https://www.theglobeandmail.com/wor...ingpin-laid-groundwork-for-empire-in-toronto/
A Canadian man who has been called a modern Asian drug kingpin on par with El Chapo or Pablo Escobar built the foundations of his drug empire in Toronto, giving Canada an unusually central role in a multinational drug network that has been investigated by authorities on three continents.
Tse Chi Lop, 55, is suspected by police and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to be the leader of a narcotics syndicate named Sam Gor – “Brother Number Three” in Cantonese – which is believed to hold significant responsibility for a surge of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine and ketamine, across Asia.
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Mr. Tse allegedly has helped to speed the narcotics world away from plant-based drugs (opium production in Myanmar, as one example, has plunged 70 per cent since 1996) and into laboratory-made chemical products whose use has surged in Australia, Japan, South Korea and throughout Southeast Asia. Meth seizures across east and Southeast Asia more than tripled between 2013 and 2018.
Mr. Tse’s suspected reach and power were documented in a recent Reuters report, which described his travel on private jets, the phalanx of Thai kickboxers that guard him and his gambling habits, which included an estimated $88-million loss in a single night in a Macau casino.
One of Sam Gor’s key breakthroughs: a product delivery guarantee that replaced, at no cost to the buyer, any seized drugs. It’s a policy made possible by the immense profitability of turning chemicals into narcotics. The UNODC estimates Sam Gor’s annual gross revenue at between US$3.8-billion and US$17.7-billion. At the upper end, that is roughly equivalent to the worldwide revenue of BMO Financial Group last year. Drugs believed to be from Sam Gor were seized in South Korea last year.
A Canadian man who has been called a modern Asian drug kingpin on par with El Chapo or Pablo Escobar built the foundations of his drug empire in Toronto, giving Canada an unusually central role in a multinational drug network that has been investigated by authorities on three continents.
Tse Chi Lop, 55, is suspected by police and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to be the leader of a narcotics syndicate named Sam Gor – “Brother Number Three” in Cantonese – which is believed to hold significant responsibility for a surge of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine and ketamine, across Asia.
…..
Mr. Tse allegedly has helped to speed the narcotics world away from plant-based drugs (opium production in Myanmar, as one example, has plunged 70 per cent since 1996) and into laboratory-made chemical products whose use has surged in Australia, Japan, South Korea and throughout Southeast Asia. Meth seizures across east and Southeast Asia more than tripled between 2013 and 2018.
Mr. Tse’s suspected reach and power were documented in a recent Reuters report, which described his travel on private jets, the phalanx of Thai kickboxers that guard him and his gambling habits, which included an estimated $88-million loss in a single night in a Macau casino.
One of Sam Gor’s key breakthroughs: a product delivery guarantee that replaced, at no cost to the buyer, any seized drugs. It’s a policy made possible by the immense profitability of turning chemicals into narcotics. The UNODC estimates Sam Gor’s annual gross revenue at between US$3.8-billion and US$17.7-billion. At the upper end, that is roughly equivalent to the worldwide revenue of BMO Financial Group last year. Drugs believed to be from Sam Gor were seized in South Korea last year.
