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The most wanted man in Asia has been extradited to Australia, where he faces charges and life in jail.
Tse Chi Lop is suspected of running a multimillion-dollar drug ring spanning various Asian countries, from Japan to New Zealand.
Interpol apprehended him at a Dutch airport last year as a notorious figure whose standing in Asia has long attracted similarities to Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo.
He was eventually extradited on Thursday, after an almost two-year battle.
Australian police posted images of armed cops carrying him out of the plane in handcuffs at Melbourne Airport. On Thursday, he is scheduled to appear in a local court.
The 59-year-old is accused of running one of the world’s largest multibillion-dollar drug syndicates.
The Company, commonly known as the Sam Gor Syndicate, controls the Asian illegal drug business. According to Australian police, it is responsible for up to 70% of all drugs entering the country.
They said the organization brought massive amounts of drugs into the country in the form of tea packets, specifically methamphetamine, heroin, and ketamine.
Because of the scope of his alleged operations, Mr. Tse has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Mr. Tse, one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, was apprehended at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport in January 2021 while attempting to board a flight.
Police in Australia has been looking for him for almost a decade. According to reports, the majority of his medicines were smuggled into Sydney and Melbourne.
Operation Kungur, the campaign to apprehend Mr. Tse, involves roughly 20 agencies from around the world, with Australian police taking the lead, as previously reported.
Mr. Tse has vehemently disputed the narcotics charges. He has claimed that his detention was staged by Australian officials, and in his failed extradition appeal, he claimed that Australian police illegally arranged for his flight from Taiwan to Canada to include a stop in the Netherlands so that he might be apprehended there.
In recent years, Mr. Tse was said to have lived in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
He previously served nine years in prison after being imprisoned in the 1990s on drug trafficking charges in the United States.