MAFS’ Timothy Shares International Drug Smuggling Past That Led To Jail

10 April 2024, 11:27

Married At First Sight Australia’s Timothy Smith revealed he used to make millions smuggling drugs across the American border, a history which saw him end up in jail.

In a shocking series of events that not even the Married At First Sight Australia producers saw coming, 2024 contestant Timothy Smith went on national television to admit his dark past that involved drugs, smuggling and prison.

The MAFS experts Alessandra Rampolla, John Aiken and Mel Schilling originally paired him up with fan favourite Lucinda Light.

Timothy had dubbed himself the ‘Tin Man’ because he felt his heart had hardened over time from his failed relationships and the loss of his mother, brother in his youth and his father just five weeks before filming began. But it turns out it’s much darker than he ever implied on the show.

• Read more: MAFS’ Timothy Has A Surprising Reality Television Past
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In an interview with Australia’s A Current Affair, Timothy revealed he had been recruited to smuggle drugs across from Canada to the United States when he was younger. His crimes resulted in an arrest, and it was whilst he was in prison that his mother and brother passed away.

“I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry to everyone I hurt. But I don’t want anyone to do what I did,” the groom admitted in the interview as it was revealed that he had kept his past a secret from everyone, including the producers of MAFS.

"Sometimes good people just make some dumb mistakes," he continued to say, “That decision in 2006 keeps affecting me. Unfortunately or fortunately it shapes who I am today.”

According to the reality star, he was approached in a nightclub in Canada where he resided in the 2000s and was told to learn how to fly a helicopter.

“Someone threw some money at me and said, ‘Go and take a lesson tomorrow’. I did, and the instructor said I was a natural. That was the beginning of the end,” he said.

Timothy took the lessons and after he earned his pilot qualification, he began a regular smuggling route, taking large amounts of marijuana from Canada to the United States. The job ended up being quite lucrative for him, but the price was high.

"It was $100,000 a trip for a couple of hours of work," Timothy admitted as we went on to say, “I would take off from a little unmanned airport. I had the helicopter sorted and I’d fly up a valley and into a creek… I’d meet a 4WD and land behind it and within a minute the helicopter would be loaded with marijuana and I’d fly south into the US.”

According to Timothy, he counted that he made over 20 trips back and forth before he was caught.

Sadly, Timothy’s mother was diagnosed with cancer late in 2006 and it was then that he went to visit her in Australia. Upon his return to the United States, his crimes caught up with him.

He flew into Los Angeles, where Timothy found US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waiting for him as he disembarked from the plane and that’s when, according to him, his “world changed”.

“I was shipped off to a federal facility. No guards, four walls, 180 guys, good or bad," Timothy revealed as he was given a one-year sentence for drug trafficking but was imprisoned for slightly longer.

"It was a 12-month sentence, but then they tacked on another four or six months in immigration," he told the interviewer.

“If I could go back and change it, I would. There’s no question I’d change it,” the salesman said, full of regret as he continued “I wasn’t there when my mother and brother died. I paid the price. I pay the price every day.”

While Timothy was imprisoned, his mother fell to her illness and then, if you watched MAFS you already know that Timothy opened up to fellow contestant Tristan, as he admitted his brother took his own life following his mother’s death.

Timothy doesn't want to let his tragic past affect his future any longer, and with the momentum of MAFS in his stride, he’s looking towards a path of redemption.

Timothy revealed he intends to start working with community groups that are focused on deterring at-risk men from choosing a life of crime, especially at a young age.

"I did something very very stupid and I paid the price. I paid the ultimate price," Smith said.

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