A pair of eyes curved into a crescent shape because of the smile on his face, and a hint of scholarly elegance between his eyebrows. From public photos alone, it’s hard to associate the over-100-year-old Chinese-Canadian with the Golden Triangle drug lord.
Tse Chi Lop’s scale of criminality is considered comparable to that of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, nicknamed “Shorty”. On January 22, 2021, at the request of the Australian police, Tse was arrested by Dutch police at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
“The arrest went well.” Thomas Aling, a spokesman for the Dutch police, also revealed that extradition proceedings are currently being prepared in Australia.
Xie Zhiluo, 57, has been sought by Australian police for nearly a decade. According to the Sydney Herald, police intelligence indicates that about 70 percent of the synthetic drugs flowing into the country come from the syndicate led by Xie Zhiluo.
The Australian Council for Criminal Intelligence (ACI) has placed Xie Zhiluo on its Priority Organisation Target List (POT). This means that he poses a serious threat to Australia’s national security.
“Brother San emerges
In 2011, a businessman of Vietnamese origin in Melbourne came to the attention of the Australian Federal Police. According to the Sydney Herald, Australian police discovered during their surveillance that Suky Lieu, an Australian citizen of Vietnamese descent, was unusually active, not only meeting with the leaders of Italian mafia groups, but also having dinner with some of the key figures in Asian organized crime, as well as having ties to the local Australian mafia group, the Motorcycle Party. “He also has links with the Motorcycle Party, a local Australian mafia group.
Liu Jiayu, who was publicly known as a fruit and vegetable trader, in fact sold large quantities of drugs in Sydney and Melbourne, among other places, and his supply of drugs was seemingly endless. Police surveillance phone recordings suggest that Lau Ka Yue was more of a logistical manager taking orders from afar than a behind-the-scenes boss.
When speaking to a person with a Cantonese accent based in Hong Kong, Liu Jiayu was respectful and referred to him as “Brother San.
“We have since received information about a very important member of the crime syndicate. He has world influence and control, and is very high up in the cross-border drug trafficking field.” Singor, the Australian Federal Police officer who organized the case, told the media that “he was known as ‘Sam Gor’, or ‘San Gor’ in Cantonese.”
After about four years of investigation, Australian police gradually got a clearer picture of “Sam Gor”, who is Canadian-Chinese Xie Zhiluo.
In the late 1980s, Xie Zhiluo immigrated to Toronto, Canada, with his Family. Before immigrating, he was already a member of the “Big Circle Gang”, a triad organization in Guangdong and Hong Kong. After moving to Canada, Xie returned to his old business, which involved armed robbery, credit card counterfeiting and heroin transportation.
“In my opinion, many of the members of the ‘Big Circle Gang’ were criminal geniuses.” Toronto Police Detective Kenneth Yates testified in a related case.
After several years of hustling, Xie Zhiluo had made a name for himself in Canada’s underground drug scene by the early 1990s. He was soon arrested during a police crackdown on the Toronto-area mob.
According to Canada’s National Post, investigators uncovered a global drug ring involving multiple underworld groups, including the Montreal “Mafia,” the New York mob, the Italian “Gloria” and Colombian drug dealers. “, Colombian drug traffickers, as well as active in Canada and a number of Asian countries and regions of the “big circle gang”.
From the “Big Circle Gang” to the “Sanko Group”
Multiple criminal organizations worked together to smuggle heroin from Asia to Canada for distribution in Italy and the United States, or to buy cocaine from Colombia and Florida and sell it to Canada and Asia.
“Back then, Italian gangs were not usually associated with Asian gangs in any way.” Larry Tronstad, a former RCMP officer, oversaw Canadian police anti-gang operations in the Toronto area, including the first drop of Tse Chi Lok.
Tronstad believes that Hsieh likely learned the value of transnational gang cooperation from his drug trafficking practices. After his release from prison, Tse remained a core member of the “Big Circle Gang” and proceeded to form his own criminal network, the “Sango Group.
The “Three Brothers Group” continues to be a “platter” of criminal organizations, with members from the three major gangs that roamed Hong Kong and Macau in the 1990s – 14K, Wo Sing Wo and Sun Yee On – as well as The “Big Circle Gang” of Tse Chi Lok and the “Chuk Yuen Gang” operating in Taiwan, China. The Sango Group also has various partnerships with criminal organizations in Australia, South America and Europe.
Partners from major criminal organizations around the world refer to the Sango Group as a “company.
“It’s a common interest group formed to advance and expand the drug business in Asia, and they’re doing it incredibly well.” Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia, has been following the movements of Tse Chi Lok and his crime syndicate.
The “Sango Group” is well-organized, disciplined and its members act in a sophisticated and low-key manner. According to the Sydney Herald, the Sango Group does not want to make media headlines and believes that violence is not good for business.
“The Sankoh Group supplies a larger and more diverse drug market and is more willing to work with local criminal groups. In contrast, drug trafficking organizations in Latin America often experience violence in the form of infighting and shootouts.
