Disturbing smiling 'meth king' stripped of '£46billion drugs empire'
Alleged meth-billionaire Tse Chi Lop was living the high life after decades of evading multiple police operations when he was unexpectedly arrested at a European airport
With his smiling, happy demeanour, even the police couldn't believe that Tse Chi Lop was the boss of a global operation that flooded New York's streets with a deadly influx of heroin.
After his first arrest for importing heroin in August 12, 1998, investigators were stunned by the would-be billionaire's manner.
When FBI agent Mark Calnan met him, Tse wasn't panicked or defensive, he was all cool charm and strategic – even faced with the prospect of jail Tse just smiled, according to Clanan. Ceci Scott, the assistant US attorney on his case, said: "I remember thinking, God, he's just got the most unusual demeanour, a kind of a down-to-earth personality."
"He was impressive," Calnan told CNN,"He was different."
But behind the smiles, Tse, now 61, was a fully immersed in the drug trade. After striking a plea deal, on September 26, 2000, Tse was given a nine-year prison term, and served six.
A former inmate of Elkton, who wished to remain anonymous and so spoke to CNN under the pseudonym of Ben, described Tse as "a pretty nice guy" with a cheerful disposition.
Whilst behind bars, he rubbed shoulders with American drug dealers and picked up new tricks of the trade. It is there that he's said to have crossed paths with future collaborator, Lee Chung Chak.
Despite Tse's claims that he wanted to run a humble restaurant after leaving jail, by the time of their release in 2006, the pair were ready to embark on a drug enterprise together, Australian officials said.
This time, he had designs on methamphetamine, and Tse - affectionately nicknamed Sam Gor, translating to "brother number three" in Cantonese - is rumoured to have commanded a conglomerate referred to simply as The Company.
Unified by Tse in an allegiance similar to the Sicilian mafia, Sam Gor was allegedly responsible for an industrial-scale synthetic drug production within Myanmar's loosely controlled jungles—the same zones linked to Tse's heroin dealings in the 1990s.
Their alleged tactic was straightforward: mass-produce meth to achieve economy of scale, undercut prices, then inundate the market with this affordable, addictive supply. Australian authorities say the Sam Gor Syndicate - as it was also known - was one of Asia's largest narcotic operations with an astonishing £22billion to £46billion generated in revenue.
They claim it was responsible for 70 percent of the drugs that entered Australia alone, and that meth, along with heroin and ketamine, was smuggled into the country in tea boxes.
The human cost has been "devastating," according to Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"He used cooperation, he crossed borders. He thought outside the box, and we had to do the same thing or else we never would have caught him," Calnan said. "We had to be as good as he was."
Lee was arrested by Thai police in October 2020, just months before Dutch authorities apprehended Tse in Amsterdam. By this point had climbed to the top of a meth empire raking in £13billion annually and living a life of luxury with his spoils.
But in January 2021, Tse's time ran out when he was nabbed at Amsterdam's Schipol International Airport at the request of Aussie cops, ending a decades-long manhunt.
According to Australian authorities, Lee played a "key role" in the multibillion-dollar methamphetamine syndicate, with one investigator telling Reuters that Lee's "star had risen to be an equal or even a bigger player" than Tse.
Calnan admitted he was taken aback when the name of the man who once sat calmly across from him in Hong Kong surfaced in the news more than two decades after their meeting. After Tse's conviction in 2000, Calnan hadn't spared him a second thought.
He never imagined Tse would, allegedly, rise to become "one of the biggest international drug dealers of all time," Calnan remarked. "Looking back on it, it's not surprising at all. He (Tse) had the skills, and of course time in prison is networking like crazy."
