{"id":62161,"date":"2021-02-01T15:12:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T04:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=62161"},"modified":"2021-02-01T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T04:18:11","slug":"arrest-of-asias-el-chapo-might-be-a-hollow-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/arrest-of-asias-el-chapo-might-be-a-hollow-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrest of \u2018Asia\u2019s El Chapo\u2019 might be a hollow victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

On 22 January, alleged drug lord Tse Chi Lop<\/a> was arrested<\/a> at Amsterdam\u2019s Schipol airport as a result of an extradition request from the Australian Federal Police. Tse\u2019s arrest would\u2019ve been cause for celebration among the AFP\u2019s senior officers and rank and file. Some of those officers have spent more than 12\u00a0years pursuing Tse and his syndicate, \u2018The Company<\/a>\u2019. While the AFP got their man, his arrest and prosecution will have little impact on the price, purity or availability of illicit drugs on Australia\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

The arrest of Tse, dubbed \u2018Asia\u2019s El Chapo<\/a>\u2019, makes for great media headlines. There\u2019s no denying it\u2019s an epic saga, with an arch villain and the good guys getting their man in the end. Tse was no ordinary criminal: he doesn\u2019t appear to have handled illicit drugs himself, and to date appears to have never set foot in Australia. Between his extradition from the Netherlands and lengthy court cases and appeals in Australia, it\u2019ll be many years before he will be held accountable for his alleged crimes.<\/p>\n

Until his arrest, Tse was Asia\u2019s, if not the world\u2019s, most wanted alleged drug lord. He and his colleagues were responsible for up to 70% of illicit drugs entering Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Canadian national born in southern China in 1964, Tse was a rather unimpressive criminal until the late 1990s. Before moving to Canada, he was a low-ranking member of the Big Circle Gang triad.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Tse was jailed<\/a> in the US for his involvement in the sourcing of heroin from the Golden Triangle. After serving a nine-year sentence, he became a key facilitator in what has become the world\u2019s fastest-growing drug production syndicate.<\/p>\n

Tse\u2019s success is due to several factors.<\/p>\n

He avoided law enforcement attention by discouraging the use of violence and preferring anonymity over the flashy and opulent lifestyles of many senior criminal figures.<\/p>\n

He brought the various Chinese triad gangs together, ending long-term squabbles in order to make industrial quantities of illicit synthetic drugs in Myanmar\u2014far away from law enforcement\u2019s watchful eyes.<\/p>\n

He made his operations genuinely transnational. Synthetic drug precursors were diverted from China to Myanmar. Taiwanese chemists manufactured industrial quantities of methamphetamine in regions controlled by ethnic military groups in Myanmar\u2019s jungles.<\/p>\n

His global distribution network involved everyone from Mexican cartels to Australian bikie gangs. Tse negotiated with everyone, and in doing so made sure that everyone was paid for their contributions.<\/p>\n

Finally, he developed a complex framework for laundering money across Southeast Asia and beyond. As part of that operation, money was laundered through casinos from Australia to Macau.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why the removal of crime bosses is so attractive to law enforcement agencies the world over. The Company will surely fall apart with its powerful and enigmatic boss removed.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, history has shown that on their own, decapitation strategies rarely work.<\/p>\n

The successful prosecution of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti<\/a> in New York in 1991 had limited impact on the broader American mafia or drug supply. And while it\u2019s smaller, the Gambino family<\/a> is alive and well today.<\/p>\n

The death of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar<\/a> in 1993 did result in the implosion of his Medellin cartel. But that implosion fragmented the market, resulting in an even more complex criminal environment.<\/p>\n

The arrest and prosecution of Joaquin Guzman, the infamous El Chapo, in 2019 dealt a blow to the Sinaloa cartel. Or did it? The Sinaloa cartel remains Mexico\u2019s most powerful.<\/p>\n

Globally, law enforcement\u2019s organised crime strategies emphasise the identification and removal of key syndicate leaders. But the cases of Gotti, Escobar and Guzman appear to indicate that any impacts from that strategy are fleeting and sometimes, as in the case of Escobar, serve to create problematic second-order impacts. At the very least it seems that often someone else is already waiting to swoop in and fill any void in the market.<\/p>\n

Organised crime decapitation strategies still have a place, though. They have profound psychological and sociological value for our community. They ensure that criminals are brought to justice for the harm they cause and that they\u2019re punished and denied access to the proceeds of their crimes.<\/p>\n

When it comes to having a lasting impact, though, arrests like this are very much a hollow victory. Australia\u2019s efforts to counter organised crime ought to be focused as much on making communities safer as on punishing criminals.<\/p>\n

If the harmful effects of illicit drugs manufactured in the jungles of Myanmar are to be minimised and their supply reduced, law enforcement will need far more nuanced strategies.<\/p>\n

As a starting point, Australian law enforcement officials and diplomats need to give greater emphasis to working with countries across the region to better regulate and control the precursors used to make drugs like methamphetamines. Such an approach would have more of an impact on drug availability than the arrest of five more top-level drug lords.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we should all be celebrating the great investigative success in finally catching Tse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 22 January, alleged drug lord Tse Chi Lop was arrested at Amsterdam\u2019s Schipol airport as a result of an extradition request from the Australian Federal Police. 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