Alleged Canadian drug kingpin Tse Chi Lop, compared to notorious ringleader ‘El Chapo,’ busted in Amsterdam
Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian citizen who is believed to head one of the world’s largest drug rings, has been arrested in the Netherlands.
The suspect was busted Friday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, reported BBC News on Saturday.
Tse, who has been sought on an arrest warrant since 2019, is believed to be the head of a $70 billion drug ring market across Asia.
The 57-year-old suspect had been one of the world’s most sought after fugitives before his arrest.
“He was already on the most-wanted list and he was detained based on intelligence we received,” explained a Dutch police spokesman after the bust.
Officials claims that Tse, 57, is the leader of the Sam Gor Syndicate, possibly the widest-ranging drug-trafficking operation in Asian history, according to CNN.
Narcotics experts put Tse on par with notorious drug kingpins Pablo Escobar and “El Chapo.”
The 2019 arrest warrant for Tse involved an operation targeting Sam Gor, noted Agence France-Presse.
Tse Chi Lop is suspected by police of running a vast drug cartel in Asia that rakes in up to $17 billion a year, drawing comparisons to El Chapo and Pablo Escobar. But unlike the Latin drug lords, little is known about him https://t.co/jK85ltIRVI pic.twitter.com/R3UbgiJznQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 14, 2019
“The syndicate targeted Australia over a number of years, importing and distributing large amounts of illicit narcotics, laundering the profits overseas and living off the wealth obtained from crime,” stated the news agency.
Citing United Nations estimates, the syndicate’s haul from methamphetamine sales alone could have ranged as high as a whopping $17 billion in 2018.
Operation Kungur, the code name for Tse’s arrest effort to arrest Tse, involved about 20 agencies, according to Reuters.
Britain's 3rd major COVID lockdown producing no positive results, study claims
One top UN official expressed relief that Tse was finally in custody.
“The importance of Tse’s arrest can not be underestimated,” explained Jeremy Douglas, the Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “It’s big and (has) been a long time coming.”
