26 July 1988
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Twenty-two people were charged Monday with running the biggest Asian-based marijuana ring ever uncovered, an operation that shipped tons of the contraband at a time, federal authorities said. The man alleged to be the leader of the ring is a British citizen, Dennis Howard Marks, 42, said interim U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen. Previously, Marks was acquitted of drug charges in England after claiming he worked for British counterintelligence.
Marks, of London, operated all over the world, authorities said. ''He was the Marco Polo of drug trafficking,'' said Thomas Cash, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Miami. Marks, his wife, Judith, and another British citizen, Geoffrey Kenion, were arrested Monday in Spain. They and the other defendants were charged with racketeering, said Lehtinen. For 17 years the group shipped marijuana from Thailand and hashish from Pakistan, and operated in England, West Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and other nations, he said. ''They shipped in ton quantities, thousands of tons,'' said Lehtinen. The group even bought its own ship and amassed $30 million worth of property, which the government wants confiscated.
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