Dutch police have revealed that they had apprehended the alleged prime mover of a multibillion-dollar drug syndicate who is one of the most wanted fugitives in the world and has been likened to Mexico’s drug lordk Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The spokesperson of Dutch police, Thomas Aling, said Tse Chi Lop, the Chinese-born Canadian, was detained recently at the request of Australian police, who spearheaded an investigation that discovered his organization controls the $70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade.
Aling said Tse is expected to face extradition after he appeared before a judge and added that his apprehension by national police happened without incident at Schiphol Airport.
Aling said: “He was already on the most-wanted list and he was detained based on intelligence we received.”
Dutch police were not able to give details of the legal proceedings and it was unclear if Tse even had a lawyer.
According to counter-narcotics officers from now fewer than four countries and documents reviewed previously Reuters, Tse, 57, an ex-convict who was living in Toronto has been moving between Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan recently.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), which took the lead role in an investigation into the criminal organization, disclosed recently that it issued an arrest warrant for him in 2019 “in connection with AFP-led Operation Volante, which dismantled a global crime syndicate operating in five countries.”
The APF said: “The syndicate targeted Australia over a number of years, importing and distributing large amounts of illicit narcotics, laundering the profits overseas and living off the wealth obtained from crime.”
