I nailed world’s top cannabis king Howard Marks and he was no Mr Nice… he courted killers and stitched up wife & baby
OXFORD-educated cannabis smuggler Howard Marks called his memoirs Mr Nice.
But now two men who knew him well – including the cop who pinched him – claim he was in fact Mr Nasty, working with killers and stitching up his fellow criminals.
The Welshman, who died eight years ago aged 70, portrayed himself as masterminding a global drugs ring just because he wanted people to enjoy smoking marijuana.
Retired Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) special agent Craig Lovato and notorious drug runner Roger Reaves tell a very different story.
Reaves, who flew cocaine for Pablo Escobar and cannabis for Marks into the United States, reckons working with “sleazeball” Marks was the “biggest mistake of my life”.
Meanwhile Lovato believes that the British dealer worked with ruthless killers, whose only motivation was money.
Both men also condemn the father-of-four for not agreeing to co-operate with extradition proceedings to the United States in return for getting his then wife Judy out of prison.
As a result of his stalling, she spent over 18 months behind bars.
The two men feature in a two-part BBC2 documentary titled Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin.
It tells of the 15 plus year investigation both in Britain and the United States to bring Marks to justice in 1989, with other detectives and smugglers also giving their accounts.
Craig, 78, who listened to Mark’s phone calls for months on end, tells The Sun: “I don’t think he was Mr Nice at all.
“Howard really knew how to manipulate people. He was very charismatic.
“But he was a total coward. He trembled at times when he felt that the law was breathing down his neck. He was very scared.”
Marks was certainly not your typical gangster.
While studying nuclear physics at Oxford University in 1964, he started to buy and sell cannabis to fund his own habit.
Journalist Lynn Barber, who knew him well, says: “He always had drugs. I don’t think he had a masterplan.”
In 1981 it appeared justice had caught up with Marks when he was arrested for trying to import ten tonnes of cannabis.
Somehow, though, the skilled storyteller managed to convince the jury at his trial that he was working for the British secret services in an operation to catch drug dealing IRA terrorists.
After being found not guilty, Marks admitted “it was a lie” and worked with a journalist on a book titled High Time about his marijuana smuggling exploits in 1984.
By that time, he’d moved to the Spanish island of Mallorca, which didn’t have an extradition treaty with Britain back then.
Marks was keeping the cops on their toes with his 43 identities, 25 registered companies and by locating a phone exchange in Holland to give the impression he was there, when he wasn’t.
But the authorities managed to wire-tap this clandestine operation and it was agent Lovato who was listening in.
The American had to learn the gang’s lingo, such as “heavy security” meaning bad weather and “bugs bunny” being money.
He also overheard one of Marks’s business associates offering to bump off a couple of gangsters who had ripped them off.
The Brit, who Lovato considered to be “pretty non-violent”, opted for a more peaceful solution.
But the special agent says: “When you look at other members of his team, both here in the USA and in Pakistan in particular, you know, they do what they have to do to maintain their control of the market.
And Howard Marks would have known that.
“They murdered people, they were crooks.”
The idea that marijuana dealers are less dangerous than those selling cocaine is false.
Craig continues: “I’ve been shot on the job by marijuana dealers. I got shot in both arms. One just unloaded his pistol on me.
“He was a desperado, and so was his partner. I had to shoot them both.”
Dirty work
Marks largely left the dirty work to his associates, not being there when the drugs were loaded or unloaded.
Roger, who was wanted for parole offences and to be questioned about his involvement in Escobar’s cocaine operation, was one of the men taking those risks.
He’d met Marks in Spain and agreed to fly a huge shipment of cannabis into the United States for him.
But he claims to have lost money on the deal, because the quality of the intoxicant was so poor.
His wife Judy spent two years in a Madrid prison with baby Patrick at her breast. Her hair and teeth fell out
Roger says: “I flew it to Washington State and the stuff wouldn’t stay lit, so they couldn’t sell it.
“We almost had to give it away and brought the price down. Part of it was mouldy.”
That’s a severe blot on the reputation of Marks, who billed himself as the king of cannabis.
Matters got worse when many of Marks’s team were arrested in Vancouver, Canada after Craig got wind of one of his shipments coming in.
Roger, 82, from Georgia, wasn’t there, but lost a lot of money because he’d helped fund the deal.
Snared at last
Marks was taking too many risks, including using the phones in bars or restaurants over and over again to organise his criminal enterprise.
His biggest mistake was to become pally with the fugitive Lord Moynihan, who he started running a brothel with in Thailand’s capital Bangkok.
Moynihan thought he was untouchable living in the Philippines due to his connections with the corrupt dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
But after a coup brought his benefactor down, the DEA convinced him to turn on Marks.
Craig smiles: “Our agent in Manila, pointed out to him, ‘hey, you’re scheduled for execution by the new regime.’
“He wasn’t too excited about that, so he said, ‘whatever I can do for you fellows, let’s get it done.’”
Wearing a wire, the late British Lord managed to get Marks to spell out how he was laundering his drug money.
That led to the carefully timed arrest of him and 22 of his team in 11 countries around the world in 1987.
Agent Lovato and half a dozen armed officers raided his compound in Mallorca early in the morning.
Craig recalls: “He was in a state of shock. I could just see the wheels in his head trying to figure out ‘how am I going to get out of this thing?’”
The officers also arrested the smuggler’s wife Judy, alleging she was an accessory to his crimes.
Craig told Marks very clearly that if he agreed to be extradited to the United States “we’ll cut your wife loose.”
Instead he held out for two years.
Roger says: “I spent 18 months in Alcana de Henerez prison near Madrid with Howard. I begged him to let Judy agree to be extradited. I told him that any US Magistrate would release her upon arrival.
“He said ‘no, my attorney said it would hurt my chances.’
“Judy spent two years in a Madrid prison with baby Patrick at her breast. Her hair and teeth fell out.”
What I did admire in him was his ability to lie to both parties at the same time to facilitate what it was that he was accomplishing for himself
In the end Marks pleaded guilty to racketeering and was handed a 25 year prison sentence in the United States, but only served seven of them behind bars.
Roger also ended up in prison, having been finally caught for his parole evasion and blames his old pal for putting him there.
He says that a man Marks had told him was going to give him a new passport in Amsterdam was in fact an immigration officer.
Roger claims: “Howard was turning me in every chance he got.”
He thinks Marks betrayed him because he owed Roger over £1.5million for a deal that had gone wrong and didn’t want to pay up.
Roger continues “Everybody that dealt with him got ripped off.
“Nothing came good. None of the big deals I was in.”
Although it was getting caught with 987kg of cocaine in Australia in 2001 that led to Roger’s longest spell behind bars – 15 years.
Free for the past four years, having served a total of 33 years inside, the father-of-three regrets his association with drugs.
He says: “I’ve been married 61 years, and more than half of that, my wife was without me.
“Raised the children, what could be worse, I reckon.”
Celebrity afterlife
Marks went on to be a celebrity, with the actor Rhys Ifans portraying him in a 2010 movie titled Mr Nice, performing with the indie band the Super Furry Animals and appearing on TV shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
Judy divorced him in 2005 and he died 11 years later from bowel cancer at his home near Bridgend in Wales.
Having listened to Marks so much, Craig has a better idea than most how he managed to convince so many people that he was the hero.
The former agent, who has been retired for 25 years, concludes: “I would listen to him and think, ‘boy, I wish I worked for a boss like this.’
“He was like a chameleon.
“What I did admire in him was his ability to lie to both parties at the same time to facilitate what it was that he was accomplishing for himself.”
Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin launches Thursday at 9pm on BBC TWO and iPlayer.