A RIG worker who became an international drug smuggler believes working in the North Sea was even more dangerous than his life of crime.

Aberdeenshire-based Robert Stone, 60, shipped over £100million worth of marijuana and illicit fuel, after starting out as a diver for the oil industry.

But despite being shot at, cornered by a machete gang and seeing a con executed in front of him, he insists it was still safer than being offshore.

That’s because he lost three friends in the Piper Alpha platform tragedy in 1988 — where 167 men perished in the explosion.

And his Scots flight attendant wife Linda only cheated death two years earlier when she changed shifts and avoided being on the Chinook helicopter which crashed off Sumburgh, Shetland, killing 45.

He says: “I had pals killed on Piper Alpha. Linda only survived because she had done a shift swap to meet me on holiday.

“But in my life I had been threatened by drugged-up kid soldiers in Liberia and once crash-landed in a plane in Angola at the height of the civil war.

“And a disgruntled employee and his gang once arrived to kill me in Nigeria with machetes, before I talked my way out of bother.

“The irony is that all these crazy situations I found myself in, the North Sea was definitely the most dangerous. At least I had control over what I was doing, smuggling.”

Stone now has a best-selling book out about his high-sea adventures — with major Hollywood producers wanting to turn it into a film.

But he insists he’s not glamourising his career as a master smuggler. The dad-of-two says: “I made my decision to write it after I got bowel cancer five years ago and nearly died after the operation.

“I had the last rites read to me at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

“But my son was 21 and he took after me a lot — worryingly so.

“Although it might have sounded like fun, I wanted him to know that no one from my previous life is still alive or out of jail.”

Born in Canada, Stone ran away from his abusive parents aged 15, read a book about scuba diving, then made his way to the Caribbean to work as a diving instructor.

But he began his criminal career after becoming a junior cabin crew member for a huge marijuana smuggling operation from Thailand into America — and proved to be the boat’s lucky omen.

He says: “Mid-journey the ship’s navigation system broke down.

“But I’d once read how to use your wrist watch as a quadrant to chart the boat’s position from where the sun is in the sky.

“I brought them into the exact bay they’d been heading for. After that I was offered a job on the spot.

“I ended up living the fast life with easy money and beautiful women. I made my first million dollars when I was 17 years old.”

But, following a couple of close shaves with the law, he decided to return to diving and travelled the world as a commercial oil rig diver.

It was while in the North Sea that he met and wed Linda in 1985.

However during a diving incident, when he was blown “clean out” of the water by a gas explosion, he decided to stay above the surface.

And he lived up to his pirate image with a pet parrot — alongside a cheetah. He says: “My cheetah was called Scooby and purred like a Volkswagen.

“We never got robbed once when she was on the ship.”

Stone attempted to go legit with a commercial fishing company supplying tuna and swordfish, with a fleet of 27 boats operating out of Natal on the Brazilian coast.

But US authorities suspected he was still involved in the drugs trade and shut him down.

He says: “If it wasn’t for the US government I would never have done another smuggle.”

But Stone really struck gold trafficking illegal fuel up the war ravaged west coast of Africa.

Within a few years he had rebuilt his empire to 23 ships — including two tankers.

But it was a risky business dealing with trigger-happy bandits and corrupt officials.

It meant Stone always carried his 9mm Browning or Glock 17 handguns.

He says: “Even though I was breaking the law, when you are doing it in somewhere like Nigeria it isn’t quite the same, as everyone is after it — including all the officials.”

However Stone insists he wanted to go straight again. He explains: “Smuggling marijuana, I had about £50million in cash actually pass through my fingers.

“Fuel smuggling was potentially worth more — from 1990 to 1992 I made around £25million alone.

“But the legitimate side of the business was valued at around £30million and growing.

“By that time we’d a son and daughter back in Scotland and I was desperate to build them a legacy that was above board.”

But in the middle of trying to sell his Coastal shipping firm he was betrayed by an employee who turned informant for the US.

He went on the run from Africa to hide out in the French Alps, before being caught and extradited to America.

Stone was convicted of smuggling goods into the United States and given a five-year jail term — but prison life was brutal.

He says: “I was in a maximum-security jail where members of a gang called The Aryan Brotherhood killed some guy by slitting his throat at our dining table.”

He was sent back to Europe over claims he’d threatened bankers at gun point in Liechtenstein.

But the smuggler walked free, returning to Aberdeen in 1995 after two years behind bars.

Stone finally turned his back on crime when he became an antique French furniture dealer.

He says: “Getting caught was probably the best thing for me. I vowed I would never jeopardise my freedom again.”

Now his incredible story is set to make the silver screen. He says: “Leonardo DiCaprio would be perfect for the role after seeing him in Blood Diamond.” Sadly marathon runner Linda died suddenly in 2002 from a massive stroke.

Stone says: “People put so much importance on money but what does it matter if you don’t have the person you love?

“And it’s strange that after we had survived all those close calls over the years, it was a stroke out of nowhere that took her from me.”

CHASING Black Gold, by The History Press, is out priced £9.99

matt.bendoris@the-sun.co.uk