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Scottish Sun
28 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
My mum abandoned me and gave me to a cult – we were fed LSD, beaten, bleached & waterboarded to keep us under control
Ben's mum was lured into the cult and gave her son up to be part of a 'master race' CULT OF BLONDE My mum abandoned me and gave me to a cult – we were fed LSD, beaten, bleached & waterboarded to keep us under control BEN Shenton was just 18 months old when his mother gave him up to a well-spoken blonde woman who swore she'd give him the best life possible. Little did she know her decision would put Ben through years of abuse at the hands of a woman who believed she was Jesus Christ reborn. 9 Ben Shenton was handed over to a cult leader Credit: BBC 9 Anne Hamilton-Bryne's 'children' were forced to bleach their hair and wear matching clothes Credit: BBC Handout 9 Anne believed she was Jesus Christ reborn and became the leader of the notorious Australian cult Images of Ben show a happy young boy, but the reality was entirely different - as the youngster was forced to become part of a notorious cult known as 'The Family'. Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who Ben would grow up to know as his mother, became the leader of the cult based in Australia, which drugged and beat him. He had no idea of his life before Anne, as she went to great lengths to keep his adoption a secret, even bleaching his hair platinum blond like hers and his new 'siblings'. Despite abusing more than 20 children, including Ben, Anne and her husband and cult co-leader, Bill Hamilton-Byrne, never faced justice. Now, over four decades on from the abuse, Ben shares his story of growing up in the "Kai Lama" compound, where children were locked in with barbed wire and tortured. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Anne first started out as a yoga teacher before turning to a more 'spiritual life' and eventually believing she was Jesus Christ reincarnated. She was born with the name Evelyn and had three marriages in total - the first coming to an end when her husband died in a car crash, which led to her 'spiritual awakening.' She met English physicist Dr Raynor Johnson in 1963 and the following year, they set up a group dedicated to spreading a surreal combination of Christianity and Hinduism, with Hamilton-Byrne at its centre. Her final husband, Bill, became the person who led the doomsday cult with her in the 1960s, when the world faced existential threats like nuclear warfare, the Vietnam War and the spread of communism. Anne was able to rope people into the cult through yoga lessons, meetings at her house once a week, and then three times a week, until she built the compound on land near her house for them to move into. Inside a 'mind-controlling' CULT which 'forced mum and daughter to hit each other' and chose Fiji as the 'promised land' Anne came across as beautiful, well-spoken and nurturing, so it's no surprise Ben's mum was easily convinced he'd have a better life with her. Ben said Anne manipulated his mother into giving him up in 1970, convincing her that 'only she could give me the best life possible'. The pair consistently preyed on vulnerable people like Ben's mum, Joy, who had suffered a back injury and felt she could not look after him anymore. They also started recruiting people into their cult by approaching patients from Newhaven Hospital in Kew, a private psychiatric facility run and operated by various members of The Family, who targeted vulnerable patients, subjecting them to heavy doses of LSD and electroshock therapy. She and husband Hamilton-Byrne took children through illegal adoptions, allowing the cult to grow in numbers before imprisoning them in a strict home-schooling environment at a rural property near Eildon in Victoria. 9 At one point, Anne had 28 children in her care Credit: Label Distribution 9 She convinced parents to give her their children Using lawyers, social workers, and doctors to forgo official channels, they were able to forge birth documents and raise over a dozen children to believe they were the birth children of the Hamilton-Byrnes. When children were born inside the compound to cult members, they were raised to believe their birth mothers were instead among a handful of 'aunts', who gave out brutal punishments for whatever they saw fit. PICTURE PERFECT FAMILY From the outside, the family looked picture-perfect as they lived on their compound in Victoria, Australia. Life at Kai Lama seemed healthy and even advanced for its years; it featured yoga, exercise, vegetarian meals, meditation and education. Ben lived on the remote property and was raised alongside dozens of other children for 13 years and recalls living with 28 other kids at one point. "Growing up, it was Anne and Bill, they were mum and dad; and then there were foster kids, and they were kids of other sect members, who would either come up on weekends or stay there for