Shaun Attwood

Shaun Attwood (born 28 October 1968) is a British former ecstasy trafficker turned YouTuber, speaker, activist and author.

Born in Widnes, Attwood became interested in the stock market at age 14, trading for the first time at the age of 16. After travelling to Arizona regularly to visit his aunts, Attwood moved there and became involved in the rave scene as an ecstasy smuggler and dealer. He was arrested in 2002, then released in 2007 and deported back to England. Following his release, Attwood became a speaker and author, chronicling his experiences in prison. Random House published his life story as the English Shaun Trilogy. Since his first book Hard Time was published in 2011, Attwood has authored books on his life and other topics.

Early life Shaun Attwood was born in Widnes, Lancashire (now Cheshire) on 28 October 1968, in a middle-class household, which he has described as "loving".

After watching several films mentioning stock markets, Attwood educated himself, with the help of his teacher in economics, on trading stocks by reading the Financial Times at fourteen. He regularly visited his aunts in Arizona where he became interested in living in the United States.

Ecstasy trafficker: 1997–2002 As Attwood began to organise larger parties with his money, he started bulk purchasing ecstasy in Los Angeles and distributing large amounts of it in Arizona. with Attwood buying pills from the Netherlands to bypass the traffickers in Los Angeles.

Allegedly, his main competitor in the ecstasy market was Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, a Mafia murderer and former underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano's crew members attempted to kill Attwood and many of Attwood's associates, which caused him to stop dealing and give up distributing, retreating to his then-girlfriend's apartment and living off money earned during his time distributing. Michael Franzese, ex-caporegime of the Colombo crime family, said that Attwood's Arizona ecstasy ring was in competition with Gravano's and that Franzese knew about both rings in the late 90s when they were both active. In 2021, National Geographic televised Narco Wars, season 2, episode 4, "How E Busted The Bull", which featured the Gravano ecstasy ring versus Attwood's ecstasy ring. Attwood estimated he smuggled up to £4 million of drugs into Arizona, including ecstasy, Xanax and ketamine.

After serving two years in Maricopa County Jail prior to sentencing, Attwood pleaded guilty for a sentence of nine and a half years, and served the balance of his sentence in the Arizona Department of Corrections. He is banned for life from entering the United States.

In 2004, from inside the maximum-security Madison Street jail, Attwood wrote about his experiences. These accounts were posted online as the first ever prison blog titled "Jon's Jail Journal" to preserve his anonymity; this began to draw international media attention to the conditions that prevailed under Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Post-incarceration life In 2007, Attwood was released and deported to the UK, where he started the first-ever prison YouTube channel under his name. He continues to maintain his blog, now under his own name, where he publishes letters and accounts sent to him by other prisoners.

Attwood now gives talks to schoolchildren and other groups about the negative consequences of drugs and crime, and advocates against Arpaio and his methods. Shaun has given several TEDx Talks on his experiences. The University of St. Gallen in Switzerland hosted his 3 December 2016 talk on what facing 200 years in prison taught him about happiness. which has 1,074,216 subscribers . He answers questions about what prison was like, interviews true-crime guests, and retells stories of what happened during his time in prison. Attwood has conducted several interviews and has written books on the case surrounding the underage sex trafficking ring around Jeffrey Epstein, and has interviewed Richard Dawkins, Robbie Williams, Ari Ben-Menashe and Chris Hansen. Attwood started his own Best Podcast Clips TikTok channel, which has over 1,200,000 subscribers .