UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
 from Toronto Life’slong-form archives

Dear Reader,

In 2021, Toronto police closed Project Brisa, heralding the operation as the largest international drug bust in the city’s history. The months-long investigation—which tracked how drugs from Mexico were being smuggled through California into Canada—led to the seizure of an estimated $61 million in illicit substances, 182 charges and 20 arrests. On Monday, however, the historic case collapsed in court, with all charges stayed. While the public awaits answers from police and prosecutors as to why, we’re revisiting Toronto Life’s most shocking stories about the city’s drug trade, from the alleged ringleader of the world’s largest trafficking empire to the family physician slinging fentanyl scripts in secret.

The Company Man

Tse Chi Lop, the suspected ringleader of a multibillion-dollar crime syndicate, may be the world’s most innovative drug lord. Toronto was his training ground

BY STEPHEN MARCHE | NOVEMBER 1, 2021

Tse Chi Lop is the alleged kingpin of a drug syndicate known to law enforcement as “Sam Gor,” Cantonese for “Third Brother,” and to its members simply as the Company. His international dealings in heroin, ketamine and methamphetamine rake in an estimated $21 billion per year. Though he’s often dubbed “Asia’s El Chapo,” he’s more like the Jeff Bezos of the drug trade, a savvy businessman who learned his craft in Toronto and ultimately built the world’s largest drug empire. As Stephen Marche details in this riveting feature, Tse’s innovative and dangerous career reflects the changing nature of crime, drug trafficking and even business itself.

Doctor Fentanyl

George Otto was a respected family physician with a bustling clinic in the northwest corner of the city. But he had a secret: after hours, he was running a booming fentanyl business

BY BRETT POPPLEWELL | MARCH 22, 2021

After immigrating to Toronto from Uganda, George Otto worked hard to build his reputation as a trusted doctor in one of the city’s marginalized communities. At his clinic, located in a strip mall near Jane and Wilson, he presented as a hard-working public servant who was the embodiment of prosperity and generosity. Little did his patients know, he was secretly writing fentanyl prescriptions under the table and making a fortune. This haunting story by Brett Popplewell chronicles how one doctor fuelled the opioid crisis and destroyed hundreds of lives.

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