The benefits of transnational drug trafficking cooperation are enormous. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the annual revenue of Tse’s crime syndicate at between $8 billion and $17.7 billion. methamphetamine trade quadrupled in the five years after 2009, when Tse’s cartel dominated the Asia-Pacific methamphetamine trade.
“He stirred up an already huge market and made it even bigger. He is to the drug industry what YouTubers are to transportation, or what Neflix is to movies. He saw an opportunity, took it, and revolutionized the entire market.” Douglas believes.
The Australian police found that packaging methamphetamine as tea for transport was a key feature of the “Sango cartel,” allowing the drugs to pass under heavy scrutiny in various countries; if the drugs were caught in transit, buyers could exchange them for free or cancel the order without liability.
In 2017, Australian police seized a record 903 kilograms of methamphetamine, and investigative leads led to Tse Chi Lok. Two years later, Australian police intercepted a shipment of drugs on a ship sailing from Bangkok to Melbourne, with 1.6 tons of methamphetamine and 37 kilograms of heroin packaged to look like tea and hidden in stereo speakers, valued at $1.2 billion, setting another new record for drug seizures in Australia.
That same year, the Australian Federal Police issued an arrest warrant for Tse Chi Lok.
“Feeding the army with drugs and protecting power with the army”
Australian police suspect that the village of Loikan, located in Myanmar’s Shan Gang, may be the methamphetamine production base of the “Sango Group”.
“In May 2020, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that “the Golden Triangle has become a hub for the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine (commonly known as methamphetamine) in East and Southeast Asia, with markets as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Its markets extend as far as Australia and New Zealand.”
The “ethnic local forces” (known as the “Mindiwus”) have long controlled local power and used drug revenues to support their struggle against the Burmese government forces.
“This financial model, described in the 2019 International Anti-Drug Blue Book as “feeding the military with drugs and protecting power with the military,” has greatly stimulated drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle.
The “Sango Group” has industrialized the production of drugs in superlabs in Shan State, producing the world’s highest purity crystal methamphetamine. Instead of rushing to sell, these drug producers spread the meth on the ground and wait for it to dry.
The industrial operations of Xie Zhiluo and his “Sango Group” gradually emerged. Thai police revealed that most of the meth lab managers and drug makers are from China and Taiwan, and they are also responsible for transporting the drugs to the Asia-Pacific region.
“The ‘border wall’ at this point on the border between the mountains of northern Thailand and Myanmar is made of just a few strands of barbed wire and some bamboo stakes.” In May 2020, Australia’s 60 Minutes went into northern Burma in an attempt to explore the restored drug trafficking trail of Tse Chi Lok’s gang.
These organizations employ impoverished border villagers to trek through the mountains and forests to deliver drugs to waiting traffickers along the Thai border, and then on to the rest of the world.
The drugs from the “Golden Triangle” are diverse and can meet different market needs. High-purity crystalline methamphetamine, also known as “crystal meth,” is usually trafficked to wealthy countries; methamphetamine mixed with caffeine The “duck pills,” which are cheap, are mainly sold to poor countries such as Bangladesh.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Asia-Pacific methamphetamine market was worth $15 billion in 2013 and soared to $61 billion by 2019. By comparison, Myanmar’s gross national product in 2019 is only about $70 billion.
The drug situation from the “Golden Triangle” region is growing. While the purity and quantity of methamphetamine intercepted by police in various countries has increased year by year, the average price of methamphetamine has decreased year by year and is at its lowest level ever. This means that the supply of methamphetamine is abundant.
“The ‘Sango Group’ has essentially an uninterrupted supply of precursor chemicals …… They have maintained a steady inventory and can produce on demand at any Time.” Douglas believes that the new pneumonia Epidemic has given the “Sango Group” an opportunity to expand its market share.
“Drug money” turned into “gambling money”
The drugs have brought huge wealth to Xie Zhiluo’s “Sango Group,” which still faces the challenge of further “laundering” its “drug money.
“Usually, the drug cartel’s money laundering technique is to mix the cash obtained from drug transactions into those apparently legal and huge transactions in various ways, so that their illegal sources are eventually covered up by the apparently legal economic activities.” Zhou Ling, an associate professor at the School of Criminal Justice of Central South University of Finance and Economics, told the Southern Weekend reporter.
Xie Zhiluo’s “Sango Group” laundered money worldwide, with casinos and property investments being used as money laundering channels. Australian police intelligence shows that Xie’s money laundering activities are closely linked to the local Crown Resort, which holds nearly 50 percent of the market share of Australia’s casino industry.
“It’s much easier to launder money through casinos than using banks.” A source named Roy Moo admitted to Australian investigators that he had been recruited to work as a casino broker for the Australian arm of the Sanko Group because of his “contacts at Crown Resorts.
Roy Moo said that the Sanko Group had completed $800 million in one-night gambling transactions. The Crown Casino is currently under anti-money laundering investigation by the relevant Australian law enforcement agencies.
The problem of money laundering from “drug money” to “gambling money” has plagued several countries. Thais are the main moneymakers of casinos in the Golden Triangle. According to Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, illegal gambling revenues in Thailand ranged from $5.5 billion to $10 billion a year in the 1990s, or about 4 percent to 8 percent of gross national product.
