The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

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Anthony's Weiner
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The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by Anthony's Weiner »

e is Asia’s most-wanted man. He is protected by a guard of Thai kickboxers. He flies by private jet. And, police say, he once lost $66 million in a single night at a Macau casino.

Tse Chi Lop, a Canadian national born in China, is suspected of leading a vast multinational drug trafficking syndicate formed out of an alliance of five of Asia’s triad groups, according to law enforcement officials. Its members call it simply “The Company.” Police, in a nod to one of Tse’s nicknames, have dubbed it Sam Gor, Cantonese for “Brother Number Three.”

The syndicate, law enforcers believe, is funneling tonnes of methamphetamine, heroin and ketamine to at least a dozen countries from Japan in North Asia to New Zealand in the South Pacific. But meth – a highly addictive drug with devastating physical and mental effects on long-term users – is its main business, they say.

In what it calls a conservative estimate, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) puts the Sam Gor syndicate’s meth revenue in 2018 at $8 billion a year, but says it could be as high as $17.7 billion. The UN agency estimates that the cartel, which often conceals its drugs in packets of tea, has a 40% to 70% share of the wholesale regional meth market that has expanded at least fourfold in the past five years.

This unprecedented boom in meth production has triggered an unprecedented response, Reuters has learned. Tse, 55, is the prime target of Operation Kungur, a sprawling, previously unreported counter-narcotics investigation. Led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Operation Kungur involves about 20 agencies from Asia, North America and Europe. It is by far the biggest ever international effort to combat Asian drug trafficking syndicates, say law enforcement agents involved in the investigation. It encompasses authorities from Myanmar, China, Thailand, Japan, the United States and Canada. Taiwan, while not formally part of the operation, is assisting in the investigation....

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/sp ... syndicate/

8 to 17 Billion USD a year Holy F@ck thats a lot of cash! long article but very informative, well worth the read
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by Mishmash »

Anthony's Weiner wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 7:16 am
8 to 17 Billion USD a year Holy F@ck thats a lot of cash! long article but very informative, well worth the read
Holy Moses - he has a bigger budget than the entire Israeli Military.

No wonder they can't find him.
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by SternAAlbifrons »

This report, link below, is taken from investigations by Aust 60 Minutes and ABC,
shows how Asia's biggest Triad/drug organisation, "The Company" (same as ^^ above) has infiltrated Australia's biggest casino.

The state and fed governments response has been a shrug.
It seems they are a protected species everywhere.

"Crown partnered with tour operators backed by Triad-led Asian organised crime syndicates, for the purpose of netting Chinese high rollers into its casinos in Melbourne and Perth.

One of these entities, known as The Company – a crime conglomerate controlled by Triad bosses – used Crown-linked bank accounts and high rollers to launder funds. Crown is said to have licensed and paid members of The Company to generate turnover"
https://pubtic.com.au/crown-links-with- ... -revealed/
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by Mishmash »

I'll be sure to let my ma know her bingo sessions are funding human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, murder and money laundering.

Every little helps!
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by Splashback »

Interesting article and cool illustrations to boot. I guess some of the trafficers coming from Lao that grace these pages are working for this group.

Anyone know who this was? "In March 2018, a key Sam Gor lieutenant was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to Myanmar."
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by Anthony's Weiner »

Even if one was to take the bottom end of the estimated income this group has, they are ahead of 65 countries in the world. At the high end of the estimate, the syndicate equals the GDP of Georgia and Albania or higher than the GDP of the world's 100 poorest countries. Mind-boggling really, no wonder they are able to grease the palms of so many officials that are charged with protecting their citizens from this scourge.

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countr ... es-by-gdp/
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by SternAAlbifrons »

Splashback wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2019 11:43 am
Anyone know who this was? "In March 2018, a key Sam Gor lieutenant was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to Myanmar."
Yes. I noticed that Cambodian connection too, but never seen any other references anywhere else.
Actually, never seen any refs to The Company previous to the Crown Casino revelations a couple of months ago.
Then the Reuters report above.
It will be interesting to see how famous this mob gets - and what other Kh connections emerge.
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by JUDGEDREDD »

Anthony's Weiner wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:35 pm Even if one was to take the bottom end of the estimated income this group has, they are ahead of 65 countries in the world. At the high end of the estimate, the syndicate equals the GDP of Georgia and Albania or higher than the GDP of the world's 100 poorest countries. Mind-boggling really, no wonder they are able to grease the palms of so many officials that are charged with protecting their citizens from this scourge.

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countr ... es-by-gdp/
People talk, money silences.
Slow down little world, you're changing too fast.
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by Mishmash »

"GOLD" or "LEAD" is the usual choice offered to anyone in the way...

As an aside the wildlife trafficking is not so far behind.

With a value of between $7 billion and $23 billion each year, illegal wildlife trafficking is the fourth most lucrative global crime after drugs, humans and arms.
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Re: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

The Cambodian Chinese Tea Link
CEO NEWS
16 October 2019
Image
The UN agency estimates that the cartel, which often conceals its drugs in packets of tea, has a 40% to 70% share of the wholesale regional meth market that has expanded at least fourfold in the past five years.
A search on recent CEO News reveals that the methamphetamine coming into Cambodia is very often smuggled from Laos packaged as kilos of Chinese Guanyinwang tea. Given the figures quoted in the OP article, it seems likely that these drugs are coming into Cambodia from the same source, "The Company" or "the Sam Gor syndicate", and also that the drugs seized are just the tip of the iceberg.

Here is a selection of arrests by the Cambodian authorities from June 2018 to October 2019, conducted on the drug trail that runs from the Cambodian-Laos border crossing southward through Stung Treng and Kratie to Phnom Penh.
Thu Oct 03, 2019
Image
newsworthy/laotian-man-busted-the-borde ... 32788.html

Wed May 29, 2019
Image
newsworthy/two-women-arrested-with-meth ... 29248.html

Thu May 09, 2019
Image
The police confiscated a pack of methamphetamine drug weighing 1,044 grams, a phone, and a bag. The drugs were wrapped in packages of Guanyinwang tea, a particularly high grade of Chinese Oolong tea leaves. Recently, Asian methamphetamine smugglers in Cambodia have often been caught carrying the drug disguised as Chinese tea, with very distinct shiny packaging in colors of gold, green or red.
newsworthy/laotian-man-arrested-with-1k ... 28793.html

Fri May 03, 2019
Image
newsworthy/stung-treng-village-oldies-c ... 28651.html

Sat Jul 07, 2018
Image
newsworthy/police-car-chase-yields-1kg- ... 21280.html

And of course, the biggest drug bust in the history of Cambodia - 120kilos of methamphetamine - was also carried in packets of tea, stashed in the luggage compartment of a Sorya bus coming from Laos.
Jun 26, 2018
Image
newsworthy/cambodia-seizes-its-largest- ... 20995.html
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