Taiwan ‘pressured to expel’ accused drug kingpin Tse Chi Lop, linked to Geraldton’s one tonne meth haul

An accused drug kingpin who is one of the world’s most wanted men — who authorities believe is the leader of a syndicate behind a one-tonne ice bust in Geraldton — is reportedly only facing extradition after international pressure was heaped on Taiwan to expel him. Dubbed El Chapo of the East, Tse Chi Lop was known to be sheltering in Taiwan, but was last month arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after an Interpol alert was issued at the request of Australian authorities. He was on his way to Canada after being pressured to leave Taiwan. The January 22 arrest was the result of a massive global operation led by Australian Federal Police and including the US. It’s alleged Tse is the leader of a mega-syndicate called The Company, involving five previously warring Asian triads suspected of supplying much of Australia’s crystal meth or ice. The Attorney-General’s Department and AFP are working together in a bid to extradite the 57-year-old from the Netherlands to face the music over a number of major drug hauls. Tse is expected to fight extradition. The Australian newspaper reported today that the AFP had known for a while that Tse was in Taiwan and had been privately ramping up pressure to have him arrested, which included Australian officials making frequent visits to Taiwan. One law enforcement source is quoted in The Australian as saying: “He had some high-level protection in Taiwan, and connections political and otherwise. It became a high-level conversation in the country that he was there. A lot of pressure was being applied on Taiwan, not just from Australia. He had no choice but to leave.” Tse’s syndicate has been linked to the 1.2 tonne meth bust in Geraldton in 2017, which at the time was the biggest meth seizure in Australian history. Joshua Joseph Smith, of NSW, Adelaide sex shop owner Sean Michael Dolman, and Waseem Silwa Hermiz are behind bars after both pleaded guilty to importing $1 billion worth of meth into the Geraldton port in 2017. WA’s Supreme Court was told they were arrested as they unloaded the drugs from a boat, the Valkoista, after it rendezvoused with the “mothership”, the Shun De Man 66, 500km off the WA coast. The Shun De Man has been linked to the Sam Gor cartel (Cantonese for Brother Number Three), also known as The Company, which is made up of Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuzi and allegedly led by Tse, who has been compared to drug lords El Chapo and Pablo Escobar. Seven others — Stephen Baxter, Patrick Bouhamdan, Christos Cafakis, Peter Harb, Khalis Kaena, Jabour Lahood and Serupepeli Rasaubale — will face WA’s Supreme Court in March over the attempted 1.2 tonne import in what is expected to be one of the biggest trials of the year. Tse has also been linked to other major WA ice seizures, including 90kg found in a house in Cloverdale in 2014. The 320kg of ice disguised as tea packets found in a Canning Vale house in 2015 and the 182kg brought ashore at Port Denison in 2016 also bore all the syndicate’s hallmarks. Tse, a Chinese-born Canadian national, has never visited Australia but he is wanted here in connection with the AFP-led Operation Volante. The operation saw 27 people arrested across Victoria in 2013 for importing and trafficking $30 million of heroin and methamphetamine into Australia, some of it hidden in dummy fuel tanks installed in cars. Operation Volante dismantled a global crime syndicate operating through organised crime gangs and bikies in five countries including the US, Myanmar, China and Japan. More at home on one of his fleet of private jets with a group of Thai kickboxers as private security guards, Tse had been deported from Taiwan on a commercial flight to his home in Canada for reasons other than drug offences. He was arrested after the AFP issued an Interpol “Red Diffusion” – a request for international co-operation between law enforcement agencies. In a major breakthrough, AFP analysts in 2017 travelled to Myanmar after what has been described as “an Aladdin’s Cave of intel” leading to the Sam Gor syndicate was found on the phone of a Taiwanese man arrested at the airport on drug trafficking charges. Sources yesterday said it was hard to put a time limit on how long it would take to extradite Tse to Australia. It’s been reported Tse was extradited to the US and jailed for nine years after being charged in 1998 with conspiring with Italian mafia to import heroin into New York via Canada. The Australian reported Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling as saying: “We have a good relationship with police in Australia, so when we knew he was coming in our direction we were able to catch the guy. He’s in prison now in The Netherlands and … he’s going to be transported to Australia.”