Author(s): Jim Shepherd

True Crime

It has been more than 30 years since the Mr Asia drug syndicate came apart, when the handless, toothless body of Martin Johnstone was found dumped in a quarry in England. The members of the syndicate were responsible for a string of dead bodies all over the world and the importation of hundreds of kilograms of heroin and marijuana into Australia, New Zealand and Britain. The only surviving member of the syndicate, James Shepherd, tells of Mr Asia's rise and fall in gritty, horrifying detail. Shepherd was named by the 1983 Stewart Royal Commission as second in charge of the drug syndicate, and was given a 25-year sentence. The long years spent in jail contemplating the murder and misery caused by the syndicate convinced him that the full story needed to be told - as a warning to others, if nothing else. The result is the real insider's account of the multi-million dollar, kill-or-be-killed world of our most notorious international drug syndicate.