In Search Of Excellence - Owen Hanson: From Cocaine Kingpin to Prison Redemption | E190

Starting point is 00:00:00 We are adrenaline junkies, and we like to win, right? It all started with one bet. The scariest moment from being a cocaine kingpin to being a partner of the Sinaloa cartel is... Watching someone's neck get chopped off with a saw. Oof, you saw it with my own eyes. Show me you don't fuck with me. There's a flex. In prison, you don't break your word for anything.

Starting point is 00:00:18 You got your word in your balls and you don't break them for nobody, right? It's the same thing in prison. Every month, I would get bags of rock salt delivered to me. And I monopolized the Sall game. So now I had enough salt to make plenty of... batches of ice creams. And then I realized that everyone wanted them. I'm making an ice cream that cost me $1.50 and I'm selling for $15. It's the same kind of market by I was making in cocaine in Australia, right? But legally. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. My guest today is Owen Hansen,

Starting point is 00:01:00 a former USC walk-on football player who turned a Tijuana stirride run during a sophomore year and college into a multi-continent drug and gambling ring that moved tons of cocaine and service celebrities, pro athletes, and whales from the Sinaloa cartel, who ultimately ended up being his partner. caught, sentenced to 21 years in prison, served 10 of them. It was led out early after testifying against her crooked lawyer who had been one of his partners in crime. Owen's incredible story is the subject of the hit documentary, the cocaine quarterback, which was produced by none other than Mark Walburne. Owen, today is now a public speaker and entrepreneur. We're going to hear about his story of redemption throughout the show. Oh, and welcome to In Search of Excellence. Thanks for having me,

Starting point is 00:01:36 Andy. So one of the things that we talk about that makes people successful is the value of relationships and connections. The universe of Michigan, best school on the planet. has the largest alumni network in the world. USC is very big on the alumni network as well. How important is the value of connections in our success and how important is the value of connections when you get out of prison? I think connections is all about, you know, creating that Rolodex, right? And I remember I had an opportunity to go to the University of Hawaii on a full scholarship

Starting point is 00:02:07 or go to the University of Southern California on a partial. You look at both schools and, I mean, hands down, USC is known for networking. Once you graduate, it's a family for life. That's what made me decide to go to USC. And I remember the whole time I was there, I had back in the day, you know, we didn't save numbers in our phones, but I had this address book and I would write down anybody and everybody from fraternity brothers to ex-volleyball players to football players to track and field people. And I would utilize that Rolodex for many years to come. And whether it was a gambling customer, eventually a guy that helped me with transportation, which was. talk about creating that Rolodex is very important because you never know who and when you'll need someone. And like you said, prison is a prime example. I met some very high, high, powerful guys

Starting point is 00:02:56 in prison, one of the most famous guys in the Bitcoin world by the name of CZ, who was the owner Binance. Right. You know, and I met him and his prison consultant said, hey, would you look after him? And I said, sure. I said, what do you want me to do? He says, would you train him? And I got to trained CZ at Equinox when we were at the halfway house together. And it's like, you know, this is probably like the 50th richest man in the world. Right. I think he paid a $4.3 billion fine. Correct. And then he and Trump were no buddies. And then he got the pardon. Yeah. God bless him. Did you ever think about trying to get a pardon? We're working on it. We've had the coaches that obviously have been speaking to their teams and a lot of NFL players of Britain letters and

Starting point is 00:03:33 D.A. ex-agent, Steve Murphy basically said, hey, I endorse all on what he's doing. The packet's in. We have Bradford Cohen right now, who's Trump's attorney advocating for me, and we're hoping for the best. We talk about the qualities that make a successful work ethic, I think, of one of the biggest determinants of our success. The harder you work, the more successful you're going to be, I call it philo, first and last out. If you're the first and last out, wherever you are, you're going to be more successful than

Starting point is 00:03:58 anyone else. There's a direct correlation to that. How important is work ethic was it to you to becoming one of the biggest cocaine dealers in the United States on the scale of one to a thousand? A thousand, right? You have to be, in order to be the big, the big. biggest and have the most balls you got to start early. And I remember every morning, even when I was hung over, I was up at 4.30 in the morning. I was at the gym 5 a.m. right when they open in the cold

Starting point is 00:04:20 plunge, just like you and I spoke about, you know, cold plunge, workout, sauna, steam, shave, and start your day. And it all starts there for me. And then I'd go to bed at 10.30 at night. Sometimes I'd wake up at 3 in the morning answering encrypted phones in Australia, right? Because we're on a different time zone. But at the end of the day, if you want to be the best, you got to, you play like the best. And one time are you going to bed? You said you were using drugs, so I guess you're using Coke. Correct. Coke keeps you up at night.

