This is a remarkable story. Thomas McFadden was a bright young drug smuggler from Liverpool, England. Apparently he made a career out of this, and considered himself rather elite....the man who was so meticulous and cool that he never got caught.

He went to Bolivia specifically to buy cocaine and smuggle it out to a country where it will be worth a great deal more. We learn that this is not his first Bolivian enterprise. In order to ensure that the operation goes smoothly, he normally bribes high ranking officials. On this occasion, the official who has taken his money double-crosses him, the authorities find the cocaine and McFadden is sent to the prison of San Pedro, in La Paz. One wonders is this a joke on the part of Bolivian officialdom, as St Peter is traditionally believed to be in charge of the keys to some more ethereal gates.

San Pedro is an utterly bizarre penal institution where the inmates have to buy their cells, and like any other real-estate market, the price can fluctuate. There are also restaurants inside, shops selling everything imaginable, wives and children living with their convicted relatives, and illicit laboratories which produce the highest quality cocaine in the country.... the champagne of abusable substances.

On arrival McFadden has a hard time and comes close to death, but he is befriended by another inmate, Ricardo, who speaks English and allows McFadden to share his room and his food.

Ricardo shows the young Englishman the ropes, and explains the system whereby anything can be achieved providing you bribe the guards enough. Slowly McFadden finds his feet, rapidly learning enough Spanish to survive and manages to live independently, although at the outset he is right at the bottom of the prison pecking order.

All that changes when he becomes a tour guide. A routine is established whereby foreign back-packers passing through La Paz call at the prison and pretend to be friends of his. McFadden takes money from them, and bribes the guards to allow them in for a while, and the back packers love it. So does McFadden... he is a man who thrives on having an audience, and the tales he tells are astonishing and improbable, but they seem to be true.

One day a young Australian shows up, a boy called Rusty Young who has a degree in Law. Rusty is fascinated by McFadden's story, and suggests writing a book about it.... naturally McFadden is seduced by the idea of reaching an even wider audience, and also having a medium for denouncing the corruption that underpins the whole penal system.

In total, Rusty Young spent about 3 months conducting interviews with McFadden, and smuggling out the tape recorded material to be transcribed. McFadden, it seems, is totally candid... perhaps not really believing that the book will see the light of day. Nice photographs accompany the text. Never once does McFadden mention the morality or otherwise of what he has done... but neither does he feign innocence. He is quick to condemn the immorality of the corrupt people who take his money, even though this is the very system that enabled him to survive the experience.

Fortunately, by the time the book was published Mr McFadden had been released. Rumour has it that he works on construction sites in Liverpool.

I was planning a trip to Bolivia (but certainly not to San Pedro) and someone told me to read Marching Powder to give me an insight into how corruption permeates society. On arrival, I was crossing Illampu street when a man greeted me in English, but spoken with a Scottish accent. I brushed him off and pretended not to understand what he was saying. Later I heard that he is really Bolivian, but he specializes in accosting foreign tourists, and can pass for North American, Scottish, Australian or whatever at will. I met a German boy who was approached by this person, and they engaged in coversation for a while, then the Bolivian guy asked the German lad to hold his bag for a few minutes while he ran an errand. With that, the bag was thrust into his hand, and the Bolivian disappeared. The German looked inside and found fourteen little wrappers of tin foil. He threw the back down and ran away quickly, before the Bolivian could arrive back with his friends in the police force.

Some of the foreigners living in La Paz think the mysterious Bolivian is actually Ricardo... friend and saviour of Thomas McFadden.

It is an adventure story, and I found it very readable. McFadden was lucky because he could easily have died in custody, and he knew that. This book is a pretty solemn warning to anyone who may be entertaining a career like McFadden's.