The alleged boss of an international drug trafficking syndicate has landed in Australia after being extradited from the Netherlands.
Tse Chi Lop, 59, was charged by the Australian Federal Police over conspiracy to traffic commercial quantities of drugs for the crime syndicate known as The Company.
He is accused of being more powerful than Mexico’s infamous El-Chapo or Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar.
The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.
He is alleged to have been involved in the trafficking of 20kg of methamphetamine over the course of one year to March 2013.
In today’s prices, this quantity would have a street value of $4.4 million.
In 2021, the AFP issued an INTERPOL Red Notice for is arrest – a request to global law enforcement to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.
It led to Tse’s arrest by the Dutch National Police at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam almost two years ago.
He will appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Tse has denied involvement in drug trafficking and will contest the charges.
AFP assistant commissioner Krissy Barrett said it was a major victory.
“This arrest would be one of the most high-profile arrests in the history of the AFP,” she said on Thursday.
Tse has been investigated by five different federal agencies: the federal police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the NSW Police, the NSW Crime Commission and the Victoria Police.