Howard Marks, or 'Mr Nice', has passed away.
The former drugs smuggler turned much loved author/raconteur died at his home near Bridgend in South Wales. He was diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer a year ago.
Marks became something of an unlikely celebrity when he released his best-selling autobiography,
Mr Nice, in 1996. The book detailed his colourful life as a notorious drug smuggler in a tone that was warm, charming and bloody hilarious.
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There was something about his natural charisma and daring bravado that really tapped into the nation's affinity with the loveable rogue - and Marks was both in bucketfuls. His dulcet Welsh tones and easy charm belied his most wanted misadventures.
At the height of his criminal 'powers', he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons of marijuanna, and had contact with organisations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA and the Mafia.
Marks was arrested by the American Drug Enforcement Agency in 1988 after a life on the run smuggling cannabis under 43 different aliases, and sentenced to 25 years in the infamous Terre Haute prison before being released on parole in 1995.
He since became a best-selling author, touring comedian, television personality, and ardent campaigner for the legalisation of weed. Ultimately Marks was our most unlikely national institution; his was certainly a life full, very much lived.
