From USC Football to Cartel Cocaine w/ "Cocaine Quarterback" Owen Hanson | The Hopeaholics Podcast #347

From USC Football to Cartel Cocaine w/ "Cocaine Quarterback" Owen Hanson | The Hopeaholics Podcast #347The "Cocaine Quarterback" Owen Hanson was a volleyball player at USC who wanted to get stronger and start again. That led him to smuggling steroids in from a vet in Tijuana. He walked onto the football team and began selling Adderall, Xanax, and cocaine to teammates. After the 2008 recession killed his real estate job, he became a bookie, landed a cartel lieutenant as a client, and lost $2.5 million of the cartel's money in an Australian casino. His plan to pay it back involved dissolving cocaine in Everclear and shipping it to Australia in Napa Valley wine bottles. In 2015, 15 FBI agents arrested him at a golf course in Carlsbad and he did nearly a decade on a RICO charge. Thats where he invented protein ice cream in a mop bucket, and had an Emmy-winning Amazon Prime documentary built around his life while he was still locked up.Chad and Natalie talk to him about how each thing escalated, what the meeting in Tijuana with the cartel actually looked like, what a decade in federal prison was really like, and what he's building now.#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarieJoin our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholicsBuy Merch: https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.comVisit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.comIf you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction. Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:https://www.infinitigroupllc.com Timestamps:0:00:00 - Cold open0:00:49 - Podcast intro0:01:19 - Owen Hanson, one year out of federal prison0:05:05 - Buying steroids from a vet in Tijuana 0:08:45 - The transformation: 185 to 240 pounds in six weeks0:10:27 - Making the USC football team / Pete Carroll era0:13:32 - Black market concierge0:15:30 - Grew up broke at a school full of money0:17:03 - Reggie Bush, and Matt Leinart0:19:33 - California Ice Protein taste test0:29:36 - Getting high on his own supply in college0:38:38 - 2008 recession kills the real estate job; becoming a bookie0:40:08 - Uncle Tony and the Italian bookmaker introduction0:44:27 - Going to Costa Rica, starting his own sports book0:45:11 - The cartel whale: $750K lost in three weeks, paid on Monday0:47:00 - The offer: $1 million a day to go to Australia0:47:51 - The laundering scheme collapses0:52:24 - The call from the New South Wales Police Department0:53:33 - Back in America, the cartel wants $3 million immediately0:57:11 - Figuring out how to move cocaine into Australia0:57:47 - The wine bottle method0:59:11 - Five years of FBI building the case1:00:02 - The arrest at Aviator Country Club in Carlsbad1:01:38 - RICO charges: distribution, money laundering, bookmaking1:02:28 - Sentencing day1:04:10 - Mark Wahlberg's team takes the story1:05:23 - The halfway house: Bureau of Prisons curfew and 20 months to build the brand1:05:42 - Coming out with nothing, the warehouse, the Murphy bed1:06:32 - Protein ice cream from mop buckets, sold for $15 a jar1:09:38 - "It's a second chance ice cream"1:11:46 - Federal vs. state prison: 85% time served, no early release1:13:49 - Getting sober in prison and eating clean1:15:26 - Coming out to Amazon Prime, Instagram, and Apple Pay1:23:18 - Living in the warehouse, the grind, proving people wrong1:24:55 - Why he never cooperated with the cartel1:27:25 - Little things you don't realize until they're taken from you