By Tom Allard, Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A second senior leader of a vast drug syndicate has been arrested, a Thai narcotics official said, as a transnational dragnet tightens on the Sam Gor group, which police say dominates the $70 billion annual Asia-Pacific drug trade.
The October arrest of Hong Kong citizen Lee Chung Chak in Bangkok preceded last month’s high-profile arrest in the Netherlands of Tse Chi Lop, a China-born Canadian national who police suspect is the top leader of the syndicate, also called “The Company”.
Lee, 65, is a former prison mate of Tse’s suspected of being involved in drug trafficking for four decades. A 2018 Australian Federal Police (AFP) document reviewed by Reuters outlining the top 19 targets in the syndicate described Lee as a “senior project manager responsible for big ventures of border controlled drugs”.
The two…
