Bikies’ best friend Chi Lop Tse runs out of luck as he faces court in Melbourne

He loved the good life and a massive multimillion-dollar punt at casinos. Now the man allegedly behind the illicit drugs linked to Australia’s bikie gangs has been caught.

Chi Lop Tse was a bikie gang’s best friend.

The calm, smooth talking alleged drug lord corporatised the illegal drug trade, increasing production, smoothing out supply lines, and using outlaw bikies to make billions of dollars on Australia’s streets.

He allegedly knew how to make powerful friends and persuade them to put aside rivalries for the sake of mainlining mega profits.

Now back in Australia on a flight on Thursday morning, police will allege that Tse was one of the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Chi Lop Tse is described as calm and smooth talking.

Chi Lop Tse in Melbourne. Picture: AFP

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Tse liked to punt. It’s claimed he dropped $98 million at a Macau casino in one night, raising questions about whether that was bad luck or sophisticated money laundering.

Private jets were his preferred way to fly, birthday parties were extravagant.

He would spend up to a month in a five-star hotel - no expense spared - allegedly organising drug deals in his shorts as he entertained guests.

Tse, 59, was so organised, police have allegedly linked him to a four-fold increase in the value of ice sold in five years.

The Canadian national under heavy guard in Melbourne. Picture: AFP

He also moved billions of dollars worth of heroin, police will claim.

When an addict in Australia lights up an ice pipe this morning, police claim there’s a three out of four chance that it was produced through Tse’s network.

The Company, or Sam Gor cartel - allegedly a reference to Tse’s nickname - made ice by the ton, not the gram.

Tse allegedly ran his company with minimal violence unlike the Mexican cartels, where headless bodies regularly appear on the front page of local newspapers as a result of bloody drug wars.

Police will allege that Tse was one of the world’s most dangerous criminals. Picture: AFP

However, they were not choir boys.

Police found videos on a fidgety drug mule’s phone of a tied up man having his feet blowtorched while three men held him down.

To drag out the torture, they used an electric cattle prod when they could no longer hold restrain him.

The Shan State in Myanmar, which has become a major ice production hub.

The Sam Gor cartel was efficient.

Most of the ice, the drug that has now torn apart Australian families, especially in country towns, can be traced back to the Shan State, a lawless area in Myanmar that borders Thailand, Laos and China.

Police will allege under Tse’s stewardship that ice production moved from backyard operations to superlabs.

He used the instability of the region to broker deals with local warlords, who controlled the areas.

A drug lab capable of making 10 tonnes of meth, which they shipped as disguised packets of loose-leaf tea was raided in 2018.

Much of what is known about Tse’s alleged activities came from the seized phone of a drug dealer.

Jeng Ze Cai was about to head on a flight home to Taiwan in 2016 when he was caught with 80 grams of ketamine taped to his thighs.

An eagle-eyed Myanmar police commander had picked him out from among the passengers because he was nervously picking at his hands.

Drug dealers who move ice often have problems with their hands because the drug can seep into the skin.

He didn’t talk - those blowtorch videos were warning enough.

However, Cai did not delete the images on his phone.

An Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer who was given access to the phone noticed the image of one man, a Canadian.

Chi Lop Tse being arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

“F**k I know who you are,” he exclaimed when he allegedly saw a picture of Tse.

Police also found that multiple major drug shipments were linked based on the messages and images on the phone.

They previously believed that there were several major drug players. Now they allegedly had evidence that there was one group controlling them all.

It will be alleged that Tse was at the top of the tree, sources claim.

The Sam Gor cartel’s annual turnover of $25 billion is more than the entire economy of Laos.

More than 7 million people call Laos home, but all their paid work does not equal the money the cartel made selling drugs across Asia.

A yellow Lamborghini towed from a property as part of Operation Volante.

Senior police sources claim the arrest of Tse was a crucial step in bringing the drug dealers back in check.

There are serious concerns that the drug dealers would become powerful political players if they continued to amass wealth.

They would have enough money to influence wars, arming one group over another and then using their loyalty to allow them to continue selling drugs with impunity.

A house seized as part of Operation Volante.

Australia police and law enforcement agencies have become key players in the fight against drugs.

That’s partly because it’s the right thing to do but mainly because Australians are driving the demand that has created the market for the illicit drug misery.

An Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission report in 2021 found Australians were the second highest users of ice in the world, behind only the United States.

“Much of the harm that Australians suffer at the hands of organised crime is due to illicit drugs,” former ACIC chief executive Michael Phelan said at the time.

“Serious and organised crime groups profit from the importation, manufacture, trafficking and sale of drugs that cause harm to the community.”