About the memoir
Smuggling with Jesus
A true story of faith, risk, and improbable grace.
Hank Cooper
The double life of Hank Cooper
Smuggling with Jesus is the true story of a man raised in a traditional Jewish home in Toronto who walked away from safety — and into the shadows of international drug smuggling.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Hank Cooper lived a double life. Shaped by faith and expectation, he drifted toward a world of false names, tense border crossings, whispered deals, and risks that could have ended in prison — or worse.
“Don't move an inch,” his partner whispered. Hank was seconds away from running — and ending everything.
He remembers one moment with unsettling clarity: a customs officer and an Argentine cop walking directly toward them, the bag of cocaine between them. The officers were close enough that any sudden move would have sealed his fate.
Instead, fate turned on a breath. The bag was passed. Hugs were exchanged. The officers walked back toward the border crossing. And somehow, he was still free.
Time and again, survival came down to instinct, timing, and what felt like improbable grace.
Smuggling with Jesus is an unflinching memoir about temptation, fear, survival, and the cost of living on the edge. It is a story of how far a man can drift from his foundations — and whether he can ever truly find his way back.
The bag, the moment, the crossing
