Product Description

During the mid-1980s, Marks had 43 aliases and 25 companies, all laundering money from dealing cannabis. After a world-wide operation, he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years at a State Penitentiary in Indiana, but was released in 1995 after serving seven years. This is his own story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3059 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 466 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
What an extraordinary fellow Howard Marks is. His autobiography takes him from his South Wales childhood and Oxford University education through his life dealing marijuana and the enormous mythology that accrued around what the tabloids called "the English Toff Drugs King of the World". This book is called Mr Nice after one of the many aliases Marks's life as a merchant of pot obliged him to assume, but it describes him perfectly too: the epitome of British niceness, the nicest international criminal you could hope to meet. It's not hard to see why this has become a cult book--Marks is a brilliant version of a mate down the pub, telling you the gobsmacking stories of his many adventured life. The writing is direct and the narrative will detain you as comprehensively as Marks himself was detained for seven years at Terre Haut Penitentiary, Indiana. He was released the same day as Mike Tyson. "I had," he observes mildly, "been continuously in prison for the last six-and-a-half years for transporting beneficial herbs from one place to another, while he had done three years for rape." Truly there is no justice; but there are eye-popping adventures, hilarious touches and a thorough-going wisdom in this excellent book. --Adam Roberts

Review
An easygoing international drug smuggler tells his life story. Marks spent most of his life looking for a good scam and a good time. As a child, he got out of a school by faking illness; as a student at Oxford, he used his considerable intelligence to cheat on tests and soon became a fixture of the nascent mid-'60s drug scene. Graduation found him "temporarily straight," but that state soon ended when a dealer friend was jailed and Marks stepped into the breach to sell hashish in London. He moved on to ferrying drugs and currency across European borders for others, and soon enough was arranging his own import/export deals with characters such as "Lebanese Sam," his man in Beirut, and maverick Irishman Jim McCann, who fixed things at the Shannon airport. Marks traveled the world (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Thailand for business; Spain and Italy for pleasure) with tons of marijuana and hashish and millions of dollars following in his wake-stuffed behind auto paneling, hidden in yachts, sealed in smell-proof containers for air travel. Meanwhile, Marks collected multiple identities, passports, and bank accounts, as well as a handful of legitimate business operations, although, he reports, "I enjoyed being a smuggler most of all." In his personal life, Marks kept things simple: after a failed starter marriage, he soon settled down with his second wife and had three children. Following the progression of Marks's business rapidly becomes overwhelming, but his story, published in England in 1996, is book-ended by a single point: prison. Hunted by the DEA, Marks was finally busted in Spain in the late '80s and served a number of years in the pen before being shipped back to England. A tale that beggars belief, told in a most amiable, if long-winded, way. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
During the mid 19802 Howard Marks had forty-three aliases, eighty-nine phone lines and owned twenty-five companies trading throughout the world. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons of marijuana, and had contact with organisations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA and the Mafia. Following a worldwide operation by the Drugs Enforcement Agency, he was busted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison at Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. He was released in April 1995 after serving seven years of his sentence.

Customer Reviews

Tall tales from a dubious role model
Howard Marks has produced an implausible and glamorised account of the sordid world of drug-dealing and smuggling. By attempting to present this disgusting trade as humorous, he encourages gullible young people to admire those who engage in it. He portrays himself as an idealist distributing 'beneficial herbs'. It is more likely, in reality, that he exploited the weaknesses of others from selfish mercenary motives. An unrealistic and potentially harmful book.

El Fantastico!!!
I recently stumbled upon this autobiography and was immediately drawn to it having previously heard of Howard Marks' exploits from friends and i must say what a fantastic read.

The story basically follows Marks' involvement with hashish and weed and his eventual involvement with global smuggling through the 70's and 80's. The authors ability to depict the wonderful characters that he meets and deals with, included my personal favourite, ex-IRA Jim McCann, means that I found this book impossible to put down. Whilst this book obviously is attractive to the liberal minded amongst us, this book can be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone as Marks' comes across as a thoroughly likeable oxford "chap" who simply lives out a glamarous life that many of us would certainly follow if had the chance. At no point do you genuinely feel that Marks is a mastermind criminal and all i can say is good on you son for pulling one over on the power that be. Fantastic!

Love it!
He's a devil but i don't know after reading his real story, i like his humanity!