Starting point is 00:04:45 So you're, at some point you've got to come down. Are you taking sleeping pills? Yeah, you're taking a Xanax. Terrible, terrible advice. But you're just trying to calm your nerves and get a couple hours of sleep and then do it all over again. Were you worried about dying of a drug overdose? I think it was going to happen eventually for sure. That's why I tell people, the prison saved my life.

Starting point is 00:05:03 Because eventually I would have kept using more and more because I was so stressed and nervous and anxiety would build up. And I'm sure, and eventually, once that fentanyl came in, I would have done a big line of cocaine in it or been cut with fentanyl, and it would be dead. And when you were in prison, a lot of drug addicts, I said one thing to go to rehab. There's no rehab.

Starting point is 00:05:20 Drugs are done. People have withdrawal syndrome. Were you kind of in there and kind of shaky? Because now there's no drugs. There's no cocaine. There's no Xanax? Yeah. First three months, they didn't know what to do with me because I was coming off.

Starting point is 00:05:31 And when you're coming off of Xanax, it can be deadly. And they're giving me like benzelprog or what is it? Benzadryl, right? Methadone as well? No, they couldn't give me it. They're very strict with the prison system. They don't want to give you any narcotics. So they're giving me like an antihistamine. We're like, what the fuck is going to do? I'm going to take it like five minutes. I'm like, it's not doing anything. So, you know, three months of just kicking the sheets, sweating, and finally after about month three, it's like, okay, you know, let's start getting into a routine and getting back into the workouts and going from there.

Starting point is 00:06:05 You were in a six by eight cell. Did you have a roommate? Right in that cell? Yeah, we call them a sally. Yeah, so we have a sally, and when that sally goes to, it's transferred to prison, you get a new sally. And you got good sallies and bad sallies. You have some guys with no manners. You got to remember there's a lot of trashy people that are coming in prison.

Starting point is 00:06:23 You sit down in your cell and you evaluate the situation, like, how are we going to get out of this one? Like, if you have a bad sally, you want to try to leave without making any kind of dispute, right? And I tell people in prison it's a dance, right? And I remember the first day I was in prison. My cellia was a Serenio, Mexican Yang member. And I remember he would get up and he went to go brush his teeth. So I hopped off my bunk bed and I went to go brush my teeth.

Starting point is 00:06:47 And he's like, what are you doing, man? He says, I go. You go. I take a shit. You come down and take a shit. He says, it's a dance. And I remember that. I was like, it's kind of like life, right?

Starting point is 00:06:57 And even in prison in the 6x8 cell, you're watching someone brush your teeth, but it makes you want to do it because you think it's time to get up. And he would finish brushing his teeth. he'd use the restroom, wash his face, he'd sit back in his bed, and he goes, okay, now it's your turn. And after that, I was good. I learned this system. When I went to prison at the penitentiary at Lompoc, my celly couldn't believe how trained I was because I got this advice from this guy at a young age. Loyalty is such a big component of our success. I think it's not really talked about that much. You've been loyal to El Hefe. You're never going to narc on him. You're free. You're safe.

Starting point is 00:07:34 Yep. you've got Robin Hood who narmed on you wasn't loyal to you. There's an old saying out there that revenge is a dish best served cold. So in this case, had you not been caught, would you have eventually knowing that he was trying to fuck you that bad, try to have him whacked? You know, there's a lot of speculation on that, right?

Starting point is 00:07:52 People ask that question, but at the end of the day, if I whack someone, how do I get my 2.5 million back? For me, I rather have him looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life thinking in his mind that I'm going to whack him because that's worse than die. You know, eventually, maybe he would, make right. Maybe he had conned somebody else and he hit a lick and, you know, made 10 million and paid me back my two and a half million. So the violence was never in my head to whack them. You could

Starting point is 00:08:15 chop off people's fingers. I want to do that, but I would definitely send some more flowers to his wife. More bouquets of roses, a whole room full. That's, that's, uh, I can just imagine her opening the door. It's like, you know, a hundred dozen. Truckload. Truckload. The of Whole Front Law and Hilbert Roses. I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do

Starting point is 00:08:41 to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google Lift and Seagate, and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than $15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey,

Starting point is 00:08:56 and at this stage in my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. And my own journey, learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs or excited to take action on their

Starting point is 00:09:14 journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions. And if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video. We talked about threatening people. And in the documentary, you've got these big sumo guys, right? How do you find known criminals who are massive in size to go to somebody's house and say, okay, you're not looking this up on Craigslist or Upwork or any of these things? Is this part of the network?

