Daily Times

A second senior leader of a vast drug syndicate has been arrested, a Thai narcotics official said, as a transnational dragnet tightens on the Sam Gor group, which police say dominates the $70 billion annual Asia-Pacific drug trade.

The October arrest of Hong Kong citizen Lee Chung Chak in Bangkok preceded last month’s high-profile arrest in the Netherlands of Tse Chi Lop, a China-born Canadian national who police suspect is the top leader of the syndicate, also called “The Company”.

Lee, 65, is a former prison mate of Tse’s suspected of being involved in drug trafficking for four decades. A 2018 Australian Federal Police (AFP) document reviewed by Reuters outlining the top 19 targets in the syndicate described Lee as a “senior project manager responsible for big ventures of border controlled drugs”.

The two arrests on different continents within three months stem from a decade-long investigation by the AFP, which also leads the multinational Operation Kungur task force targeting the syndicate.

It is rare for suspected senior drug traffickers to be arrested and successfully prosecuted in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The suspect was arrested by Thai Narcotics police on Oct. 1 based on an arrest warrant issued by a Thai court, which followed an extradition request by the Australian authorities,” Lieutenant General Montri Yimyaem, head of Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau, told Reuters when asked about Lee.

“The extradition is currently being processed by the court.”

In recent years, Lee has emerged as a rival to the Canadian as a major player in the region’s drug trade, according to two investigators, who spoke to Reuters on condition they not be identified.

“We understand his star had risen to be an equal or even a bigger player,” said one of the investigators. “He’s a very significant arrest in his own right.”.

Thai authorities seized a laptop and multiple phones when they searched Lee’s serviced apartment in an upscale Bangkok area, a potential treasure trove of intelligence, the two investigators told Reuters. A third official added that a document and cash in several denominations were also seized.

Lee is appealing the November approval by Thailand’s Criminal Court of Australia’s extradition request, said a source at Thailand’s Ministry of Justice. Tse is in prison in the Netherlands, where a court has yet to rule on his extradition to Australia. Lee could not be contacted in prison, nor could his lawyer be identified by Reuters. A lawyer for Tse declined to comment. An AFP media officer declined to comment.

The alleged role of Tse – whose nickname is Sam Gor, or “Brother Number Three” in Cantonese – as leader of the syndicate and the investigation into his activities was revealed by Reuters in 2019.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has estimated the syndicate made up to $17 billion from methamphetamine trafficking in the Asia-Pacific region alone in 2018. The UNODC representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Jeremy Douglas, compared Tse to the notorious Latin American cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.