Thread by @NeckarValue

"While other criminal organizations in Toronto were murdering over minuscule sums, the BCB created whole new enterprises.

They reacted to that orderliness by educating themselves in the realities of the marketplace rather than killing their enemies."

torontolife.com/city/this-man-…

The BCB hired “sifu,” a Cantonese term that loosely translates to “masters” but corresponds in practice to consultants. “Whenever they wanted to get into a new area, a new market, a new trade, they would hire someone to teach them how to get it done,”

To learn the credit card business, they hired manufacturers. For the drug trade, they hired chemists. They brought an industrial approach to organized crime. And Tse would become their greatest innovator.

"BCB imported the highest-quality heroin from Thailand, shipped it to Vancouver, Toronto, into the US via the Rizzuto family’s distribution network. “The BCB dominated the drug trade by being efficient and out-competing others. They were flexible, always adaptable to the market."

"Tse recognized the opportunity synthetic drugs in Asia represented, ...It takes thousands of farmers to generate a tonne of heroin. It takes 10 guys in a lab to make a tonne of meth. Tse recognized that he could change the entire business model of illegal drugs."

"One of Tse’s innovations was guaranteed delivery. If a dealer paid for the drugs, he’d receive them. If they were seized he would replace them at no cost. Guaranteed delivery was possible because production costs were negligible. This was the idea on which Tse built an empire."

"Gambling was a big part of Tse’s lifestyle. He lost 60 million euros one in Macau—although how much did he gain from money laundered by the trip? He was famous for holding lavish birthday parties ... travelled with a team of eight Thai kickboxing bodyguards."

"By the late 2010s, Sam Gor accounted for 70 per cent of Australian meth. It controlled somewhere between 40 and 70 per cent of the $90-billion Asian market, dominating the trade in the Philippines, South Korea and Japan."

"What got Tse was a Reuters story describing him as Asia’s El Chapo. The reporter had unprecedented co-operation from police, ...talking to Reuters was a smart gamble. Tse’s business requires secrecy. When his name and photograph became public, his world started falling apart."

"Tse rose to prominence as a criminal disciple of open multicultural hypercapitalism.

Tse had a better system. Instead of ethnic loyalty, transnational co-operation. Instead of territory, logistics. Instead of hierarchy, metrics. Instead of centralized control, connections."