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Drug dealer who escaped Bangkok jail is on the run in London
Andrew Drummond in Bangkok and Paul Cheston in London14 Sep 2007
This is drug trafficker David McMillan buying a newspaper in Fulham Road while on the run from a death sentence in Thailand.
McMillan, 51, escaped from the notorious "Bangkok Hilton" prison 11years ago. Ten years earlier, he paid £250,000 in a failed attempt to be helicoptered to freedom from Pentridge Prison in Australia.
Today, he makes a daily trip from Kensington to Dorking to pack health food nutrients in tins for a living.
The Evening Standard tracked down McMillan, who is still wanted in Thailand for heroin trafficking and in Australia for breaching parole.
He is safe in his humdrum lifestyle because the Government refuses to extradite anyone to a country which carries out the death penalty and dodging parole is not an extraditable offence.
Now, in the style of Howard Marks - the international drug dealer who became a best-selling author - he is touting a book about his 30 years moving heroin from south-east Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan to Europe and Australia and his prison escapades.
The book, entitled Escape, is selling well in Asia and is due to be published in Britain soon.
In the Eighties, Bayswater-born McMillan, son of one of the first controllers of ITV, was a multi-millionaire with homes in Mayfair, Melbourne, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Brussels.
He remembers: "I was a stubborn little bastard and wanted my own way in all things - and a life of adventure. The drug world provided that opportunity."
In August 1996 he escaped Bangkok's Klong Prem prison, where - unlike the normal drug dealers who suffered with vermin, worms, tuberculosis and Aids, surviving on a diet of soup and the occasional fish head - his wealth had bought him a chef, servants and a sanitary toilet. "I knew I was going to get the death penalty and I had to move before being sent to the Bangkwang Prison, known as The Big Tiger, which holds Thailand's death row," he says.
McMillan gave guards the impression he was content but secretly acquired hacksaws, hidden in posters for his cell walls. He used these to saw through two bars in his cells and descend 40ft to the ground using webbing belts. Reaching the prison factory, he collected a stash of gaffer tape, eight picture frames made by prisoners, civilian clothes and drinking-water. He then constructed two ladders using bamboo poles, the tape and the frames to scale the walls.
Before reaching the outer wall he had to negotiate "Mars Bar Creek", an 8ft wide trench full of raw sewage.
Afterwards, he washed with the water and changed clothes before tackling the prison's electric wire, feeling only two surges of electricity on his rubber soles before dropping to the ground below. Finally, he skirted the outside of the prison with an umbrella over his head, on the grounds that "escaping prisoners don't carry umbrellas".
Within four hours he was on a flight to Singapore after using a new passport to clear Thai immigration.
By the late Nineties McMillan was back in Britain and was arrested at Heathrow in 2003 with half a kilogram of heroin. He was sentenced to four years and is currently out on parole. "I'm going straight now," he claims.
The Thai Department of Corrections said: "If Mr McMillan comes back he will be arrested and re-charged."
Today, the fugitive admits that while life on the run was exciting it was ultimately unfulfilling. "Such a life is not quite worth the suffering," he says. "Most of my friends from those days are dead."
Reader views (17)
Good on you on for escaping, if you ever come back to Aus I will buy you a beer, I regularly visit two people who are locked up in Thai jails, I've seen the inside of the 'Bangkok Hilton' (not as a prisoner but a privileged visitor) and because of this I take my hat off to him.... The Thai justice system is flawed and corrupt, your lucky you escaped before they welded the 8kg shackles to your legs and moved you to the tiger.
Its not the smugglers or the dealers who are the cause of the drug problem, that's like saying the local liquor store is to blame for 'uncle bob being an abusive alcoholic'. ONLY THE DRUG USERS THEMSELVES ARE TO BLAME FOR THE DAMAGE THEY DO TO THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES. All these people around the world who smuggle or sell drugs are just filling a market demand. Im sure if it wasn't illegal many more would do it regardless of the damage drugs do, cigarettes are still legal yet they kill more people than heroin, should we have the ceo's of these multi-million dollar businesses put in shackles and executed? Or would that be considered ridiculous by your standards? Perhaps against basic human rights also?
- Adam Langley, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 12/05/2011 11:14
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I strongley believe that the Thai justice system is the most corrupt in he world, the sentences they hand out are pure madness. I do not support drugs in any way but after living in Asia for many years including Thailand i have seen how the police conduct them selfs..PURE CORRUPTION !
If escape is the only way then so be it !The police in Thailand think they can do what ever they like and nobody seems to stop them.....How in 2003 when the goverment told the King they would clean up the drug problem over 2000 people where executed on the streets of thailand.
