A Canadian drug kingpin, who once headed the notorious Sam Gor syndicate, has been sentenced to 16 years in an Australian prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to traffic commercial quantities of methamphetamine from 2012 to 2013.
Tse Chi Lop, now 62, pleaded guilty on Nov. 7 in Melbourne County Court and was handed the lengthy sentence on Thursday. He will be eligible to apply for parole after serving 10 years.
Lop was charged after an Australian Federal Police investigation called Operation Volante that began in 2012 to investigate his international syndicate and its drug trafficking network in Australia.
At its peak, the Sam Gor syndicate was the biggest trafficker of meth into Australia and Tse drew comparisons with notorious cartel leaders such as Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in a statement Thursday that the sentencing marked the end of one of the most high-profile investigations in the force’s history.
“This result showcases what the AFP does best — identifying and targeting criminal syndicates that cause significant harm to our communities,” Barrett said. “Operation Volante is a culmination of 14 years of hard work and perseverance from our investigators and international network. This investigation highlights that the long arm of the AFP can reach criminals across the world.”
She said the AFP “will continue to supercharge our global operations to defend and protect Australia’s future from domestic and global security threats.”
“And that includes targeting criminals who wrongly believe they are out of reach of the AFP,” Barrett said.
Tse belonged to the Big Circle Boys gang when he arrived in Canada from his native Guangzhou, China, in 1988 with his fiancé. They settled in Toronto.
He began smuggling heroin from Southeast Asia for Mafia associates to sell in New York state.
That arrangement with the Canadian Mob got Tse arrested in the U.S. in 1998. He was later convicted and sentenced to nine years.
When he applied to get transferred to a Canadian prison in 2004, Tse said he wanted to care for his aging parents and his two young kids, one of whom had medical problems. He claimed he wanted to open a restaurant upon his release.
“Petitioner again expresses great sorrow over the crime that he became involved in,” the court document said. His transfer was denied and he remained in the U.S. until his release in June 2006.
He almost immediately left Canada.
Tse was arrested in the Netherlands in 2021 and extradited to Australia in December 2022.
Postmedia News investigated the role of Canadian criminal organizations in smuggling meth into Australia and New Zealand in a five-part series last year.
The AFP told Postmedia that Tse’s right-hand man was B.C.’s Khamla Wong, who was once closely associated to the UN gang. When Wong was arrested on an international warrant in Taiwan in 2021, the tip came from the AFP. (Canadian charges against Wong were later stayed.)
Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia and Pacific representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, also said at the time that he was well-aware of the affiliation between Tse and Wong, who hasn’t faced any charges in Australia.
Douglas said that in putting together Sam Gor, Tse was able to consolidate and grow the meth trade to unprecedented levels. At its peak, the syndicate made between US$8 billion and US$18 billion a year, according to the UN agency.
“He could work with armed groups in Myanmar, he could work with his triad connections, he could work with his banker connections or his money laundering connections. He brought them all together into a syndicate. It was pretty amazing,” Douglas said.
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