Canadian drug kingpin known as 'Asia’s El Chapo' sentenced to prison in Australia

A Canadian man accused of heading a multi-billion-dollar global drug syndicate has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Australia after three years of secret, closed court hearings.

Tse Chi Lop, formerly of Toronto, was accused of being one of world’s biggest drug kingpins and called “Asia’s El Chapo” when a deluge of meth was flowing across the Asia-Pacific region.

A global manhunt for the Chinese-born Canadian citizen ended when he was arrested at an airport in Amsterdam in 2021 as he tried to fly back to Canada. His extradition to face trial in Australia required a guarantee that he not face more than 25 years in prison. He arrived in Australia in December 2022.

On Thursday in court in Melbourne, when the doors were finally opened to the public and media, it seems the Dutch government did not need to worry about harsh Australian sentencing.

The world learned that last month he had pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic commercial quantities of border-controlled drugs.

Australian media reports say the 62-year-old showed little emotion in court where he sat with a Cantonese interpreter under police guard.

The judge, Peter Rozen, described his business as “pure evil.”

Tse became one of the world’s most-wanted organized crime figures before he was caught. His vast wealth and power kept his name out of the headlines for years, allowing him to live a jet-set life filled with private planes, high-rolling casinos, real estate and travel.

Authorities said Tse forged an alliance of five triad crime groups in Asia into an organization members called “The Company.” For police in many countries, the syndicate was called Sam Gor, Cantonese for “Brother Number Three,” one of Tse’s nicknames.

“It’s about time. But as the judge mentioned, he got off lightly, he’s lucky,” said Jeremy Douglas, deputy director of operations with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, known as UNODC. Douglas first dubbed Tse “the Asian El Chapo,“ in reference to El Chapo Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug kingoin. 

“At 16 years, pardonable after ten years, minus time served and time in Amsterdam before his extradition, means he could be out in a few years and deported, on a plane back to Toronto,” said Douglas, himself a Canadian.

Tse immigrated to Canada with his fiancé in 1988, at the age of 25 and settled in Toronto. There he laid the foundation for his aspirations. They married in Canada a year later and had two children, a daughter and a son; his son had health issues since birth, he once told court in a plea for leniency. Both his parents and his in-laws followed him to Canada and they all lived together, according to court records.

Tse first hit police radar in Canada in the early 1990s when he was caught in an RCMP drug probe of Italian mafiosi living in the Toronto area who were dealing with Chinese-based crime groups.

Tse shuttled back and forth between Canada and Asia but in recent years primarily lived abroad.

Despite the vast empire alleged by officials around the world, the Melbourne trial focussed on the period 2012-2013 of plotting within Australia. Prosecutors had strong evidence of his involvement in a drug plot that led to a series of police raids and seizures.

At its peak, Australia Federal Police (AFP) said, the Sam Gor syndicate was the biggest trafficker of methamphetamine to Australia.

He will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years.

Krissy Barrett, commissioner of the AFP, said the sentencing ended one of the federal force’s most high-profile investigations, called Operation Volante.

“This result showcases what the AFP does best — identifying and targeting criminal syndicates that cause significant harm to our communities,’’ she said.

“Operation Volante is a culmination of 14 years of hard work and perseverance from our investigators and international network. This investigation highlights that the long arm of the AFP can reach criminals across the world.”

Douglas said the modest sentence from not prosecuting Tse on much larger allegations is “unfortunate, especially given I know what international partners and the AFP have on him. The estimates of the different Sam Gor shipments that were going out of the Golden Triangle towards Australia and around the region were in the tens of tons, not a tiny amount.”

Tse will be deported when released, likely back to Canada.

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