‘No regrets’ says Howard Marks on inoperable cancer

Notorious former drug smuggler and author Howard Marks has been diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer, he announced at the weekend.

The Oxford graduate, 69, said he had “no regrets” about a life which saw him mingle with A-listers from the entertainment world and spend seven years in jail after being convicted of serious drugs offences.

Marks, also known as Mr Nice, told the Observer: “I’ve come to terms with it in my own way — which for me was about learning how to cry.

“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 long time.”

Marks, dubbed “the most sophisticated drugs baron of all time”, grew up in Wales and later worked for the British Secret Service after graduating from Oxford where he earned a degree in nuclear physics.

He has also been connected with the Mafia, the IRA, MI6 and the CIA.

He was arrested in 1988 and later sentenced to 25 years at America’s toughest federal jail, Terre Haute, in Indiana. He was released on parole in 1995 after seven years, and has long campaigned for the legalisation of cannabis.