CAUTIONARY TALE OUTLINES CARELESS LIFE OF CRIME

Drug Smuggler Loved His Job -- Till He Got Caught

When Brian O'Dea was looking for work five years ago he decided to
place a classified advertisement in one of Canada's national newspapers.

He had tons of business experience and listed it all.

O'Dea had owned and operated a fishing business with an airplane,
island and processing facility. He had owned and operated a fleet of
tractor-trailer trucks in the Western United States. He also was an
executive-level manager of 120 people in a worldwide venture boasting
revenues of more than $100 million a year.

But his business was drug smuggling.

He had just completed a 10-year sentence for importing 75 tonnes of
marijuana into the U.S.

"My intention in putting the ad in the paper was to shake my life up,
open it up and see what might fall in, O'Dea said in a recent e-mail
interview. "It garnered over 500 replies from around the world.

And it paid off.

He's now a television producer in Toronto -- you can see him on the
show Creepy Canada -- as a direct result of the ad.

He has now written a biography of sorts, detailing his outlaw years.

O'Dea came from a privileged, politically active family in
Newfoundland. His father was a government minister and prominent
businessman who owned a brewery. Another relative was the province's
lieutenant-governor.

But at a young age O'Dea suffered abuse at the hands of priests at a
Roman Catholic school.

His life took a bit of a turn and while attending St. Mary's
University in the 1960s he got into drugs, trying marijuana for the
first time at Murray's Restaurant in the Lord Nelson Hotel.

"The apple does not fall far from the tree, O'Dea said. "My father
was in the mind-altering business, and so was I.

Although being an O'Dea got him through customs carrying hashish from
the U.K. at St. John's airport without much scrutiny, he ended up
being nabbed in Newfoundland and spent a little time in jail.

"I would have been caught regardless, he said. "I was fairly lazy
about it -- it was the laziness that got me, not the attention to my
family. They don't call it dope for nothing.

He eventually ended up in the States, getting product from South America.

By the time U.S. authorities caught up with him, he had finally
kicked his coke habit and gone straight, spending his time helping
other people with addictions problems in Santa Barbara, Cal.

"It cleaned up the wreckage of my past, he said of getting busted and
going to jail. "While it was a difficult thing, it was the only solution.

"I am responsible for my life today.

Smuggling drugs in the U.S. was a sometimes stressful occupation, but
O'Dea has no qualms about admitting how much he enjoyed himself at the time.

"I'm not going to lie about it -- I loved doing it, he said. "I loved
the camaraderie -- particularly in the last couple of years I was in
the business.

"We had an incredible group of guys and girls who all enjoyed each
other's company -- played together, worked together and trusted each other.

Readers might be skeptical of this account of a career criminal,
especially with the recent controversy over James Frey's
falsifications in his best-selling book about his drug experiences, A
Million Little Pieces.

But O'Dea isn't worried about that.

"Everything I wrote is as I know it to be, he said. "Just call the
cops. They will tell you everything in there is true. And I have been
telling these stories for years in front of audiences -- people who
lie can't do that.

"Why would I tell such horrible things about myself if they weren't true?

He also has a reliable reference, which he included in his job
advertisement: the U.S. district attorney who was responsible for his
arrest in 1990 and who reminded the judge that his offence could
carry the death penalty.

High -- Confessions of a Pot Smuggler

Brian O'Dea

(Random House, 358 pages, $34.95)