Asia’s alleged El-Chapo lands in Melbourne to face justice

After an extraordinary international police operation, one of the world’s biggest alleged drug kingpins has appeared in a Melbourne court.

One of the world’s biggest alleged drug kingpins has appeared in court in Melbourne.

In an extraordinary international police operation, Chi Lop Tse touched down in Australia on Thursday morning.

The Chinese-born Canadian citizen has been accused of being more powerful than Mexico’s infamous El-Chapo or Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Tse allegedly ran the world’s biggest drug cartel, turning over $25 billion each year, mainly through his cartels’ ability to supercharge the production of life-destroying ice.

A Canadian national, Chi Lop Tse, 59, who is the alleged head of a global drug trafficking syndicate, has been charged by the AFP after being extradited from the Netherlands. Picture: AFP

BIKIES INC PODCAST: CLICK HERE

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) were expected to lay drug trafficking charges against Tse, 59, on Thursday.

He appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court with a Cantonese translator.

He was handcuffed as two guards led him into court.

Tse made no application for bail and his lawyer requested his next appearance be heard on February 16 alongside that of his co-accused.

The next hearing will be suppressed due to the “real and substantive risk” to justice, Magistrate Martin Grinberg said.

Tse, who suffers from high blood pressure, will be allowed to see a nurse in custody.

He was deported from Amsterdam almost two years after he was arrested at the city’s Schiphol Airport during a layover on a flight from Taiwan to Canada.

Accused drug lord Chi Lop Tse.

“This arrest would be one of the most high-profile arrests in the history of the AFP,” AFP assistant commissioner Krissy Barrett said on Thursday morning.

That was due to the impact the drugs syndicate has had “on this country over a long period of time,” she said

“We will allege the two men conspired with junior syndicate members to transport millions in Australia to transport millions of dollars worth of illicit drugs between Melbourne and Sydney.”

She said it would be “foolish” to think the whole syndicate had been shut down with the arrest of Tse, but his capture was a “huge achievement for the AFP and the Australian public”.

It sent a message to those offshore that they were not “unreachable”.

The accused drug lord’s lawyers told a Netherlands court that authorities had arranged for him to be kicked out of Taiwan so he could be arrested in a sting in Amsterdam.

Tse was expected to fight any charges in Australia’s courts claiming he was not the head of Sam Gor or The Company cartel, which the AFP has previously said controls 70 per cent of Australia’s drug trade.

Chi Lop Tse will appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to face a charge of conspiracy to traffic commercial quantities of controlled drugs. Picture: AFP

Tse was Australia’s most wanted man – he was known as Target One on the secretive Australian Priority Organisation Target list.

An international police effort named Operation Kungur, which involved 20 countries including Australia, China, Myanmar and the United States, has been hunting Tse for years.

Tse was Australia’s most wanted man – he was known as Target One on the secretive Australian Priority Organisation Target list. Picture: AFP

He has allegedly been linked to drug trafficking in Australia through Operation Volante, where police intercepted 42 kilograms of illegal drugs and $9 million of assets, according to the AFP’s 2013 annual report.

The sting netted $5 million of luxury homes, a Lamborghini and $600,000 worth of Crown Casino chips.

Those chips would allegedly be linked to wide scale money laundering at the casino that resulted in a scathing Royal Commission report.

Tse allegedly ran the world’s biggest drug cartel. Picture: AFP

Tse’s extradition was another watershed moment in the fight against organised crime in Australia, with the AFP making a series of significant arrests and extraditions in the past 12 months.

His alleged right-hand man, Chung Chak Lee, 66, was dragged to Australia from Thailand in June last year.

Lee has been hit with charges linked to the 42kg of drugs seized in Operation Volante, even though he was not in Australia when the offending allegedly happened.

Extra security was put on for Chi Lop Tse’s court hearings in Rotterdam. Picture: AFP

Comanchero enforcer Mark Buddle, allegedly a key player in the Aussie Cartel that turned over $1.5 billion a year was extradited from Turkey in August.

The AFP’s deep relationships through its overseas based officers have created the opportunities to share the information that led to Tse’s arrest.

His arrest made national headlines and led to a major shake up in the Comanchero bikie gang, which has been accused of being one of the Sam Gor cartel’s distribution networks.

Accused drug manufacturer Tony Haddad was also extradited from Turkey, landing in Darwin in December.

Tse being arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in January 2021.

He was picked up on the Turkish border allegedly trying to get into Lebanon.

Haddad, 46, had left Australia when he was due to face court over the importation of a precursor chemical that could make up to 2 million ecstasy pills.

The AFP put out a media release in January 2021 when Tse was arrested in Amsterdam.

“The man is of significant interest to the AFP and other law enforcement agencies,” it said.

“The AFP issued an arrest warrant for the man in 2019 in connection with AFP-led Operation Volante, which dismantled a global crime syndicate operating in five countries.

“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.”

Originally published as Asia’s alleged El-Chapo lands in Melbourne to face justice