“That’s the kind of escape someone like me should pull off” — Park Wang-yeol planned a “drone escape” one month before extradition

[Financial News] Park Wang-yeol, described as the kingpin behind smuggling and distributing drugs to South Korea from the Philippines, reportedly planned to escape from a Philippine prison by hanging from a drone shortly before his extradition to South Korea.
JTBC reported on the 14th that Park had planned to escape from a Philippine prison by using a drone one month before he was extradited to South Korea. The plan fell through after footage showed an aide practicing takeoffs and landings while hanging from the drone.
This was not Park Wang-yeol’s first escape attempt. He escaped from detention facilities twice, in 2017 and 2019, and this time planned to use a drone.
The released footage showed a man hanging from a drone, flying for a while before falling into the water. At the time, Philippine media reported it as a human-interest story, saying, “A drone that people can ride has appeared.”
However, the man in the footage was reportedly an aide to Park Wang-yeol, who was imprisoned in the Philippines at the time. He was accidentally captured on camera while practicing to help Park escape using the drone.
Park had initially planned to attack a vehicle when he was transferred to another prison and escape. He even obtained firearms for the plan, but later changed his strategy. After switching to a drone-based escape, he reportedly said, in effect, “Someone like me should pull off an escape at this level.”
Person A, who had been detained with Park, told JTBC, “I heard that Park Wang-yeol was preparing to escape by riding a drone.”
Park Wang-yeol reportedly spent approximately 100 million won solely on preparations for the escape, including drone rental fees. The drone shown in the footage was reportedly capable of carrying up to 75 kilograms.
However, after the drone practice footage was exposed by the media, the entire escape plan collapsed, and Park Wang-yeol was forcibly extradited to South Korea last March.
Meanwhile, Park Wang-yeol was temporarily transferred to South Korea on March 25 after being accused of distributing large quantities of drugs domestically while serving time in a Philippine prison for killing three South Koreans in the Philippines. He was indicted and brought to trial about two months later.
At his first trial in May, he denied the drug-smuggling charges but admitted to the distribution charges.
However, under the extradition treaty, Park Wang-yeol must return to the Philippines and serve the remainder of his sentence after the domestic investigation and trial related to the drug charges are completed.
Temporary transfer is a procedure under which the country receiving an extradition request temporarily hands over a person to the requesting country by suspending its own trial or sentence-enforcement proceedings so that the requesting country can conduct criminal proceedings. The extradition treaty between South Korea and the Philippines also contains provisions on this procedure.
Accordingly, the joint police-prosecutors drug crime investigation headquarters continues to pursue the forcible extradition of 14 South Korean drug offenders detained in Philippine facilities.
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter