An alleged drug lord, known as “El Chapo of Asia,” has been arrested in Amsterdam on suspicion of carrying out a multi-billion dollar drug operation, authorities said.
Tse Chi Lop, a Canadian citizen of Chinese descent, was detained without incident at Schiphol Airport at the request of Australian police, who conducted an international investigation into his cartel, Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said on Saturday.
“He was already on the most wanted list and was retained based on the information we received,” Aling said.
Authorities say the 57-year-old Tse is the leader of the Sam Gor union, which is supposed to dominate the Asia-Pacific drug trade for $ 70 billion a year.
Tse, a former convict who previously lived in Toronto, allegedly ruled the massive empire while living in Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Authorities say the cartel smuggled strong methamphetamine into more than a dozen countries, in addition to heroin and MDMA trafficking.
The union has been “linked to or directly involved in at least 13 cases” of drug trafficking since January 2015, the documents show.
Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), previously warned that the TSE is as big a threat as other notorious drug lords.
“Tse Chi Lop is in the El Chapo league or maybe Pablo Escobar,” he told Reuters.
UNODC has estimated that Tse’s group has raised up to $ 17 billion in 2018.
Tse is expected to be extradited after appearing before a judge, Dutch police said.
With Post threads