Asian "El Chapo" arrested at Schiphol

Dutch police arrested one of the world's most wanted criminals at Schiphol. Tse Chi Lop, an Asian drug boss, who has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Colombian Pablo Escobar, was apprehended on Friday. 

57-year-old Tse, a Canadian national of Chinese origin, was arrested at the request of Australian authorities. The national police are working with the Australian judicial authorities to work towards the drug boss's extradition. He has been wanted by Interpol since 2019. 

According to the AP news agency, the man leads a drug syndicate, with a yearly turnover of 70 billion dollars, mainly through the trade in (crystal) meth and heroin. Tse lived in Toronto for a while but moved between Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in recent years, reports news agency Reuters.

"Tse Chi Lop is on the same level as El Chapo or perhaps Pablo Escobar," Jeremy Douglas told Reuters on behalf of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a UN organization that supports the fight against drugs, crime, international terrorism, and corruption. His syndicate is known as "The Company" and the "Sam Gor" syndicate, which operates from New Zealand to Japan. 

According to Australian police, Tse is responsible for 70 percent of all drugs entering the country. His group is said to have been responsible for at least 13 drug transport cases since 2015. 

Tse was en route to Canada by plane. He was arrested on a layover. That went "quietly," said a spokesman for the National Unit. 

Afgelopen vrijdag hield de Landelijke Recherche op verzoek van @AusFedPolice een 57-jarige Canadees aan op verdenking van grootschalige smokkel van drugs. De man stond sinds 2019 gesignaleerd door @interpol #politie #drugs #aanhouding

— Landelijke Eenheid (@PolitieLE) January 23, 2021