Starting point is 00:09:48 Hey, who do I know who can go fuck someone up and scare the shit out of them? So what you do is you look at your surroundings. I'm going to Vegas once a week. I'm meeting my VIP customers and we go to after hours, a place called Dre's. The roof there? Yep. So they had the roof, and then back in the day, they had an a after hours that was in a basement where it was like 4 a.m. on. But like Mike Tyson would go there, Parasilton, and all these famous people would go there.

Starting point is 00:10:14 A lot of hookers would be there too. Definitely hookers, right? But I noticed there was these. Not that I know. Never had never been there. I noticed there was a bunch of Samoan security guards and they were always like the security for like the who's who and that's coming to Vegas. And I studied him. And I noticed like I was watching one.

Starting point is 00:10:32 drinking cognac with with Coca-Cola and I'm like here I got your cognac and Coca-Cola and we started chopping it up he's like what do you do and I said I'm in the bookie business he's like if you ever need me for security or anything else just let me know any and I was like oh this is this is my guy I found out he lived in Carson which is you know 20 minutes from where I was living but he gets flown to Vegas every week to do security private security so I was like okay this is my guy and like I said I used that that Rolodex and eventually called him and I said hey, I have some gambling debts that I need to get covered. I need to get right. I said, guys owe me, you know, $90,000, $100,000. I said, what do we make agreement? If whatever we collect

Starting point is 00:11:13 when we're together, I'll give you half. She said, say no more. And I remember we went to Newport Beach and we basically sat down with this kid from Newport Beach and I told him, do not say a word because I don't want him thinking we're threatening him. I said, I just want you to look at him the whole time. And the guy is 6-6, probably 400 pounds with this goatee that has the shape of a W for the west side because he was a west side Buyah tribe gang member. Tatted back, head to toe. And he's from this famous rap group called the Buyah Tribe.

Starting point is 00:11:46 It's a blood gang. And he literally just sat there like this the whole time. And he gave him this pit bull look. And the whole time the guy's just shaking. And I'm talking about it. I'm like, I don't want to have to do this again. You owe me $90,000. Every time I bring him, it's costing me money.

Starting point is 00:11:59 And I said, do you want this guy to be looking at you right now in front of all these people in Newport Beach? How do you like this? Oh, what do I got to do? I said, you've got to call your mother right now and you've got to figure out a way to get some money because we're not leaving here until we have some money. So he called his mom and he's like, Mom, I need to pay some gambling debts. Please transfer me some money.

Starting point is 00:12:15 So we went to Bank of America and we're waiting in the car. He was literally sitting out there in the car. I'm like, oh man, I hope he's not calling the cops. But like at the end of the day, we didn't threaten him. He came out with $99, because that's the limit. You can pull out without having a, you know, a CCR written here. So he came out. He handed me the envelope.

Starting point is 00:12:33 He says, we can do this again next week. And we did it for nine weeks in a row. And he paid me back the money. And every time we went, Cobra got paid. Yeah. And it's just business. Trust me, I don't like doing it because it's costing me 50%. When I pay customers, what do I do?

Starting point is 00:12:48 I pay them in full. I don't give them half. But that's just part of the business. You write off that there's like a bad loan with the bank. You write it off. The guys never win. Right? At the end of the day, it's free money anyways. When things go bad for us and we're really down, we think about, gosh, you know, my life is over.

Starting point is 00:13:03 You had that experience too. And you mentioned you contemplated suicide when you were in jail. How close were you to actually committing suicide? And when that happens, are you talking to your dad? You have a certain phone call every month? Or are you just kind of keeping it inside the whole time? For me, I kept it inside. It's not like I'm going to tell my dad, hey, I think I'm going to kill myself, right? If I said that on the phone, they'd probably take me to, you know, solve. military confinement and take my clothes off and take my sheets and you know I'd be like in a psych so every time I would I would can even I considered it one day the day I got sentenced to 21 years and three months and the next day when I woke up I had a lawyer visit and when that lawyer

