Art of Smuggling, The : The Gentleman Drug Trafficker Who Turned Britain On - Hardcover

Francis Morland; Jo Boothby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 190847985X ISBN 13: 9781908479853

Publisher: Milo Books, 2015

Synopsis

Francis Morland was one of Britain's most brilliant young artists, a leading member of the 1960s "New Generation" movement beside such future giants as David Hockney. At the same time he lived an even more remarkable secret life: as the first major drug trafficker in UK history. He stuffed his abstract sculptures full of Lebanese cannabis to ship to the lucrative US market, sailed yachtloads of hashish from Morocco to Europe and, years before Howard Marks, became the most important dope runner in the country.

The scion of a wealthy Quaker dynasty that made its fortune turning sheepskins into coats, Morland had a privileged youth: his father had a Harley Street clinic and his mother was a key figure in the art world and friend of Henry Moore and George Orwell. At 6ft 3in tall, good looking and well dressed, Francis skied for England, had a beautiful wife and children, a big house in south-west London, a farm house in Malta and the world at his feet.

But the Drug Squad were onto him, and in 1971 he was arrested taking delivery of 200 kilos of cannabis. He skipped bail and fled to the Balearics, where he fitted out a wooden ketch, loaded it with a ton and half of Moroccan resin and sailed the Atlantic to New York, using a sextant and dead reckoning. He was finally caught after a chase through the streets of Manhattan and was sentenced to six years in a federal penitentiary.

Morland came out to find most of his profits had been lost by a relative. His old friends shunned him and the family firm went bust. So he became a professional yachtsman-smuggler, plying his trade across the Mediterranean, mixing with everyone from shady Arab dope farmers to gangland bosses and alternating between periods of sudden wealth and bleak incarceration. In 1980, 1990 and again in 2000, he was caught and jailed for long terms. Now in his early eighties, he lives in 'pretty good poverty' running ceramic classes for ladies who lunch. His amazing story has never been told.

Edition details

• Publisher: Milo Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 190847985X
• ISBN 13: 9781908479853
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240