'PRETTY WILD' LIFE OF A DRUG BARON
Source: Holyhead Mail, UK
Pub date: Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Subj:
'Pretty wild' life of a drug baron
Author: Roland Hughes
Web:
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/bangoranglesey/tm_objectid=15373312%26method=full%26siteid=50142-name_page.html
Cited: Howard Marks http://www.howardmarks.co.uk
HOWARD Marks refers to his 20 years as an
international drug smuggler as "a pretty wild time".
At one time living with 43 aliases, with 89 phone
lines and working for the CIA, FBI, MI6, IRA and Mafia, "wild" might
be seen as an understatement.
These days, the only thing wild about the older,
wiser Marks is his hair.
The cigarettes consumed during our chat before his
talk at Bangor's Railway Institute last Thursday are of the packet variety, and
he is writing a book on travel, of all things.
His outspoken views on cannabis consumption are not
to everyone's taste. And there can be no doubt there is an element of smugness
to Marks' ribald tales of how he evaded prison for so long - only to get caught
and sent to one of the world's toughest jails.
But you can't fail to be charmed by Marks, whose
face is permanently fixed in a grin and who speaks with a South Wales drawl
delivered as though he was half-asleep.
His work transporting up to 30 tonnes of marijuana
a time has been replaced by public talks on his past, and books on his life as
Mr Big.
He fell into smuggling after obtaining a nuclear
physics and philosophy degree at Oxford's prestigious Balliol College in the
late 60s and he was christened "the most sophisticated drug baron of all
time" by the Daily Mirror.
In Bangor to raise funds for Anglesey's Legalise
Cannabis Alliance candidate for the upcoming election, puppeteer Tim Evans,
Marks spoke to the Mail about his experiences as the US Drug Enforcement
Administration's most-wanted man.
Marks, 59, said: "I did fall into it all by
accident, as far as the business side of drugs is concerned. I stumbled into it
through being a heavy consumer myself.
"In those days, cannabis consumption was
largely a leisure activity of the upper middle class so there was a lot of it
around in Oxford when I got there. Nowadays, it is much more of a working-class
activity.
"I felt a bit like a fish out of water going
there as a kid from South Wales, people couldn't understand my accent and there
was a lot of snobbery there, so it did make me a little bit more rebellious and
outrageous.
"It started with me just going and buying for
my friends and dividing it up and it went on from there. It was very, very gradual.
It was only when I started selling to people who were selling themselves that
it became a business really and I was full-time by the age of 25."
From there, Marks would be involved in deals from
the beginning to the end, often travelling to countries such as Afghanistan to
purchase several tons of marijuana a time and meeting it on its arrival.
He said the transportation was "not a matter
of finding obscure ways of hiding it, but of knowing how to manipulate the
paperwork to make yourself look less suspicious."
He went on to set up 25 different companies which
he would deal through, with millions of dollars exchanging hands on a typical
deal.
He added: "It was an exciting, interesting
time with more than a fair dose of surrealism thrown in. It was like being
swept along. MI6 came to me through someone I knew in Oxford. I got involved
with the Mafia because wherever you go with that kind of work, the Mafia
permeate it everywhere.
"The most ridiculous moment I suppose was
bringing in 15 tons of Colombian marijuana into Scotland, being completely
guilty and getting acquitted by saying I was a spy for MI6. That was a real
high. The best moment was probably the few seconds just before I got
busted."
A DEA investigation caught up with Marks, and he was
sentenced to 25 years in the notorious Terre Haute prison in Indiana, where he
spent seven years. He was released in April, 1995, on the same day as another
well-known Terre Haute prisoner, Mike Tyson.
Now living in Leeds with his partner Caroline, Marks
says prison taught him to stop taking himself so seriously: "I suppose it
has made me a more caring person. It is the same as if I spent a few years in a
monastery."
Speaking about Tim Evans' chances in the election,
Marks said: "Anglesey is an agricultural area where a lot of these drugs
are grown so maybe it is ready for pro-legalisation candidate. There is a lot
of trade and a lot of home-growing going on. And after all, we have the green
green grass of home!"