‘El Chapo of the East’: Aussie-led sting nets ‘Mr Big’

One of the world’s most wanted men – an accused drug lord compared to El Chapo and Pablo Escobar – faces extradition to Australia after a shock arrest orchestrated by Aussie police.

One of the world’s most wanted men – an accused drug lord compared to El Chapo and Pablo Escobar – faces extradition to Australia after a shock arrest orchestrated by the Australian Federal Police

Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national, was dragged off a plane in the Netherlands on Friday following a global manhunt spanning two years.

The 57-year-old who had been living in Taiwan, travels with a guard of Thai kickboxers, owns private jets and once lost $85m in a single night at a Macau casino.

But, in an unprecedented move, he faces being hauled across the world to a country he has never visited to face accusations of being Australia’s biggest drug supplier, allegedly selling to outlaw motorcycle gangs and organised crime groups nationwide.

Tse is alleged to be one of the world’s biggest drug traffickers and responsible for supplying tonnes of methamphetamine and other drugs to South-East Asian gangs, Japanese Yakuza and Australian and New Zealand bikie gangs.

Tse Chi Lop has been compared to El Chapo.

The investigation into a cartel, called “The Company” or “Sam Gor” (Cantonese for Brother Number Three), has been led by the AFP but involves authorities in the US, Canada, Myanmar, China, Thailand and Japan.

Sam Gor, with Tse allegedly at its head, is believed to be an alliance of five Asian triad groups who produce narcotics in “super labs” inside Asia’s Golden Triangle.

The highly organised and disciplined cartel is believed to have raked in between $10bn and $23bn in 2018.

Tse is allegedly known for providing his clients with an irresistible guarantee: should authorities intercept a shipment, he will replace it for free.

“Tse Chi Lop is in the league of El Chapo or maybe Pablo Escabar,” Jeremy Douglas, from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, previously said.

The AFP told The Sunday Mail it issued an INTERPOL “Red Diffusion” – a request for international co-operation between law enforcement agencies – on Friday to have Tse arrested en route to Canada.

It is understood Taiwan had moved to deport Tse home to Canada, putting him on a commercial flight with a stopover in the Netherlands.

A suitcase containing cash found during police searches.

Tse was arrested during that stopover by the Central Unit of the National Police of the Netherlands.

“The man, aged 57, is of significant interest to the AFP and other law enforcement agencies,” a statement from the AFP read. “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. The AFP will work with the Attorney-General’s Department to prepare a formal extradition request.”

Tse hit the AFP’s radar in 2011 during an investigation into a group importing meth and heroin into Melbourne.

The group was put under surveillance and their phones tapped for more than a year.

In that time, several shipments were seized by police, infuriating Sam Gor bosses.

According to a lengthy Reuters investigation into Tse, the Melbourne drug importers were summoned to Hong Kong to meet with Sam Gor. The meeting was monitored by police, who observed who they initially thought was a “typical middle-aged Chinese family man”.

A yellow Lamborghini is towed by police. The vehicle is linked to the Tse Chi Lop case.

That man – Tse – was put under surveillance and soon a clearer picture emerged of a wealthy man who would soon become known to law enforcement as “T1” – or top target.

Tse, according to Reuters, was guarded by up to eight Thai kickboxers, with the team regularly rotated.

He would hold lavish birthday parties, booking out hotels or resorts and flying his guests in on his private jets.

Police observed him at a Thai resort for a month, where he hosted visitors poolside in shorts and T-shirts.

The AFP soon came to allege Tse was the major supplier of Australia’s meth, heroin and ecstasy trade. In 2013, the AFP and Victoria Police announced they had arrested 27 people as part of Operation Volante, an investigation targeting a “long standing international organised crime syndicate”.

Police seized 42kg of drugs, 99 designer handbags and wallets, $4m cash, $5m in residential properties, $600,000 in casino chips, $10,000 in jewellery and a Lamborghini.

“This syndicate was targeted by law enforcement agencies across five countries,” AFP manager serious and organised crime David Sharpe said at the time.

A residential property that was restrained during a search warrant like to the Tse Chi Lop case.

In 2016, a Taiwanese man was arrested at Yangon Airport with bags of ketamine strapped to his thighs. His phones revealed an “Aladdin’s cave” of information on Sam Gor – including two “torture videos” and photos of Tse.

The videos reportedly showed a man who was bound and crying while his captors used blow torches and cattle prods to torture him.

Investigators discovered the man in the footage had tossed 300kg of meth from a boat because he mistook a fast approaching vessel as police.

The airport arrest led to seizures in Myanmar of 622kg of ketamine and 1.1 tonnes of crystal meth.

The phones also led police to a fishing boat carrying 1.2 tonnes of crystal meth into Geraldton, Western Australia, in December 2017. The drugs were sealed in bags labelled as pig food or rice.

Authorities would allege the crew picked up the drugs from a “Chinese mothership” 500km off the coast.

A petrol tank allegedly used to conceal a quantity of heroin and methamphetamine linked to the Tse Chi Lop case.

In 2019, Operation Volante is believed to have struck another blow to Sam Gor. Australian Border Force officers uncovered 1.6 tonnes of ice and heroin worth more than $1bn hidden in stereo speakers brought in from Thailand.

Three people were arrested but it is understood they were considered to be “low level”.

“There are people above them, we think we know who they are. We will keep trying to bring them to justice,” AFP Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan said at the time.

It is alleged Tse continued to run the global network despite, apparently being aware he was being tracked.

But in recent days, his Taiwan visa was cancelled and the world’s most elusive accused drug lord was arrested and loaded on to a commercial flight bound for Canada.

The AFP and the Attorney-General’s Department now have 45 days to request Tse’s extradition to Australia.

Originally published as ‘El Chapo of the East’: Aussie-led sting nets ‘Mr Big’