Thread by @JeromeTaylor

For anyone interested in Asia’s drug trade this is huge news.

Tse Chi Lop is often compared to El Chapo.

But a better comparison would be Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo in terms of influence & being able to unite even rival organised crime groups.

bbc.com/news/world-asi…

Most of what the public knows about Tse and his Sam Gor cartel is thanks to @tom_allard who wrote this brilliant piece in 2019.

(Police had been quietly on Sam Gor’s tail for years)

reuters.com/investigates/s…

One of the things that is striking about Sam Gor is it managed to unite rival triad networks.

Among them are (Hong Kong origin) 14k; Wo Shing Wo and Sun Yee On; (Taiwan origin) Bamboo Union and (mainly Canada origin) Big Circle Boys.

If Tse has been arrested, how will those alliances be affected?

Asia’s drug cartels have done a much better job of avoiding the debilitating internecine warfare that has been a hallmark of their LatAm cousins.

So chances are the heroin, meth, ketamine etc will keep flowing.

The other thing worth mentioning is how low a profile Asia’s cartel leaders keep.

There are no narcocorridos singing their praises. No boastful videos, public spats w rivals or obvious flaunting of wealth

They act like regular biz figures, determined to stay off the radar.

Law enforcement reckons Sam Gor may control about 70 percent of Asia’s drug trade and I’m sure their intelligence folders are filled with the identities of mid-ranking capos and perhaps even some big fish.

But the fact remains almost all the major cartel bosses’ identities remain unknown — at least to the public.

They are not household names constantly in hiding in the way Mexico’s cartel bosses became.

They’re also not regularly killing each other.

That gives them significant power to run their empires comparatively unmolested both by law enforcement and each other.

Good details in this @smh piece on Tse’s arrest including the revelation that he was arrested in Netherlands after he was deported from Taiwan.

The operation was masterminded by Australia Federal Police who have had Sam Gor in their sights for years

smh.com.au/national/drug-…

As SMH notes: “Critical to The Company’s success was its supply hubs in corruption-prone Asian countries and regions like Shan State in Myanmar, which is governed by ethnic warlords.”

(Shan is effectively the world’s most successful narco state)

“An International Crisis Group report last year noted that “the drugs trade would not be possible without high-level corruption in those countries – including China, Laos and Thailand – through which large consignments of drugs or their precursors are smuggled.””