‘Telegram drug kingpin’ Park Wang-yeol arrested: “Risk of destroying evidence”

[Financial News] Park Wang-yeol, 48, who was imprisoned in the Philippines for killing a Korean national there, was arrested on the 27th on charges of distributing large quantities of drugs in South Korea.
The Uijeongbu District Court held a pretrial detention hearing for Park Wang-yeol, who is accused of violating the Narcotics Control Act, and issued an arrest warrant, citing concerns that he might destroy evidence or flee.
Park Wang-yeol did not answer questions from reporters as he appeared at the court.
Prosecutors allege that in June 2024, Park Wang-yeol instructed an accomplice to bring 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine into South Korea from the Philippines. In July of the same year, he is also suspected of arranging for an unidentified foreign national to hand over a suitcase containing 3.1 kilograms of methamphetamine to an accomplice, who then smuggled it through Gimhae International Airport.
He is further under investigation for allegedly directing domestic accomplices between November 2019 and 2020 to hide and sell narcotics in fire hydrants and mailboxes around Seoul, Busan, and Daegu.
The drugs that Park Wang-yeol is accused of smuggling into and distributing in South Korea include about 4.9 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 4,500 ecstasy pills, around 2 kilograms of ketamine, 19 tabs of LSD, and 3.99 grams of marijuana, with an estimated street value of about 3 billion won.
Police conducted a preliminary drug test on Park Wang-yeol on the 25th, the day he was extradited, and the result came back positive for methamphetamine. They then requested a detailed analysis from the National Forensic Service (NFS). During questioning, Park admitted to using methamphetamine.
Park Wang-yeol reportedly admitted to most of the charges but denied or claimed not to remember matters that were unfavorable to him.
Meanwhile, President Lee Jae-myung asked Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the temporary surrender of Park Wang-yeol during a South Korea–Philippines summit on the 3rd. After working-level consultations with the Philippine authorities, South Korean agencies secured his temporary surrender on the 25th, limited to charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.
In October 2016, Park Wang-yeol was accused of murdering three Koreans in a sugarcane field in the Philippines and was arrested there in 2020. He was sentenced in 2022 to 60 years in prison and was serving his term in Philippine prisons.
While behind bars, he allegedly used the Telegram Messenger nickname “Jeon Segye” to orchestrate the smuggling and distribution of drugs into South Korea and enjoyed a lavish life in prison funded by criminal proceeds.
ronia@fnnews.com Lee Seol-young Reporter