I earned $25,000,00 in a day smuggling drugs – this is my biggest regret-Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

William Roger Reaves spent 33 years in prison for his crimes (Picture: Facebook)

At the height of his criminal activity, William Roger Reaves was making £2.5 million for a day’s work.

Reaves estimates that he organised around 200 flights carrying illegal substances into the USA, and he spent time working with some of the biggest drug lords. The former farmer was part of operations led by both Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel and Howard Marks.

Becoming a rich man doesn’t come close to substituting for what his high-risk life of criminal activity made him miss out on.

He spent 33 years in prison in four different continents, and so didn’t get to help raise his children with wife Marrie Reaves.

‘Good gracious, of course I have regrets,’ Reaves, 81, told Metro.

‘I left my family to sit in a prison cage. I was beaten, I was stabbed, I’ve been shot out of air twice. Who in the world would do that for money? It’s insane. If I could back in time I never would have done any of it.’

The Reaves have been married for 50 years (Picture: Facebook)

Reaves’ upbringing

Born in Georgia, Reaves describes ‘being full of life’ as a young boy. Although, he admits that he never thought much about what he wanted in his future until he read a book called Jungle Pilot by Russell T. Hitt.

The chapters inspired him to learn aviation, and being a man of Christian faith, he dreamed of flying around the world for missionaries. After marrying Marrie and becoming a father, his church said they’d sponsor him. However, when Reaves was told he’d need to enter three years of training to be an airplane mechanic, he became impatient. After growing up in poverty, he was keen to begin providing and so instead, he started making Moonshine whiskey.

‘I made 1000 gallons a week. I was making real money. That was quite an adventure for a young fella,’ he recalled in his Southern accent.

After buying his own plane with the profits, Reaves began to take his family on weekend trips to Mexico. He’d go fishing, while Marrie would read books and potty train their children.

Reaves says he was ‘full of life’ growing up (Picture: YouTube)

‘Someone said to me “Why don’t you bring some marijuana back with you?” And I said, “What is it?” I’ve heard about the kids smoking it, but didn’t know much else,’ he admitted. Reaves smuggled the drug which he ‘didn’t care much for’ into the USA before ever trying the drug himself after being offered $10,000.

‘He gave me the cash in a big shopping bag from a grocery store and I threw it on the bed at home. Marrie put her hand over her mouth and said: “Oh goodness gracious”.’

Seeing it as an easy source of income, he placed $100 down on a lawyer’s table and asked him if, hypothetically, someone was caught ‘bringing pot back from Mexico’ what would happen. Reaves was told that because he didn’t have any previous convictions it would be minimal punishment – a year at most in prison, and so he continued.

Life of crime

As Reaves got deeper into a life of crime, he didn’t feel any guilt. ‘I don’t want anybody to do drugs or get drunk. I really wish we just had a perfect world, but we don’t have it on this side of heaven. And so if somebody gives me a million dollars to take cocaine across the road I’ll try to get it across there,’ he reasoned. And he certainly wasn’t scared, saying the activity felt ‘normal’.

Reaves believes his regular undetected flights led to the price of cannabis dropping by 40%. However, one day, things went terribly wrong when officers did capture him.

‘I was tortured almost to death in a Mexican prison. I don’t know if you won’t even hear about some of that,’ he shared, before immediately continuing.

‘They packed hot chili pepper up my backside, naked, and then they hung a dead man in the cell with me. It was all wrapped in paper, and they hung him on a meat hook. In that little tiny cell I couldn’t hardly breathe, so I got my mouth under the door and tried to breathe. I passed out. I woke up in hospital with a respirator and I thought I got to get out of this. Mexico has got too hot.’

Reaves began working for Escobar (Picture: Colombian National Police/ZUMA Wire/Shutterstock)

It was at this point, he decided to move his operation to Columbia, and a meeting was set up with the late Escobar.

Reaves first came into contact with the dangerous drug lord at a birthday party Escobar threw for himself. He claims movie stars, judges and police chiefs were all in attendance. When talking to a woman at the bash Reaves was informed that he was ‘with the girlfriend of the most vicious killer in Colombia’. He quickly excused himself, but found himself being followed by an angry Escobar onto a beach. Luckily, things were resolved.

The next day, Reaves recalls visiting an ‘old, beautiful’ home. ‘It was polished like a museum,’ he added. Here, Reaves met with Escobar’s accomplice Jorge Luis Ochoa, who had 12 phones all around him, each in a different colour, and representing different counties. ‘When one rings, I know who I’m talking to,’ he offered Reaves as explanation. They began to talk money. He could pay Reaves $5,000 per kilo of cocaine being transported, and said they would put 500 kilos on his plane at a time.

Escobar joined them, and repeated the offer. ‘He’d been so drunk he didn’t really remember what had happened the night before,’ he said. They laughed together about it, Reaves said with a smile.

In 1976, Reaves went from making thousands to millions. One day’s work was now earning him $2.5 million, and he hired Barry Seal (portrayed by Tom Cruise in the film American Made) to fly the planes.

Time in prison

Howard Marks was described as being Mr Nice (Picture: BBC/Passion Pictures Ltd/Paul Eddy)

In the mid-1980s, Reaves was living in a boat in France, and began to work with Welsh drug smuggler, Marks. He became his primary pilot for US West Coast shipments of cannabis.

When they first met at Marks’ Majorca home, Reeves didn’t have a positive feeling. ‘Howard had real nice, deep blue eyes, but he had a stupid demeanor and a very limp handshake. Had a kind of a whiny voice, but he knew people.

‘He knew people all over,’ he repeated. ‘So I hooked up with him.’

Reaves claims to have given Marks $1 million dollars, and says that he was unable to pay back the loan. This is why, Marks handed Reaves in ‘at any chance he could get’, he hypothesised. Marks was an amoral criminal to some, but a benevolent campaigner for drugs reform to others, but to Reaves he was ‘not nice’. Reaves tells the story of his working relationship with Marks, who died in 2016, in new BBC documentary, Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin.

Reaves largely blames Marks, who described himself as the king of cannabis, for his most significant arrest and time spent behind bars. Although, it was being caught with nearly 1000kg of cocaine in Australia that led to his longest sentence.

In total Roger spent over three decades in prisons, escaping five times during his sentences. He jumped out of high windows, snuck under fences, and used connections to get out.

Eventually accepting his fate and unsure whether he’d ever make it out, Reaves decided to write his life story, which later become the book Smugglers. He played chess every day, ran his own marathons, and hoped to one day be sat at a dinner table with his wife.

A quiet life

Marrie stood by him (Picture: Facebook)

Reaves remembers his first day of freedom like it was yesterday. ‘I came home to a little apartment. I sat down at the table, still wearing my prison clothes, and I cried.’ For three days, tears continued to flow. Marrie’s decision to keep the table placemats from before his arrest made him cry. Seeing his old clothes hanging up in the wardrobe made him cry. Looking at photos of everything he missed out on made him particularly emotional.

He’s now trying to make up for all the years he lost in confinement by spending time with his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. ‘Marrie has cancer and I wasn’t there,’ he half-whispered. ‘There’s real sadness that will always be with me.’

Reaves thinks his love story with Marrie is the biggest blessing from his life, and the thing he hopes people remember.

‘She supported me unconditionally and raised our family alone. Her father told her to divorce me and go on with her life. She said, “But Daddy, I love him”,’ he fondly told us.

‘When we sit with the children, holding hands, and say our blessings, Marrie says she just could not imagine another man sitting in my chair.’

Hunting Mr Nice: The Cannabis Kingpin is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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