Howard Marks, ex-drug smuggler and Mr Nice author, has reportedly died at the age of 70. 

The news comes after he announced last year that he’d been suffering from inoperable bowel cancer. According to The Guardian, he passed away at his home in Bridgend in South Wales yesterday.

Marks became famous during the 90s when he published his infamous autobiography Mr Nice – a detailed account of his years smuggling cannabis. He also had a monthly column at Loaded for five years.

His former colleague at the magazine, James Brown, described him as a “true modern-day folk hero”, who had done “so many funny, shocking, illegal things”.

“He stood for everything we loved,” Brown told The Guardian. “Mr Nice was a thrilling book. Howard is a bloody great example to us all.”

Marks had spent his early years living under as many as 43 different aliases, before being eventually caught up by the American Drug Enforcement Agency in 1988. After being sentenced to 25 years at Indiana’s Terre Haute prison, he was eventually released on parole in 1995. He had been a staunch campaigner for cannabis legalisation ever since.

“It's impossible to regret any part of my life when I feel happy and I am happy now,” he told The Observer last January. “I don't have any regrets and have not had any for a very long time.”

He added: “Smuggling cannabis was a wonderful way of living – perpetual culture shock, absurd amounts of money, and the comforting knowledge of getting so many people stoned.”