South Korean police took into custody an alleged “drug lord” accused of running a narcotics ring in the country from a Philippines prison, officials said.
Park Wang-yeol (pic), who was serving a 60-year term for triple homicide, was flown to South Korea yesterday on temporary extradition, after President Lee Jae-myung requested the handover to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr at a summit meeting earlier this month.
The temporary clause under a treaty between the two countries halts the sentence in the Philippines to allow the suspect to be investigated in South Korea, foreign and justice ministry officials in Seoul said.
South Korean authorities have said Park, believed to be 47, operated an alleged a ring smuggling “large quantities” of illegal narcotics and conspiring with accomplices in the country to distribute them.
The Justice Ministry and police officials declined to comment on the scale or value of Park’s alleged drug trade.
Some South Korean local media reported he had been distributing about 60kg of methamphetamine a month with street value of 30 billion won (RM79mil).
Illegal drug use in South Korea has steadily grown despite a tough anti-drugs policy and crackdown on illicit drug imports and sales.
Lee thanked Marcos for Park’s extradition and said the country “will chase anyone harming the country to the end of the earth”.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said it was important to ensure that Park faced trial in South Korea so that his alleged illegal activities did not become an example for potential copycat criminals.
Park had broken out of the Philippines prison twice by taking advantage of inadequate inmate supervision that allowed some prisoners to use smuggled mobile phones, Justice Ministry official Lee Ji-yeon and police official Yoo Seung-ryeol told a briefing. — Reuters