“We found an irregular flow of 170 billion baht ($5.4 billion) in Thai banks, probably not all of it from drugs.” In 2020, Thai Minister of Justice Somsak Thepsuthin went public about the country’s serious money laundering problem, “We believe that at least 12 billion baht ($388 million) are drug-related assets, and that drug money is being turned into Gold, zinc plates, steel and oil.” The number of casinos in Southeast Asia has proliferated in recent years. The UNODC study noted that the intense emergence of new casinos followed a crackdown on money laundering in Macau, China, in 2014.
“Southeast Asian countries have limited economies of their own, and the huge sums of money from the drug trade pumped into their economies through money laundering channels are a huge lure for some local governments eager to boost their economies.” Zhou Ling told a Southern Weekend reporter.
Kings Roman Casino, located in the Golden Triangle Economic Development Zone in Laos, is considered a major player in money laundering crimes in the region. ” agreement to develop hotels, casinos and other facilities.
In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department accused the “Khmer Rouge Casino” of leading a powerful “transnational criminal organization” involved in illegal activities such as drug smuggling, money laundering, human trafficking and protected wildlife.
“The first step is to confront the failure of regional governance.”
The drug market is extremely lucrative, making countless drug traffickers willing to trade their lives for money. According to Australian media reports, it costs drug traffickers $4,000 to buy a kilogram of meth in the producing country of Myanmar, and once the drugs are sold across the ocean to Australia, the street price for a kilogram can be as high as $200,000. For drug dealers, it only takes one successful drug transaction out of 15 to make back the cost.
Local law enforcement agencies often conduct raids, seize labs and set up barriers to intercept drugs. In video footage captured by 60 Minutes, Thai police patrol the Thai-Myanmar border area daily, heavily armed and heavily armed, often exchanging fire with drug traffickers.
From 2011, when it came to the attention of Australian police, to 2021, when Xie Zhiluo was arrested in the Netherlands, the global drug market has changed dramatically, with large transnational organized crime groups becoming the main players in the market. In the case of Sango, Xie’s arrest was just a setback in the crackdown on drug crime, but it did not break the bones of its drug trafficking business.
“It’s not just a matter of catching individual ringleaders, it’s a matter of targeting the entire criminal network and figuring out how we can have an impact on their business model.” Rather than finding the next “Shorty” or “Sango,” Australian FBI Deputy Director Kent Carr believes it’s time to find effective ways to combat the foundations on which criminal groups thrive.
Controlling the precursor chemicals needed to make methamphetamine is also an important step in the fight. UN survey data show that while methamphetamine seizures in Southeast Asia continue to increase, seizures of precursor chemicals do not match them.
“Asia is a global manufacturing hub for chemicals, and there are large quantities of chemicals available for synthetic drugs.” Inshik Sim, a researcher at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, believes that combating the drug problem in Southeast Asia requires efforts to control “precursor chemicals.
According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, a “precursor chemical” is a chemical that can mutate into another chemical or be used to make another chemical. Richard Horsey, a Myanmar researcher with the International Crisis Group (ICG), also called on law enforcement agencies to “innovate ways” to “follow drug money leads or monitor precursor chemicals that may be more effective than traditional drug enforcement methods. “.
For his part, Jeremy Douglas, who serves as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) regional representative for Southeast Asia, writes that “the failure of regional governance must first be confronted and practical action must be taken, with each step requiring careful consideration, time, and, more importantly, political will.”
Since 2006, UNDCP and Burmese authorities have begun to ban poppy cultivation in the north, replacing it with crops such as coffee, rice, buckwheat and sugar cane. Farmers, however, have found that either the unsuitable soil has led to Food failures or it takes three or four years for coffee trees to grow fruit.
The massive return to poverty has led to a sea of poppies in the “Golden Triangle”.
Since the Mekong tragedy, the Chinese government has been vigorously promoting joint law enforcement in the Mekong River Basin, promoting transnational joint law enforcement and international judicial collaboration with the fight against drug trade in the Golden Triangle as the core, and effectively curbing the drug crime activities near the Chinese border. This has effectively curbed drug-related criminal activities near the Chinese border.
But Zhou Ling also pointed out the dilemma facing joint drug enforcement efforts, “Because of the sovereign independence and judicial independence of each country, joint law enforcement and international judicial collaboration is often affected by the political situation in each country, the operation is very complex, and the establishment of a long-term mechanism is also very difficult.”
A Chinese anti-drug expert who has worked on the front line told Southern Weekend, “When I first joined the workforce, I also thought that I wanted to eliminate drugs in one fell swoop, and only after doing so did I realize that fighting drug crime is a lifelong matter.”
On January 25, 2021, three days after Xie Zhile’s arrest, Malaysian police announced that 54 kilograms of methamphetamine from the “Golden Triangle” had been seized in the Straits of Malacca, still packaged as tea leaves, which is the packaging method that Xie Zhile’s “Sango Group” specializes in. This is the packaging and transportation method that Xie Zhiluo’s “Sango Group” specializes in.
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