Mr Nice - Howard Marks - Drug Dealer

Mr. Nice is the autobiography of former drug dealer Howard Marks.[1] Published in 1996 it became an international bestseller due in large part to the humour and unabashed bravado the author uses to describe his life and the sheer scale of his drug deals involving, amongst others, the CIA, MI6, the IRA and the Mafia. The book received mostly positive reviews, though some critics were initially sceptical of some of the more outlandish details portrayed.[2] It was adapted for film in 2010 as Mr. Nice.


Overview

Welsh born Marks began dealing hashish on a small scale whilst at Oxford University studying nuclear physics and later, a post degree course in philosophy, in the late nineteen sixties.

His activities mushroomed after a chance meeting with a Pakistani supplier made him realise how lucrative drug smuggling could be. After teaming up with Jim McCann, a senior member of the IRA, his business was soon bringing in huge amounts of cash and he began setting up various legitimate businesses as a front, to launder the proceeds of his hashish smuggling. At one time he claims to have had 25 such companies, 89 phone lines and 43 aliases, including the name used for the title of this book, Mr. Nice, an alias he adopted after buying a passport from a convicted murderer of that name.

Following his arrest in 1980 in a joint operation by British and Spanish police, Marks managed to avoid a lengthy sentence by claiming to be a spy for the British intelligence agency MI6. He was eventually caught again, this time by the American DEA, and sentenced to life in prison at Terre Haute federal penitentiary in Florida. He was released after seven years and allowed to return to the UK.

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Anybody read this?

Films a waste of time on this , but book is supposed to be good

Film is an ok watch, but nothing special i agree.

Book is good though and well worth the read.

Read this year ago very good imo, i liked how he used to clean his cash by buying a very expensive stamps you know rare ones and then buying loads of junks stamps that collectors buy (in the hope of finding one worth loads), Mr Nice always found a really expensive one in his junk.

He also opened a back account in Sicily for his payments to go into so people thought he was connected.

a good read film ok

You have to hand it to him though, I mean he made a lot of connections

These were the days days when the drugs trade in the uk was run by ex public school boys then when they started doing time the real hard men/bank robbers saw they were doing a quarter of the time for 10 times the money. Then it all changed.

That is reminiscent of the opening narrative of Layer Cake ;-)

The book was not a bestseller for nothing. The original script was very riveting and it was a shame that as per usual so much was cut from it. The film could have been better but the man himself was pleased with the end result and was charmed by the performance of Rhys Ifans (his buddy).

Still worth a watch.

Legend!

Glorified nobody, just like The Gay Twins. I mean The Kray Twins.