By Jack Kim
SEOUL, March 25 (Reuters) – South Korean police on Wednesday took into custody an alleged “drug lord” accused of running a narcotics ring in the country from a Phillipines prison, officials said on Wednesday.
Park Wang-yeol, who was serving a 60-year term for triple homicide, was flown to South Korea on Wednesday 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.
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 60 kilograms of methamphetamine a month with street value of 30 billion won ($20 million).
Illegal drug use in South Korea has steadily grown despite a tough anti-drugs policy and crackdown on illicit drug imports and sales.
President Lee thanks Marcos for Park’s extradition and said the country “will chase anyone harming the country to the end of the earth.”
It was important to ensure Park was investigated and face trial in South Korea so his alleged involvement in illegal activities while under incarceration abroad does not become an example for potential copycat criminals, the foreign ministry said separately in a statement.
Park had broken out of Philippines prison twice taking advantage of inadequate inmate supervision that allowed some prisoners to use smuggled mobile phones and continue illegal activities, Justice Ministry official Lee Ji-yeon and police official Yoo Seung-ryeol told a briefing.
Philippine government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
($1 = 1,498.3700 won)
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Michael Perry)
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