The Mr Nice persona was carefully and artfully cultivated, but this was not as unusual as one might think. But it is bizarre that someone who did business at one remove from purveyors of this kind of violence is being eulogised today. (He was absolutely charming in person, for whatever that’s worth.)

I once interviewed a gang leader in El Salvador who had murdered his most recent victim using a floor-polishing machine. It may even be worse: the sadistic inventiveness of Latin America’s cartel hitmen is more sophisticated than anything that goes on in the “caliphate”: cartels have been known to employ doctors to keep their victims alive for longer under torture. But sending a few million to a Colombian drug cartel is no better than doing business with Islamic State. The millions of pounds he funnelled towards these and other contacts – corrupt police officers, double-dealing army officers, IRA members and others – fed money into organised criminal networks around the world, principally in countries where the state was too weak to avoid being overwhelmed by them. His business involved cutting deals with the Japanese yakuza, the New York mafia and Colombian cannabis suppliers. Yet his was not a career that hurt no one. Marks was not a violent man, and he made his fortune in cannabis, less harmful than most illegal drugs (and indeed less harmful than many legal ones).

The laundering of the reputations of those who run it – Mr Nice included – must end. It is a status he does not deserve.įar from the grand caper that Marks described in his books and talks, the drug-trafficking business is one that involves the murder of thousands every year, and has brought many poor countries to their knees. The author Irvine Welsh said he was “a marvellous, unique human being”. On his death he was hailed by James Brown, the magazine editor who employed Marks as a columnist, as a “ true modern-day folk hero”.

Mr. Nice by Howard Marks