‘El Chapo of Asia’ alleged mega-cartel boss Tse Chi Lop extradited to Australia

The alleged head of a drug mega-cartel and one of the most wanted men in the world has touched down in Australia to face charges, after losing a year-long extradition battle. 

Tse Chi Lop, 59, was escorted into Melbourne airport on Thursday morning from the Netherlands – after he was arrested in Amsterdam in early 2021 by Dutch authorities at the request of Australian Federal Police. 

Tse, a Canadian national, is accused of conspiracy to traffic in commercial quantities of controlled drugs following a long-running investigation into Asia’s largest transnational organised crime syndicate Sam Gor, also known as The Company. 

The billionaire will front Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday, with police alleging he was part of a conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine, or derivatives of the drug, totalling 20kg between March 2012 and March 2013. 

The drugs have a street value of up to $4.4 million dollars and were split up into separate quantities, police allege.

Tse Chi Lop flew into Melbourne airport on Thursday morning from the Netherlands (pictured)

The investigation into The Company involved the AFP’s transnational offshore disruption taskforce ‘Operation Gain’ as well as its international network.

Tse was arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on January 22 last year by Dutch officers after the AFP requested an INTERPOL ‘red notice’ for his provisional arrest.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has alleged Tse is the suspected leader of Sam Gor and that the organisation launders its billions through businesses in Southeast Asia – including casinos, hotels and real estate.

The organisation is alleged to supply up to 70 per cent of methamphetamine, ketamine and heroin flooding into Australia since 2008 – with Tse’s alleged role earning him comparisons to Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. 

He is known as T1, or target number one, on the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s list of Australian Priority Organisation Targets.

The 59-year-old (pictured)  is alleged to be the head of Asia’s massive Sam Gor cartel 

Tse (pictured) is a Canadian national who had been travelling back there after being booted out of Taiwan when he was arrested in Amsterdam in early 2021

According to the UNODC, most of Asia’s meth is made in factories in the ‘Golden Triangle’ border areas between Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand – particularly Myanmer’s Shan State – which are pumping massive quantities across the globe.

The area is largely controlled by various militias which have ceasefires in place with their governments – with precursor chemicals needed to make the product flowing across the border from China.

Drug hauls feature almost daily in newspapers across the region and traffickers are finding more creative ways to ship out their illicit products.

Sam Gor is alleged to have used shipments of tea to smuggle some product into Australia and has links to outlaw motorcycle gangs operating in the country including the Comanchero. 

Tse will front court accused of conspiring to traffic commercial quantities of drugs (pictured) 

A Lamborghini (pictured) seized in an earlier raid as part of the AFP’s investigation into alleged transnational criminal syndicate The Company 

Over the year-long extradition battle, Tse denied allegations he was involved in the syndicate and accused the AFP of forcing his flight to stop in the Netherlands so he could be arrested.

He had been on his way to Canada after being declared persona non grata in Taiwan.

In June 2022, Chinese-British dual national Lee Chung Chak, 66, was also charged by the AFP with conspiracy to traffic commercial quantities of controlled drugs.

Lee, extradited from Thailand in June 2022, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ court and is alleged to be the co-accused of Tse.