A Dutch court has approved an Australian request to hand over the alleged leader of an Asian drug syndicate who has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national, was arrested in January at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at the request of Australian police while in transit from Taiwan to Canada.
The defence said it would appeal, and the matter will be decided by the Dutch Supreme Court.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) claims Mr Tse's organisation dominates the $90 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade.
A final decision on extradition will be made by the Dutch government.
Mr Tse has denied wrongdoing and contested his arrest, saying the Australian authorities in effect engineered his expulsion from Taiwan to Canada on a flight with a stopover in the Netherlands so that he could be detained there.
The defendant is alleged to have led a drug syndicate that is dominant in the Asia-Pacific crystal methamphetamine trade, which increased fourfold in the five years to 2019, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
He is wanted in Australia for his connection to Operation Volante, which dismantled a global crime syndicate operating in five countries.
According to the AFP, the operation resulted in the arrest of 27 people for importing and trafficking "substantial quantities" of heroin and methamphetamine into Australia in 2013.
Police seized 42 kilograms of drugs and more than $4 million in cash in the operation.
Jeremy Douglas, South-East Asia and Pacific representative for the UN drugs agency UNODC, said in 2019 that Tse Chi Lop is in the league of El Chapo or maybe Pablo Escobar referring to Latin America's most notorious drug lords.
Mr Tse has denied he is a drug kingpin.
Reuters/ABC
