Tse Chi Lop

Tse Chi Lop (Chinese: 謝志樂, born 25 October 1963) is a Chinese and Canadian gangster, drug trafficker and drug cartel leader. Before his arrest, Tse was the alleged drug lord behind Asia-Pacific based international crime syndicate Sam Gor, also referred to as "The Company", and a former member of the Hong Kong, Toronto and Vancouver-based triad crime group Big Circle Gang. Despite his extensive involvement in the illegal drug trade and a previous conviction, his criminal activities were unknown to the public until uncovered by a Reuters report in 2019.

A career criminal, Tse was involved with organized crime in his native city Guangzhou from a young age. He immigrated to Canada in 1988 and acquired Canadian citizenship through naturalization. After being involved in heroin trafficking from Southeast Asia to North America for years, Tse was first arrested in 1998 and sentenced to 9 years' imprisonment by a US court. After his release, he moved to Hong Kong in 2011, where he founded Sam Gor and entered the synthetic drug trafficking market. Known to be intelligent, humble and diplomatic, Tse's behind-the-scene innovation reshaped drug smuggling in the Asia-Pacific as he quietly accumulated tremendous wealth in the process.

In 2019, Sam Gor generated billions of US dollars each year from the trade in methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs. Through Sam Gor, Tse controlled nearly half of Asia-Pacific's drug market and over 70 percent of Australian drug trade. Sam Gor is believed to be responsible for the dramatic shift in recent years away from opium-based drugs such as heroin and towards synthetics such as methamphetamine, ketamine and fentanyl in the Asia-Pacific, and has been implicated in large shipments to Australia by law enforcement. As a result, Tse is frequently referred to as "the 'El Chapo' of Asia" by the media.

In contrast to other well-known drug cartel leaders, Tse kept a low profile despite living a rich lifestyle and was virtually unknown even to law enforcements. Nevertheless, his role was gradually unearthed through the captures of his associates. At the time of the Reuters' report in 2019, Tse became wanted in Australia for his involvements in controlling 70 percent of the local meth supply. After spending time in Taiwan under official surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic-related border lockdowns, Tse was finally arrested by Dutch National Police in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on 22 January 2021 while on a layover to re-enter Canada. He was extradited to Australia on 22 December 2022 and is awaiting trial.