar police and military. Photo: Reuters

High pressure chemical reactors, and mixers used for manufacturing illicit drugs seized by Myanmar police and military are seen in this undated photo near Loikan village in Shan State, between February and April 2020 in what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime described as AsiaÕs biggest-ever drug bust. Myanmar Police/UNODC/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Drug crackdowns in Southeast Asia surge as illicit trade booms despite Covid-19

Thai police present packages of confiscated methamphetamines. File photo: AP

This photo taken on February 3, 2019 shows an illegal poppy field in Hopong, Shan State. - Myanmar is the second-biggest producer of opium in the world after Afghanistan and is now believed to be the largest source of methamphetamine. (Photo by Ye Aung THU / AFP) / TO GO WITH Myanmar-health-drugs-opium-meth-conflict,FEATURE by Hla Hla Htay and Richard Sargent

TO GO WITH THAILAND-MYANMAR-LAOS-DRUGS-CRIME' by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS This picture taken on May 28, 2013 shows policemen from the Thai Marine Border Police patroling along the Mekong river, which marks the border between Thailand and Laos in Chiang Saen, northern Chiang Rai province, aboard a machine-gun-mounted armored boat. A Thai police gunboat prowls the waters of the Mekong River searching for the drug gangs that haunt this territory deep in the Golden Triangle, an age-old smuggling route -- with a new scourge. AFP PHOTO/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT

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Tse Chi Lop was detained in Amsterdam after Australia issued an Interpol request and warrant for his arrest
Australian police allege he’s the head of ‘the Sam Gor syndicate’, which dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade



Australian police allege Tse Chi Lop is the head of ‘the Sam Gor syndicate’, which dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade.


Australia

Drugs

Interpol

Crime

Dutch police arrest Chinese-Canadian man described as Asia’s ‘El Chapo’

Tse Chi Lop was detained in Amsterdam after Australia issued an Interpol request and warrant for his arrest Australian police allege he’s the head of ‘the Sam Gor syndicate’, which dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade

Tse Chi Lop was detained in Amsterdam after Australia issued an Interpol request and warrant for his arrest

Australian police allege he’s the head of ‘the Sam Gor syndicate’, which dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade