The wild tale of The Rolling Stones’ alleged six-year-old drug smuggler
There are countless stories about The Rolling Stones’ drug-fueled escapades. From the moment they emerged in the 1960s, they were the epitome of the sex, drugs and rock and roll stereotype, dominating the music world with their seductive music and bad-boy energy. Things often got dark as they moved through various addictions, drug busts and the consequences of their hedonism. But in this instance, they allegedly had someone else do their dirty work, and that someone was a child.
It’s a miracle, really, that the Stones have made it this far through their careers largely unscathed. For Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, especially the two who were there through all those years of illicit antics, it’s incredible that the consequences of their actions were never higher. Even after the major drug bust at Richards’ Redlands home, they got off with an overnight prison stay and a few hundred pounds fine. In Richards’ case, he’s quite literally got away with his life as he cheated death several times during years of risky indulgence in his various vices.
But while the band managed to get away with it, there were casualties along the way. Brian Jones was the first as the group’s original singer didn’t handle his own dependencies as well as the rest of the group, causing him to be kicked out by his bandmates and later to die at the young age of 27. Arguably, Marianne Faithfull was another as she fell into major addictions and even ended up homeless following a messy split from Mick Jagger.
However, that list could also have included a literal child as Charles Weber, the son of a friend of the band’s, admitted that when he was only six, he was used as a drug mule to bring the group their gear.
It was 1971, and the Stones had fled to France on a tax exile. Living at Villa Nellcôte, the group’s habits didn’t change, though, as the making of Exile On Main Street was more like one big extended lost weekend as figures like William Burroughs, John Lennon, Gram Parsons, and more came to visit. What do all those people have in common? A love of drugs. So, while being away from their usual dealers and connections, the band still had a demand for their fix, and even more of it than usual.
That’s where Weber apparently came in. His father was the band’s main hook-up, and he was charged with keeping their ongoing party well-supplied. But as he now needed to get the goods across the Channel, he began using his six-year-old son as an unsuspecting drug mule. At Heathrow Airport, Weber’s father taped package after package of drugs to him, knowing that his son was much less likely to be searched than he was.
“’I wasn’t nervous at all,” Weber told the Daily Mail, “I didn’t really know how bad it was at the time, although I do remember the look of horror on my father’s face when my packet was suddenly sticking out of my shirt, but he dragged me to the bathroom and quickly fixed me up.”
“We got to France, and there was a limo waiting for us,” he remembered, “we pulled up to the villa, and there was Keith waiting for us like we were long lost family – although I suspect he was also very interested in what was strapped to my body.”
But despite being used as a pawn in some seriously illegal activities, Weber’s memories of that summer spent as a young boy in sunny France with his father and this band of drugged-up rockstars are all good ones. “They were all just so magical and cool. I remember they had such an aura about them,” he said, not seeming to mind one bit that he was essentially a cartel as a kid.
