B.C. woman who flew to South Korea for love faces drug smuggling charges
A woman from British Columbia is facing drug-smuggling charges in South Korea, but her family says she is the victim of a romance scam and had no idea that she was being used as a drug mule.
Spring Parks, 59, lives in Surrey, B.C., but left Canada at the end of January to meet a man who had wooed her online. He allegedly instructed her to stop in South Africa and collect a suitcase there before continuing on to South Korea.
But when she arrived at her destination, border guards found close to four kilos of methamphetamine in her luggage. She was arrested and remains in custody.
South Korea’s Narcotics Control Act allows for the death penalty for drug smuggling. However, the country has had a moratorium on capital punishment since 1998. Even so, the law also allows for imprisonment with labour for an indefinite term. Prison sentences of 10 years or more are not uncommon .
Parks’ daughter Lorrene told National Post that the family only became aware of Spring’s plans when they got a text from her, the day after she left Vancouver.
“We had no idea she was leaving or going on a trip, which is unusual,” said Lorrene. “So, we didn’t really truly find out until the morning of Feb. 1, when we received a text message from my mom saying: ‘Hey, I’m in Korea. I’m being arrested as a drug mule. And I thought I was in love with somebody, but it was a lie.'”
“And then that was it. That was the last time we really had a direct message from my mom.”
The family has hired lawyers. “They’ve been talking to my mom and relaying messages to us,” Lorrene said.
Spring does not speak Korean and is also deaf. “Technically ASL is her first language,” her daughter added.
“Her spirits are OK. Not great, but OK,” lawyer Sean Hayes told CTV News . “She is in prison and it’s not a pleasant place to be anywhere.”
He added: “We genuinely believe that, No. 1, she doesn’t know what was in the packages (and) No. 2, that she was a victim here.”
Lorrene said her mother’s email correspondence showed her to be the victim of an unknown scammer who called himself Tyler.
“They’ve just disappeared,” she said. “We know that his account was based in Nigeria, and that’s why she went to South Africa to pick up the bag. But, yeah, the person is mysterious. Doesn’t actually exist.”
Lorrene learned that her mom had also fallen prey to the Tyler Hynes scam, sometimes called the Hallmark Romance Scam, in which someone pretends to be Canadian actor Tyler Hynes to bilk people out of money online.
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Lorrene and her sister Andrea Parks to help cover legal fees, ASL interpreter costs, ongoing support while Spring is in jail and help to rebuild her life when she returns home.
“We’ve had to vacate her residence and sell off her belongings to pay for representation,” the page says. “When she does eventually come home, she will no longer be coming home to the life she once knew.”
“It doesn’t feel real,” Lorrene said.
In an ironic twist, friends and acquaintances thought the GoFundMe might have been a scam.
“We had to reach out, let alone tell the story over and over, but also prove that it’s not a scam and we’re real,” she said.
Hayes told CTV that authorities in Korea are skeptical of Parks’ claim of innocence. “When they see this amount of drugs being brought in, they don’t believe the allegation that this was a scam,” he said. “But then when you look into the text messages and the communications going back and forth and you see how vulnerable she is. Even incredibly intelligent people get caught up in this.”
Lorrene is trying to remain optimistic. “It’s been definitely the hardest two months of our lives,” she said. “And we haven’t talked to my mom. We’ve only had brief messages, so that part is lonely and confusing.”
A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, told National Post that the government is aware of the detention of a Canadian citizen in South Korea and that consular officials are providing assistance and are in contact with local authorities.
“Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed,” she added.
National Post has reached out to Parks’ lawyer for further information.
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