stints of a couple of years," Ben, told the BBC. "The greatest amount of kids at any given stage was 28," he added. Anne and Bill brought up the children as their own, even dressing them in matching outfits and dying their hair bleach blond to appear like a real family. I loved them in their little smocks and jeans and the long hair and ribbons. Anne Hamilton-Byrne "We were her children. We were different ages. We'd line up von Trapp style (like) The Sound of Music, which we'd watch, dressed in outfits that matched and that was just what we were asked to do," he told the True Crimes Conversation podcast. "You look back on that and you see it's choreographed. "It crafted a belief that she had these children, which she didn't. We were all either adopted or handed over." In an interview years after the children were finally taken from her, Anne said: 'I wanted them to look like brothers and sisters - I must admit this. 'I loved them in their little smocks and jeans and the long hair and ribbons. It was beautiful - it was lovely to see.' Asked why she imprisoned 28 children over two decades, she responded: 'I love children.' 9 Ben Shenton pictured after being removed from the cult Credit: Ben Shenton 9 Ben (pictured front right) and his 'silbings' were the targets of abuse for years Credit: BBC UNDER WRAPS But in reality, the children were subjected to years of beatings, mind games, isolation, and forced to take drugs by the cult leader, who had convinced more than 500 people she was Jesus Christ. The couple had convinced their followers they were making a 'master race' while teaching a mixture of Christianity and Hinduism. Ben recalls one form of torture Anne liked to perform on the children was waterboarding. It's a method of torture that creates such horrific psychological pain that its use has even been banned in the US military. "We were all lined up. We were belted. Our head held under the bucket of water, interrogated," he said. "Held there until you thought you were suffocating, brought back out again. "Horrendous experience. It caused nightmares. "These things shape your personality." Ben recalls seeing his siblings being beaten with a belt, and says they were given LSD 'as part of an initiation ritual.' 'I was watching her being belted with a buckle and she's being beaten to the point where she's wriggling out of her clothes,' he said of his sister, Sarah. 'Hearing her body smash across the balustrades - it was horrendous to know they had the power to do that and would do it,' he told the MailOnline. She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative. Ben Shenton Ben says Anne's most effective tactic was to keep the children from forming bonds with each other to keep them all in line. To weed out misdeeds in the children, Anne would perform group interrogations by beating them until someone came clean. Ben said he stayed compliant to avoid punishment. "This was the evil genius of her. She understood that if she could separate us, isolate us, make it so that we couldn't build relationships with one another and punish us, then she could control us," he said. "Anyone who's lived under domestic violence will know the living with fear, the walking on eggshells, the currying favour of those in authority, or the absolute rejection of them, the hatred of them, the love-hate relationship. "It's domestic abuse on steroids," he said. Now, Ben believes Anne was a sociopath or psychopath. "She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative," he said. 'The Family' Cult Timeline 1968 The Family begins to 'adopt' and acquire children to create a 'master race'. The Family begins to 'adopt' and acquire children to create a 'master race'. 1974 An official school is set up for the 'master race' children at the Lake Eildon property. An official school is set up for the 'master race' children at the Lake Eildon property. 1978 Anne Hamilton marries William (Bill) Byrne and they take the surname Hamilton-Byrne. Anne Hamilton marries William (Bill) Byrne and they take the surname Hamilton-Byrne. 1983 Police visit the Lake Eildon property to search for a missing girl. She is not found on the property. Police visit the Lake Eildon property to search for a missing girl. She is not found on the property. 1987 (14 August) Combined police raid on sect property at Lake Eildon. Anne is overseas. Bill is present at the raid but is not charged. Combined police raid on sect property at Lake Eildon. Anne is overseas. Bill is present at the raid but is not charged. The children are removed from the sect and placed into care. 1987 (Oct/Nov) Bill flees to Hawaii to meet Anne. Bill flees to Hawaii to meet Anne. 1987 (12 December) Detective Lex de Man is called to investigate. He learns about The Family. Detective Lex de Man is called to investigate. He learns about The Family. 1989 (about June) Lex de Man writes a report recommending Victoria Police commence a criminal investigation into The Family. Lex de Man writes a report recommending Victoria Police commence a criminal investigation into The Family. 