This included interviews with more than two dozen law enforcement officials from eight countries, and reviews of intelligence reports from police and anti-narcotics agencies, court filings and other documents. In response to questions from Reuters, the AFP, the DEA and Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau said they would not comment on investigations.ĭuring the past year, Reuters crisscrossed the Asia-Pacific to uncover the story of Tse and his Sam Gor network. Reuters was unable to contact Tse Chi Lop. “The word kingpin often gets thrown around, but there is no doubt it applies here.” “Tse Chi Lop is in the league of El Chapo or maybe Pablo Escobar,” said Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia and Pacific representative for UNODC. Some investigators say that the scope of the syndicate’s operation puts Tse, as the suspected leader, on par with Latin America’s most legendary narco-traffickers. Police have not publicly identified Tse as the suspected boss of the trafficking group. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intelligence document shared with regional government agencies says Tse is “believed to be” the leader of the Sam Gor syndicate. The document does not provide specific details of the cases.Ī Taiwanese law enforcement flow chart identifies Tse as the “Multinational CEO” of the syndicate. According to the document, the organization has “been connected with or directly involved in at least 13 cases” of drug trafficking since January 2015. Taiwan, while not formally part of the operation, is assisting in the investigation.Ī document containing AFP profiles of the operation’s top 19 syndicate targets, reviewed by Reuters, identifies Tse as the leader of the syndicate. It encompasses authorities from Myanmar, China, Thailand, Japan, the United States and Canada. It is by far the biggest ever international effort to combat Asian drug trafficking syndicates, say law enforcement agents involved in the investigation. Led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Operation Kungur involves about 20 agencies from Asia, North America and Europe. Tse, 55, is the prime target of Operation Kungur, a sprawling, previously unreported counter-narcotics investigation. This unprecedented boom in meth production has triggered an unprecedented response, Reuters has learned. The UN agency estimates that the cartel, which often conceals its drugs in packets of tea, has a 40% to 70% share of the wholesale regional meth market that has expanded at least fourfold in the past five years.
In what it calls a conservative estimate, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) puts the Sam Gor syndicate’s meth revenue in 2018 at $8 billion a year, but says it could be as high as $17.7 billion. But meth – a highly addictive drug with devastating physical and mental effects on long-term users – is its main business, they say. The syndicate, law enforcers believe, is funneling tonnes of methamphetamine, heroin and ketamine to at least a dozen countries from Japan in North Asia to New Zealand in the South Pacific.
Its members call it simply “The Company.” Police, in a nod to one of Tse’s nicknames, have dubbed it Sam Gor, Cantonese for “Brother Number Three.” Tse Chi Lop, a Canadian national born in China, is suspected of leading a vast multinational drug trafficking syndicate formed out of an alliance of five of Asia’s triad groups, according to law enforcement officials. And, police say, he once lost $66 million in a single night at a Macau casino. He is protected by a guard of Thai kickboxers.
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