Home / Crime and Justice / Asia's El Chapo' Jailed: $26B Meth Empire Crumbles
Asia's El Chapo' Jailed: $26B Meth Empire Crumbles
5 Dec, 2025
Summary
- Tse Chi Lop, 'Asia's El Chapo', sentenced to 16 years for drug trafficking.
- His syndicate controlled up to 70% of the global meth trade.
- Production costs were low, with huge profits from sales in Australia and Japan.
Crime boss Tse Chi Lop, notoriously known as 'Asia's El Chapo,' has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Melbourne. This marks the end of a decade-long global operation that dismantled his vast $26 billion-a-year methamphetamine empire, one of the largest ever uncovered.
Dubbed 'The Company,' Tse's organization united Asian triads and outlaw biker gangs, controlling an estimated 70% of the global meth market. The group's operations were highly efficient, with drug factories hidden in Myanmar and a sophisticated supply chain that rivaled multinational corporations. Profits were immense, with meth produced cheaply and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars per kilo overseas.
Tse Chi Lop, who had evaded capture for years, was arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in 2021 and later extradited to Australia. The Australian Federal Police's Operation Volante was instrumental in building a comprehensive intelligence database that led to his conviction, highlighting a significant victory in the global fight against organized crime.
