The Guardian
Duncan Campbell
Howard Marks, the former Balliol student jailed for 25 years in the United States in 1990 for cannabis smuggling, has been released and has returned to England. His sentence had earlier been reduced to 20 years and at the end of last month he was granted parole.
Last night, a relative said he was "extremely happy" to be free. He was spending time with his family and becoming acclimatised to life outside jail. At one time, he feared he might not be freed before the end of the century. The US has recently tightened its drugs policy and indicated dealers were unlikely to receive leniency.
Mr Marks, aged 45, flew back to Britain last weekend. He had earlier tried to persuade the American authorities to allow him to serve out his sentence in this country. The Home Office had indicated it was happy with that, but the US legal system was not co-operative. Its attitude appears to have changed recently. He had also been hopeful that the fact Bill Clinton, who had smoked cannabis - without inhaling, he said - was now president might lead to a more relaxed attitude to the drug.
As a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Mr Clinton had used lodgings previously occupied by Mr Marks. It was alleged at his trial in Florida that Mr Marks had made millions by his drug smuggling. But when he was interviewed by the Guardian in Terre Haute state penitentiary in Indiana he said his own money had long been exhausted and there was no hidden cache.
Mr Marks was earlier accused of running vast quantities of hash into Britain, using the Scottish islands. Charged with smuggling in 1981 he was acquitted at the Old Bailey after claiming he had been acting on behalf of MI6.
In 1988 he was found by Craig Lovato of the American Drugs Enforcement Administration. "He had this obsession," said Mr Marks. "He wanted me in prison for a long time."
In Terre Haute prison, the guards knew him as "Marco Polo", one of the nicknames along with the "Oxford Pimpernel" with which he was labelled during his years on the run.
He has been supported by his wife and three children and a vast network of friends. Last night, they were planning celebratory reunions.
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