Classic car connoisseur in Palm Springs pens book about friendship with one of the world’s major drug traffickers

A classic car connoisseur in Palm Springs just wrote a book about his past friendship with one of the world’s major drug traffickers. The book, titled, “John Alan Brooks the ‘Go To’ Man of World Drug Trafficking.” Eye on the Desert’s Caitlin Thropay sat down with the author of that book, Keith McCormick to learn more about why he decided to write this story now.

You may recognize Keith from the McCormick's Palm Springs Collector Car Auctions. Now, he wears another hat, one of as the author of a best-selling book on Amazon.

“This is a true-crime story about two friends who grew up in England together in the 60s," McCormick told News Channel 3. "We started selling cars together and we were good friends growing up,” he added.

Wishing for warmer weather, McCormick moved his family to Palm Springs.

Meanwhile, the friend he made back in London, John Alan Brooks, who goes by A.B. in the book decided to move to Spain in pursuit of a more lucrative career.

“For years he kept coming to visit me and after two or three trips that he came to Palm Springs, I asked him how he was handling this very affluent lifestyle. He was wearing a Rolex watch and driving a Ferrari and all that good stuff and in the end, he told me, 'I’m a drug trafficker and I smuggle drugs all over the world for some of the major drug cartels.'”

McCormick describes how he first felt when he found out the news from his friend.

“I was kind of horrified because of the violence because of what we see on television," he said. "These guys have hitmen and kill people for fun and he told me that he never saw any violence, never got involved with any violence. He was just contracted to move x amount of drugs from one place to another. He first started from Marber in Spain, dealt with the growers in Morocco and would then smuggle them back at night with a fast cigarette speed boat or something like that pulling a kayak with all of the drugs,” he said.

McCormick writes in the book how A.B. wrote letters to him from a Moroccan prison, which he later escaped.

Through many of his escapades, A.B. confided in McCormick, all while he was being tracked by multiple police agencies around the world.

“They would track his passport and would turn around and say observe but do not detain because they were following him. They were looking for the bigger guys to see who he was moving the drugs for?” McCormick said.

Currently, A.B. sits in an English prison serving 28 years.

With such a prison sentence, McCormick felt it was the right time to put on paper what he knew of his friend’s life, and says he also hopes to spread a very strong anti-drug message.

“Because here he is in jail for the rest of his life. It’s his fifth time being incarcerated and what kind of life is that. Did he live the luxury lifestyle with all the fabulous yachts and many wives, yes he did and that is what he loved to do but I think he’s paying the ultimate price and really so he should be.” McCormick said.

All of the profits from the book are going to drug rehab and drug rehab education.

You can find McCormick's book on Amazon.