Married At First Sight Australia contestant Timothy Smith says he is a convicted drug smuggler who used to run cannabis from Canada to the US, claiming he earned US$100,000 each trip.
The shocking revelation came from Smith on Australian news show A Current Affair where he said he hoped by speaking out, it would deter others from the crime.
He also admitted he had not disclosed his conviction and jail time to the MAFS producers prior to his casting on the show. Smith, nicknamed 'Tin Man', was paired off with Lucinda Light, but the marriage did not last.
Smith told A Current Affair he was identified as "a natural" during a helicopter lesson paid for by someone else while he was in Canada.
From there, he claims to have carried out more than 20 drug-smuggling flights, moving the drug from Canada to the US and using small airports which were unmanned to take off from. Each smuggling mission involved quick exchanges where cannabis was loaded into his helicopter then flown into the US, he said.
"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. It was $100,000 a trip for a couple of hours of work."
However, Smith confessed he was caught by authorities in Los Angeles when he returned from a flight. He did not disclose when it had happened.
He then spent one year in jail after pleading guilty to drug trafficking.
"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. That decision in 2006 keeps affecting me. Unfortunately or fortunately it shapes who I am today. 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."
Smith also said his mother and brother died while he was in jail.
"My world changed. I was shipped off to a federal facility. No guards, four walls, 180 guys, good or bad. If I could go back and change it, I would. There's no question I'd change it," he said.
"I wasn't there when my mother and brother died. I paid the price. I pay the price everyday. I did something very stupid and I paid the price. I paid the ultimate price."
