Police hunt suspected kingpin of massive Asian meth syndicate: a China-born Canadian in the ‘same league as El Chapo’
- Tse Chi Lo suspected of running syndicate which is known to its members as ‘The Company’
- Syndicate produces meth in Myanmar and traffics the drug to countries ranging from Japan to New Zealand, ‘conservatively’ raking in US$8 billion a year
The largest ever task force assembled to fight organised crime in Asia has identified a long-time drug trafficker, a China-born Canadian national, as the suspected kingpin of a crime syndicate that police say dominates the US$70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade.
The suspected syndicate leader is Tse Chi Lop, 55, an ex-convict who formerly lived in Toronto and has moved between Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years, according to counter-narcotics officers from four countries as well as law enforcement documents reviewed by Reuters.
Authorities have not publicly identified Tse as the boss of the drug trafficking group.
The syndicate he is suspected of running is known to its members as “The Company”. Law enforcement authorities also refer to it as “Sam Gor”, or Brother Number Three in Cantonese, after one of Tse’s nicknames.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), which has taken the lead in the sprawling investigation, has compiled a list of top syndicate members that identifies Tse as “the senior leader of the Sam Gor syndicate”.
The group, the list says, has “been connected with or directly involved in at least 13 cases” of drug trafficking since January 2015. The list, reviewed by Reuters, does not provide specific details of the cases.
