Suspected members of the organisation also have high level links to governments across the region, having invested in large infrastructure ventures under the Chinese Communist Party’s Belt and Road Scheme, a massive economic project that aims to build trade and transport links from East Asia to Europe. A 2012 briefing from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission described The Company’s members “well-established network of contacts across many governments as well as legitimate business and company structures, that enables them to mask and support their criminal activities . Last year, AFP deputy commissioner Karl Kent described the organisation as “being a huge threat to Australia … not only in terms of illicit drugs but in terms of people smuggling, in terms of firearms.” In a
Dutch police say they had arrested the alleged leader of an Asian drug syndicate who is listed as one of the world's most-wanted fugitives and has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Explainer: The arrest of Asia s most-wanted drug boss Tse Chi Lop
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that Tse s drug syndicate earned as much as $17 billion from trafficking drugs in 2018. Reuters
Reuters
Dutch authorities have arrested 57-year old Canadian national Tse Chi Lop at the request of the Australia Federal Police after a long probe into drug trafficking in the Asia-Pacific.
Tse had been on a global most-wanted list and was of significant interest to law enforcement agencies in multiple countries, said Dutch and Australian police.
WHO IS TSE CHI LOP?
Tse - known by his nickname Sam Gor , Brother Number Three in Cantonese - is the alleged senior leader of a sprawling transnational drug trafficking syndicate known as The Company to its members or, to some police, the Sam Gor syndicate.