1989 (11 December) Operation Forest Task Force commences. Operation Forest Task Force commences. 1993 (4 June) Anne and Bill are arrested in the Catskill Mountains, Upstate New York. Anne and Bill are arrested in the Catskill Mountains, Upstate New York. 1993 (17 August) Anne and Bill are extradited to Australia. Anne and Bill are extradited to Australia. 1993 (31 August) Anne and Bill appear in the Victorian Magistrates' Court, charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit perjury by falsely registering the births of triplets. Anne and Bill appear in the Victorian Magistrates' Court, charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit perjury by falsely registering the births of triplets. 1994 In the County Court, Anne and Bill avoid prison and are fined $5000 each. In the County Court, Anne and Bill avoid prison and are fined $5000 each. 2001 Bill dies, leaving Anne to lead a diminishing group of followers. Bill dies, leaving Anne to lead a diminishing group of followers. 2019 At 97, Anne lives in the dementia wing of a suburban Melbourne nursing home. CAUGHT IN THE ACT It wasn't until 1987 that the cult was finally searched by 100 police officers and the children were rescued. At the time, a 15-year-old Ben was doing his scheduled yoga class when police stormed in. His sister, Sarah Moore, had managed to escape the cult at 17 and headed straight to the police to tell them what was going on. Not taking any chances, police stormed the property and rescued six children, including Ben. While he was reluctant to go with them at first, he soon realised this was his path to freedom. He recalls: 'I think I got this epiphanal moment, realising this is the ticket out of here. So I just I let go, and I went with them." It was only then that Ben found out he was not their biological son and was handed over by his mother Joy, who stayed in the cult as an 'aunt'. At the time, Anne was in Hawaii while Bill stayed on the compound, but he wasn't arrested. Later, he went to New York to meet Anne before the pair were arrested and extradited back to Australia. While many of the children came forward with claims of abuse, both Anne and Bill were only charged with conspiracy to defraud and perjury by falsely registering the birth of triplets. The pair were spared jail and fined just £2,300 each for the crime. Detective Lex de Man, who investigated the case, says evidence of abuse was unable to be taken to court despite multiple victims coming forward. Justice was not done. Ben Shenton Detective de Man recently told The Age: 'My only regret is she was never held totally to account for the misery she caused to the former cult children. 'I have no sympathy for the woman I consider the most evil person I ever met in my police career.' LIFE NOW Ben moved into foster care when he left the cult, and while lying on his bunk bed with fresh pyjamas and a meal in his tummy, he realised he'd never go back to The Family again "I realised then I (didn't) have to do this anymore, I'm free. I don't need to go back," he said. "That, to me, was when I shut the door." Four decades on, Ben is a proud husband to Rajes and a dad to Ellie and Callum, who live in Perth, Australia. He has written a book on his time in the cult, Life Behind the Wire, and runs the organisation, Rescue The Family, to raise awareness on cult manipulation. In 2019, Anne passed away while in a Melbourne care home at the age of 98 and Ben has reconnected with his biological mother. "What Anne did was evil. She used the name of Christ to give herself validity. She used a belief system," Ben said. "Justice was not done." 9 Now Ben educates others on manipulation after his own experience Credit: SBS Productions
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Dan Bongino draws ‘clear' conclusion on Jeffrey Epstein jail cell death after FBI probe and MAGA theories
The Deputy Director of the FBI has said that, after a review of evidence into the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the agency has come to a 'clear' conclusion as to how the disgraced financier died after a rash of MAGA conspiracy theories. Dan Bongino said that the bureau had video footage that showed the area of Epstein's jail cell for 12 hours prior to the discovery of his body, which he had reviewed. The convicted sex offender-financier, who was accused of sex trafficking young girls, was found dead in his New York City prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide, though many online have disputed this. Bongino came under fire on social media last week after admitting to Fox & Friends that he had seen the video footage and that there was 'no DNA' or other evidence of foul play. The remarks prompted the ire of the MAGA faithful, who have long since considered Epstein's death the work of the so-called ' Deep State.' On Wednesday, Bongino doubled down again on his statement, telling