Tse Chi Lop: ‘Meth kingpin’ who draws comparisons to El Chapo gets extradited to Australia

Tse Chi Lop is accused of overseeing operations in which £2.45m of meth was trafficked

One of Asia’s most-wanted alleged drug syndicate kingpins has been extradited to Australia after almost two years of a legal battle with the government in the Netherlands.

Chinese-born Canadian national Tse Chi Lop, 59, has denied allegations of leading the drug syndicate active in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr Tse, who has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, was arrested in January last year from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at the request of Australian police while he was in transit from Taiwan.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) on Thursday said his arrest was the culmination of a long-running investigation into an organised crime syndicate known as “Sam Gor” or “The Company”, that allegedly trafficked large, commercial quantities of methamphetamine into the Pacific nation.

Sam Gor reportedly dominates the illegal drug market across Asia and is responsible for at least 70 per cent of the drugs brought into Australia. The UN’s narcotics agency estimated Sam Gor syndicate’s meth revenue in 2018 to be at $8bn (£6.6bn) a year, adding that it could be as high as $17.7bn (£14.6bn).

The Australian police released pictures of armed officers escorting Mr Tse off in handcuffs off the plane at Melbourne airport.

Canberra has accused Mr Tse of alleged operations between 2012-13, where an estimated £2.45m worth of methamphetamine was trafficked into Australia. After a crackdown, authorities found links to a Melbourne home which had £2.2m in cash, a Lamborghini and nearly 100 designer handbags.

Mr Tse had contested his arrest and accused Australian authorities of engineering his expulsion so he could be detained in the Netherlands, which has a more favourable extradition treaty with Australia.

Andre Seebregts, one of Mr Tse’s attorneys, told CNN that his client was put on the plane to the Netherlands against his will and in violation of Taiwanese law, which required authorities to deport him to his home country Canada.

A second man in connection with the drug syndicate was arrested in June, police said.

“We allege the individuals charged by the AFP today and in June this year conspired to traffic commercial quantities of methamphetamine within Australia,” said AFP assistant commissioner Krissy Barrett.

“The AFP will make Australia a hostile environment for all trans-national serious organised crime syndicates that target our communities.”

In 2019, Reuters reported that Mr Tse was the prime target of Operation Kungur, an AFP-led investigation involving around 20 agencies from Asia, North America and Europe.