The alleged head of Asia’s largest crime syndicate and one of the world’s most wanted men was extradited to Australia and arrested for drug trafficking, police said.
Die
Australian police said on Thursday that the suspect’s extradition from the Netherlands was the culmination of a long-standing investigation into an organized crime syndicate known as “Sam Gor,” or “The Company,” which said it smuggled millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine into Australia.
A person familiar with the case told Reuters that the suspect was Chinese-born Canadian citizen Tse Chi Lop, 59, who is suspected of being the leader of the Asian mega cartel Sam Gor, who is believed to have laundered billions of drug money through casinos, hotels and real estate in the Southeast Asian Mekong region.
Tse is expected to appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to answer an indictment alleging that she was part of a “conspiracy to trade commercial quantities of controlled drugs” worth a total of 20 kg (44 pounds) between 2012 and 2013.
Tse, who is called “El Chapo” in reference to the nickname of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman Asia “El Chapo,” faces life imprisonment if convicted.
Tse was arrested by Dutch police in January 2021 after a decades-long hunt at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. He was arrested after Australian police asked the international police agency Interpol to issue a so-called Red Notice.
Australian police described the arrest as “one of the most high-profile arrests in the country’s history.”
“We suspect that this man is the head of a large transnational organized crime syndicate,” said Krissy Barrett, Deputy Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, adding that the arrest came after a “very complex investigation.”
“It is in their nature that these very high-ranking figures within the syndicates deliberately stay away from it when it comes to business relationships,” she said.
“That is why it is such a significant arrest and it also took a lot of time.”
After
Australian police say the allegations relate to a special operation from 2012-2013 in which drugs were transported from Melbourne to Sydney. In a police sting at the time, 27 people were arrested and methamphetamine with a street value of around 4.4 million Australian dollars ($3 million) was captured.
“The hard work of investigators and the international network (Australian Federal Police) has made it possible for these alleged offenders to be charged and face the justice system in Australia,” said Barrett.
Reuters reported in 2019 that Tse was the primary target of Operation Kungur, an Australian-led investigation involving around 20 agencies from Asia, North America and Europe.
The UN drug agency estimated the Sam Gor Syndicate’s methamphetamine sales in 2018 at around $8 billion for the year, but said it could amount to as much as $17.7 billion, with a 40 to 70 percent share of the regional wholesale methamphetamine market, which has increased at least fourfold in the last five years.