Starting point is 00:13:45 came and said man tough luck and he left that that that that legal meeting we have and he says on, 21 and a half years, but remember, you never know what could happen. And when he said that, I said, what do you mean by that? He said, remember, you had a corrupt attorney. You never know what could happen. And he left. And the whole time, I'm like, okay, what did he mean by that? He knew something that the prosecution must have told him that there was a possibility that this corrupt attorney I had was going to take it to trial. Or you told him there's a corrupt attorney, and he's going to use that as levers to try to get you out. Let's make a trade. So the whole time I'm in prison, I'm thinking, okay, well, I have hope.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Ten years? Every day you wake up. I was thinking I have hope. And then I would think about my father, you know, in the courtroom, my best friend, and saying, we don't cry and telling me when he came to visit me after I got sentenced, he says, if you're going to cry, cry in the shower. And I was like, okay, pops. And, you know, I just kept strong for them.

Starting point is 00:14:50 I was like, I got to do it for them. I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google Lift and Seagate, and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than $15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey, and at this stage of my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did.

Starting point is 00:15:23 In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions. And if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video.

Starting point is 00:15:52 I talked to Matt Mosco the other day. one of your teammates and very close friends. And he was telling me that you're the kind of guy that everybody knew would be successful no matter what you did. It turns out that you chose the wrong career at the beginning as opposed to the right career. Tell us about the entrepreneurial venture you had,

Starting point is 00:16:10 which led to the amazing new company you have. And talk about, I want to talk about the mop experience, and then I want to talk about how you basically took a monopoly on the salt trade in prison. Yeah. So I think what I've learned about life is you get really creative when you got your back against the wall and you have nothing, right? And I was at rock bottom. Like I said, I got my MBA.

Starting point is 00:16:34 I'm like, okay, I'm a convicted felon. What the hell am I going to do now? Like, I'm going to get out of prison and I'm not going to be able to get a job. It happened by accident, but then once I actually started to realize there was a market for it inside prison, I was like, okay, we're on to something. And what happened was I would work out every day. It was my, it was like my, my mental yoga. It was the only way I could get through my prison bid. Morning I'd wake out, work out, and at night I'd work out.

Starting point is 00:17:03 And every day I would eat seven mackerel. For people that don't know, mackerel is what you used to catch fish. It's bait, right? And that was the cheapest thing on the menu, and you could get the most of it. It was a dog. You had to pay for it? Yeah. But what kind of food are they giving you for free every day?

Starting point is 00:17:17 Crap. Liver burgers on Wednesdays, which is 90% liver, 10% beef, chicken on the bone, which says not for human consumption, for prisoners and military only. Yeah, fish patties, that's basically blended up with the fish bone, and then they dip it in bread, and it's just unadible. There's like, there's no point of even eating it. But you're allowed to spend $320 a month on commissary. Everyone has the same limit. And you can buy a mackerel for a dollar. And so I would eat seven mackerel a day. It cost me $7. But I was getting you know, 140 grams of protein and just eating fish.

Starting point is 00:17:51 But eventually you get so tired of eating fish. It gets old. And they started to bring this protein shake on the menu of the commissary, but they would only let you buy seven a day, or seven a week, excuse me. I remember we started taking them. We'd take empty peanut butter jars and we throw some non-fat milk that we got from the chow hall. We got bags of milk, one bag of milk a day.

Starting point is 00:18:12 So I'd smuggle it back to my room and I put it in my peanut butter jar, and I put the protein powder in there. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we got bananas. So I'd smuggle those back, and I'd slice up the bananas, and I'd throw them in my shake. And then I would take some of the peanut butter from the commissary. We'd get one jar of peanut butter a month, and I'd take some, and I'd heat it up with hot water, and I'd get it nice and runny, and I'd drip it in my protein shake. I'd shake it up.

Starting point is 00:18:36 And then in prison, we don't have refrigeration. So there's no refrigerators, obviously. So we'd use mop buckets, and we put a clean trash bag in there, and we'd throw ice inside the mop bucket, and we'd put our protein shakes in there. Some guys would put their soda pops. I would put my macro on there so it was cold. And I remember my cellie says,

Starting point is 00:18:54 hey, Owen, we got a problem. Every morning, his job was to go get ice from the ice machine and fill up our mop bucket. You know, that was his duty. I said, what's the problem, Sally? He says, the ice machine's broken. And they're like, fuck, Sally, what are we going to do? We had like two inches of ice left in the mop bucket.

Starting point is 00:19:08 I said, I got to have my protein shake. He said, Sally, don't worry. We're going to throw some salt on the ice. and by the time you come back from your workout, it will still be cold because salt and ice will make it colder. I was like, oh, okay, whatever, never heard of it. I work out with my crew. I come back and I grab my protein shake and it's rock hard. I said, Sally, it's frozen, man.

