Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Dutch Judge Rules Accused Drug Kingpin Can Be Extradited to Australia

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Tse Chi Lop is in the same league as notorious drug lords Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Pablo Escobar.

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (CN) — A Dutch judge ruled Friday that Asia’s most wanted man can be extradited to Australia to face drug trafficking charges.

The District Court of Rotterdam found that Tse Chi Lop, allegedly responsible for half of Asia’s meth trade, can be extradited from the Netherlands to Australia, despite arguments from his lawyer that his transportation to the Netherlands was illegal.

“The court sees no reason to adjourn the hearing of the extradition request, as requested by counsel, in order to conduct further investigation into the course of events concerning the unlawful deportation of the requested person from Taiwan and the alleged involvement of the Australian authorities,” Judge Jurjen Bade said in court Friday.

Tse, a Chinese-born Canadian, was flying from Taiwan to Canada in January when he was arrested by Dutch police during a layover at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. His lawyer, Andre Seebregts, said his client was illegally deported from Taiwan and deliberately put on a flight with a layover in the Netherlands because the Dutch have a more favorable extradition treaty with Australia than Canada.

“My client would have more rights in Canada than he does in the Netherlands,” Seebregts told reporters after the hearing.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Sam Gor syndicate, which is allegedly an umbrella organization for five Chinese triads, rakes in some $8 billion a year selling synthetic drugs like crystal meth, ketamine and fentanyl.

Tse stands accused of running Sam Gor. U.N. authorities compare him to notorious drug kingpins Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Pablo Escobar.

The 58-year-old denies all of the charges against him.

“The media describes me as the king of a drug cartel. That's not what actually happened,” Tse told the court via an interpreter during a hearing about his extradition in June. He wasn’t present in court on Friday.

He had previously served nine years in U.S. jail for trafficking heroin and was released in 2006.

Australian Federal Police issued the arrest warrant at issue following a multi-year investigation involving Canada, China, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, and the U.S. The Australian authorities claim Tse is involved in 70% of the drugs imported to Australia. According to Canadian extradition rules, Tse could only be prosecuted for these cases, whereas the Dutch authorities allow extra charges to be added later.

“If there is something incorrect with the extradition request, that is for an Australian judge to determine,” Vincent de Winkel, the press representative for the Rotterdam court, told reporters after the hearing.

Seebregts says that his client plans to appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court, and even to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

“This is going to take a while,” he said.

Follow Molly Quell on Twitter

Follow @mollyquell
Categories / Criminal, International

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...