People think Thailand is such a wonderful place..but in reality it pure EVIL...
GOOD LUCK TO ANYBODY WHO ESCAPES THIS HELL....!
- JOHN EGAN, HCMC VIETNAM, 17/03/2011 23:36
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This person, whom destroyed so many lives, has made a total mockery of the police and legal systems internationally.
It shows you how much power a heroin smuggler has at a government level. Well England, you are welcome to him. Good luck with that too. I wonder how much money he will make on the TV chat circuit?
- Harry Reems, Perth Western Australia, 27/02/2011 23:39
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ciao david
i like YOU VERY MUCH
GREATINGS FROM ITALY
- Ernesto Zamattio Venice Italy, anjuna goa india, 30/12/2009 13:03
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I have just finished reading the book. In my opinion it is very poorly written & achieves nothing except to fuel this blokes ego.
He obviously had no thought as to the welfare of his fellow drug couriers.
This bloke, & his ilk are the scum of the earth & I can't understand people that try to glorify his deeds.
Kids have died because of this drug smuggling bastard.
He should be sent back to Bangkok immediately & given the death penalty that he so rightly deserves.
- Eric, Dubbo, Australia, 05/08/2009 09:59
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Hey, McMillan; gone are the days of South Yarra; let your tart fry. Orloff is still talking!
Maybe if somebody paid this bounty hunter, he will come after you and get you; he's never failed, just ask your old barrister CLUTCH from MT Macedon.
- The Oz Minder, International, 26/05/2009 12:47
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David McMillan is my hero. To keep strong, against all odds, and to be loyal to real friends and to have such friends of ones own. This is a tale of individuals against the monster that our governments have become. And for once, the individual wins.
- Gc, Califonria, USA, 22/05/2009 08:34
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A riveting read,especially escaping from a thailand prison,kept me on the edge of my seat until he finally got out,but i don't condone his profession at the time.Heroin is the scurge of every society around the world.But 1 of the best books around regarding thailand prisons as is "The damaged done" related to prisoner Warren Fellows.
- Wiliam Singleton, cork city,republic of ireland, 26/03/2009 21:54
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While I enjoy reading books of human struggle and survival, the stories themselves are not just about the protagonist but those who are also inside and become part of the story..I feel McMillan lets us down by not letting the reader know how the others got on in the end.
Once he escapes that is it for the reader and this is a shame because I became more attached to the other people than I did McMillan. Maybe one day he can find the time to finish the story properly and leave behind the arrogance that ran through his veins like the heroin he was supplying to people whose stories have already ended or are continuing in a constant battle on a daily basis.
- Gonzalo Lopez, Mexico, 19/03/2009 10:00
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Awesome read. There are many other books as well about these people and their lives in these prisons. Mr. Mcmillan's story certainly kept me on the edge of my seat. I wish to visit these prisons someday.
- Donna, Lakeside, USA, 18/03/2009 15:27
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Why should we honour this merchant of misery? We have enough scum here already without protecting fugitives. He should be put on the first plane out to Thailand.
- Alan Royle, London UK, 01/03/2009 13:41
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He only got 4 years for 1/2 a Kg of heroin ? No way do i admire anyone who causes suffering through heroin.
- Garnet, Korat Thailand, 01/03/2009 08:06
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Great story, I actually bought the book in Thailand and read it during my stay in Phuket. It's a great read indeed and after my stay in Phuket I went to Bangkok to see the prison McMillan described. Ofcourse I only could see the parts you can visit as a visitor, but still, I saw the guard towers and other things McMillan describes in his book. The book is worth every penny... or Baht in my case.
- Roy, The Netherlands, 16/02/2009 17:15
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I just finnished the book WOW What an amazing man, I would love to give him a hug for his strength physical and mental.
Haha to the crewl Thai's killing people and the beatings they dished out bloody hell.
I say good on ya davo you have guts mate.
I feel for your friends you had in BKK 
Im glad your goin straight i wish u all the best xx
- Cherie, Queensland, Australia, 12/01/2009 05:47
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Sounds like a great read and a interesting man. Cant wait to get my hands on it.
- David Mcmillan, Liverpool , England, 21/10/2008 11:29
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Sounds like a great read and a interesting man. Can't wait to get my hands on it.
- David Mcmillan, Liverpool, England., 21/10/2008 11:23
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Fascinating read. I wonder if the Swede is still languishing in Klong Prem prison?
- Matt, Virginia Beach, U.S.A., 21/10/2008 10:23
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