An Australian court has sentenced Tse Chi Lop, the kingpin of an international drug trafficking syndicate, to 16 years in prison.
Tse, 62, a Canadian crime boss once compared to Mexican drug lords Pablo Escobar and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was arrested in Amsterdam in 2021 on an Interpol notice from Australia.
He was accused of conspiring to traffic commercial quantities of methamphetamine into Australia.
In a Melbourne courtroom on Thursday, Tse wore thick black glasses and a blue shirt, sitting with his head bowed as the judge sentenced him for conspiring to traffic large quantities of illegal drugs into the country between 2012 and 2013.
He will be eligible for parole after 10 years.
The sentence is well below the typical punishment of life imprisonment awarded for such offences.
Judge Peter Rozen said the sentence was agreed following an “unusual” deal between former attorney general Michaelia Cash and Dutch authorities under which Canberra promised Tse would not face the maximum Australian penalty after he was extradited to the country.
“This investigation highlights that the long arm of the Australian Federal Police can reach criminals across the world,” commissioner Krissy Barrett said in a statement.
The case came to a conclusion after three years of deliberation, with much of the trial conducted behind closed doors.
The court was opened to the public on Thursday and it was revealed that Tse pleaded guilty to the drug conspiracy charges after negotiations with prosecutors.
Tse, who was born in China, led the sprawling transnational drug trafficking syndicate Sam Gor, also known as The Company, which allegedly dominated methamphetamine distribution in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2019, Reuters described Tse – variously nicknamed Sam Gor and Brother No 3 in Cantonese – as “Asia's El Chapo”.
He was reportedly protected by Thai kickboxers.
His syndicate was estimated to generate over £13bn a year, funnelling drugs into at least a dozen countries from Japan in East Asia to New Zealand in the South Pacific.
Tse once reportedly blew almost £5.2m on a single gambling session in Macau, China.
At its peak, his syndicate was the biggest trafficker of methamphetamine to Australia, police said.
Tse was arrested at the Schiphol airport in the Netherlands on 22 January 2021 while he was in transit from Taiwan to Canada.
He was extradited to Australia in December 2022 to face the drug trafficking charges.
