IN THE 1980S Howard Marks ran one of the biggest drug smuggling operations in the world.
The late Welsh man’s life of crime is now being retold in BBC One documentary, Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin. Here we take a look at his incredible story.
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Born Dennis Howard Marks on August 13, 1945, in Bridgend, Marks was a Welsh drug smuggler and author.
He was educated at Oxford University where he studied to become a teacher.
However, life in the classroom was abandoned and Marks went onto achieve notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler.
At his peak, he claimed to have been smuggling consignments of the drug as large as 30 tons.
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Life as a drug smuggler
Twenty years after leaving Oxford, Marks was running his international drug smuggling operation.
He ran his empire from his home in Palma, Mallorca, where he lived with his wife and three children.
By the mid ’80s, Marks was believed to be the most prolific high-grade hashish smuggler in the business.
He was importing thousands of tonnes of cannabis into the UK and US.
However, little did he know, someone was on his trail.
Being caught
Over the pond, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Craig Lovato was on the hunt to capture Marks.
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Speaking on the BBC documentary, the former agent said: “I became obsessed with the desire to take him and his organisation down.”
Police in Spain had been secretly recording Marks’ phone calls and Lovato was sent over to listen to hundreds of hours of audio.
Marks was eventually charged by the U S Drug Enforcement Administration, convicted and given a 25-year prison sentence
He was released in April 1995 after serving seven years.
Though he had up to 43 aliases, Marks became known as “Mr Nice” after he bought a passport from convicted murderer Donald Nice.
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Life after prison
After his release from prison, Marks published his best-selling autobiography, Mr. Nice (1996).
He also campaigned publicly for changes in drugs legislation.
Marks also turned to stand-up comedy, and even performed at the Welsh Comedy Festival.
After his life of crime was behind him, he also worked in the music industry and appeared on the Super Furry Animals’ 1996 song Hanging with Howard Marks.
He ran the record label Bothered and was also a DJ.
On screen, Marks had a cameo appearance in Human Traffic, in which he discussed “spliff politics”, and was played by his friend Rhys Ifans in the 2006 film about his life Mr Nice.
Marks’ death
On January 25, 2015, it was announced that Marks had inoperable colorectal cancer.
When the news about his health battle broke he told The Guardian: “It’s impossible to regret any part of my life when I feel happy and I am happy now, so I don’t have any regrets and have not had any for a very long time.”
He died of the disease on April 10, 2016, at the age of 70.
BBC documentary
Marks’ life of crime is being explored in the BBC documentary, Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin.
The two-part series follows the epic story of the hunt for Marks at the peak of his mid 1980s operation.
The doc also features archive interviews from later in his life where he is challenged on his ethics, morals and claim to his alias Mr Nice.
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Audio recordings from the wiretaps on his phone combined with reconstructions of key scenes in the story, place Marks front and centre in the series.
The documentary will start on November 21, 2024, on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer.
