After suffering a cocaine-induced heart attack in 1988, O'Dea quit smuggling and using illegal drugs and became a substance abuse counselor.
[8][9] In addition, O'Dea also began dealing in marijuana, traveling to Toronto to buy the drug from suppliers, then returning to St. John's to resell it at a profit.
[16] He used this relationship to establish himself as a cocaine smuggler, and developed a regular routine of picking up shipments in Colombia and carrying them into Canada, where he broke down the packages into smaller amounts for individual resale.
[20] When this venture proved unsuccessful, O'Dea and his partner in Chicago made an arrangement with smugglers based in Florida and Georgia to move the marijuana from Colombia by air and purchased a Douglas DC-6 transport plane for the purpose.
[22] Having lost most of his money in the unsuccessful attempt to smuggle marijuana by airplane, in 1976, O'Dea re-established contact with a Los Angeles-based attorney he had met in Jamaica.
[24] O'Dea's function was to circulate among the banks of Los Angeles exchanging cash for cashier's checks made payable to overseas companies.
[24] He also re-established himself as a cocaine smuggler, using a small network of couriers to carry the drugs from Colombia to one of the Caribbean islands, including Saint Martin, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.
[26] He established a business relationship with Tri's sales manager, John Paul DeJoria, which led to O'Dea becoming the product's Canadian distributor.
[26] O'Dea declined DeJoria's offer to join him in the Paul Mitchell venture because he felt obligated to honor his agreement with the makers of Tri.
[26] He successfully retailed Tri in Vancouver, and planned to expand into more cities, but abandoned the venture when Canadian authorities who suspected him of involvement in illegal drugs accused him of avoiding customs duties.
[31] They then sailed to their home port in Anacortes, Washington, where the fish boxes containing marijuana were moved to trucks owned by a company O'Dea controlled.
[31] This individual became an informant, and during their final shipment, O'Dea's crew succeeded in transporting the marijuana despite being under surveillance by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
[33] Later, he began to record and sell copies of lectures Richo presented to adult learning students at Santa Barbara City College.
[35] He attracted media attention in 2001 when he published an advertisement in the National Post through which he attempted to obtain employment by highlighting aspects of his drug smuggling endeavors, including his personnel and logistics management skills.
[36] He also began to appear on television as a commentator for U.S. and Canadian news programs, frequently providing his views on marijuana legalization, prison reform, and other topics.
[37][38][39] As he attempted to establish himself in a post-prison career, O'Dea also began volunteering to give speeches about his life in the drug business.
[40] He appeared at schools and parent groups throughout Canada to deliver a presentation called "The Consequences of Choice" in which he used his experiences to dissuade others from following the same path.
[42] In 2003, O'Dea's drug smuggling enterprise was featured on the television series Masterminds in an episode titled "A Smuggler Supreme".
[32] In 2018, O'Dea was reported to be living in Montecito, California, where he continued to work as a broker for legal marijuana entrepreneurs and his neighbors included Oprah Winfrey and Jeff Bridges.