Sean Hannity that there was 'nothing' in the file that indicated Epstein had died any other way than by suicide. "The evidence we have in our files clearly indicates that it was, in fact, a suicide. We do have video. It's not the greatest video in the world. I don't want to set expectations on fire," Bongino said. "However, the video does show in that specific block, that he goes in, made a phone call; you'll see 12 hours of guards going in, basically check on him, come back. You'll see nobody really comes out of that bay in that area than him. There's no one in there. He added: "There's nothing there in the file at all that indicates anything other than in fact a suicide.' Bongino's stance on the death of Epstein marks a clear reversal of viewpoint since he was appointed FBI Deputy Director in February. Prior to that he had built a career as a right-wing political commentator, who repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories about Epstein's death. In a podcast in January 2024 told listeners that he had heard claims from reporters that Epstein had been killed due to his influence and alleged ability to blackmail people. He described the claims as 'super important.' 'This is where I get really upset at the media,' Bongino said later in the podcast. 'Maybe because I was an investigator before, it's like, I'm amazed at how few people are putting two and two together.' Shortly before assuming one of the top jobs at the bureau, Bongino again peddled the blackmail conspiracy. 'I'm not ever gonna let this story go,' he vowed. Now, for the second time in two weeks, he has offered a different view. 'There's no DNA, there's no audio, there's no fingerprints, there's no suspects, there's no accomplices, there's no tips, there is nothing,' Bongino told Fox News last Thursday. 'There's video clear as day,' he added. 'He's the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it.'
Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Scots teacher fled to Australia for classroom job after claims he upskirted teen pupils
He allegedly asked one schoolgirl if the rip on her tights was "a ladder or a stairway to heaven" SIR PROBE Scots teacher fled to Australia for classroom job after claims he upskirted teen pupils A SCOTS teacher fled to Australia for a classroom job after he was suspended over claims he "upskirted" teen pupils. Dean Barr, 36, worked as a business teacher at a school in Helensburgh, in Argyll and Bute, for seven years before he was accused of a string of inappropriate behaviour. 2 Dean Barr, 36, taught at a school in Helensburgh for seven years Credit: deanbarr_1/x 2 But he fled Scotland after a number of concerning allegations came to light Credit: deanbarr_1/x It is alleged that Barr looked up schoolgirls' skirts and down their tops, as well as directing seedy comments at them. In June 2023, the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS) launched an investigation into the claims against Barr and he was put on a Temporary Restriction Order in October that year. Barr fled the country in April 2024 and headed to Western Australia. He applied to register as a teacher and but failed to disclose the investigation or any of the allegations made against him. Barr secured a job in June last year and worked for four months in the Design and Technology department at Halls Head College, in Mandurah, near Perth. But when his alleged misconduct came to light, Barr was struck off in December 2024. He is alleged to have called students 'pretty' and referred to them as 'cats', brushed a pen on a girl's face, bent down to move boxes so he could look up two younster's skirts and whispered in a female pupil's ear while looking down her top between August and October 2022. He also allegedly made unnecessary contact with students, regularly wrapping his arm around them. Barr also asked one schoolgirl if the rip on her tights was "a ladder or a stairway to heaven", it is alleged. The GTCS are reportedly still probing the allegations after Australian education bosses contacted them. Boy, 7, in school 'knife attack' bid A parent of a girl who accused Barr of the alleged misconduct told The Daily Record how her daughter had been left "traumatised". She said: "He thought he avoid all this because he moved to Australia. But someone stopped him. Hopefully now some action will be taken. "My daughter said it started with a comment and it took nearly four months for her to tell me something was wrong. She would do anything not to go in to school. "After a while, I didn't recognise her because she was shell of who she used to be. She is still traumatised and has serious trust issues." A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Council told the Record: "Appropriate action was taken at the time. As this is an ongoing General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and Police investigation, we are unable to comment further.' The General Teaching Council was also approached for comment.