Starting point is 00:19:32 He's like, who who the fuck cares? Eat it? And he gives me a spoon. And I start eating it. I'm like, Sally, this is like protein ice cream. And the bell went off in my head, right? The light. It was like, ding, ding, ding.

Starting point is 00:19:44 Okay, there's something good about this. And I was like, fuck, I don't have to have protein shakes every day. I have now a dessert, right? I said, you know what? Let's try this again. So you're only allowed to buy like a two-ounce salt shaker every time you go to commissary, which is not enough, right? You need enough salt.

Starting point is 00:20:03 So I was like, you know, let's do this at scale. I said, let's ask the facility guys, there's an orderly. There's one orderly that handles the whole facility as far as anything from fertilizer to I was at a prison in Colorado where they give you rock salt. And rock salt's used to put on the sidewalks to melt the ice so people don't slip. So it's like, okay, we need this rock salt at volume because I want to scale this business. So we went to the orderly. He was a Hispanic kid.

Starting point is 00:20:32 And I went to him and I said, hey, I got an offer you can't refuse. Again, man. You're a salesperson. He says, what do you got for me? I said, I'm going to give you $80 a month. Remember, his salary was probably $20 a month just working as an orderly. He said, I'm going to give you $80 a month. And I said, I'm going to give you ice cream every week.

Starting point is 00:20:49 I said, but you need to give me all the rock salt. I said, I don't want you selling it to anybody. Everything asks to come to me. I said, if anyone asks, you send them to me. I'm making a contract with you right now. In prison, you don't break your word for anything, right? It's like the scarf is where they say, we don't break, what is they say? So you got your word in your balls and you don't break them for nobody, right?

Starting point is 00:21:08 It's the same thing in prison. That's like very, very common. And you shake his hand and that's it. Every month I would get bags of rock salt delivered to me. And people would go to them and offer money. And he says, no, go to Weddow, go to Owen. And these guys would come to me and be like, listen, what do you need the rocksill for? Oh, we want to make ice cream.

Starting point is 00:21:27 I said, no problem. I said, I sell ice cream. It's $15 peanut butter jar. Right? And they're like, no, no, no, we want to make her own. No problem. So what do I do? I give them one peanut butter jar of rock salt.

Starting point is 00:21:37 Why one peanut butter jar? Because that only makes one ice cream. that. So now they can make their own ice cream or they could buy my ice cream. So either way, I'm winning. And that's what I started to do. And I monopolized the salt game. So now I had enough salt to make plenty of batches of ice cream. So it started small. One mop bucket made seven ice creams at $15 a piece. And then I realized that everyone wanted them. I had all the workout people saying, hey, can I get the protein ice cream? I said, yeah, I got you. And then I took my neighbors and I went to them and I gave them an offer. They couldn't refuse. I said, I'm going to make you a dollar for

Starting point is 00:22:10 Every ice cream you make me. I don't care how many moth buckets you have. You got to remember, Randy, I'm making an ice cream that costs me $1.50, and I'm selling $15. It's the same kind of market bite was making cocaine in Australia, right? But legally. And I'm telling people, you're making $1 an ice cream. Some guys are making $14 ice creams a day.

Starting point is 00:22:27 That's $14. That's unheard of it in prison. And so now I have the whole block making ice cream. I'll never forget this. I made 50 ice cream throughout my neighbors at $15 a piece, right? I think that comes up to $750. They said that day on you made more money than both the guards working in the unit, prison guards.

Starting point is 00:22:47 And I was like, that's just the entrepreneur. That's the hustle. I started to enjoy it because I started like getting orders with units like, you know, across the way and I'd have guys that would deliver the ice cream. It started to become a business. We called it back then Kingpin Creamery because I was a Kingpin and it was a Creamery, right? So I had these guys that would, for a dollar, they would engrave Kingpin creamery on our peanut butter jars.

Starting point is 00:23:08 and it was so nicely done. So when you get your ice cream, it just says, Kingpin Creamery. And I told them they return it, they get a credit of 50 cents. And 50 cents is one stamp. It gets you a soda pop.

Starting point is 00:23:19 So they would return their jars and I'd give them a stamp and they'd go buy a soda. And that's how I kept the business gone. Prison is difficult for a lot of people and it's hard to recover. Operation Varsely Blues are a lot of white-collar people who did bad things,

Starting point is 00:23:32 bribing schools. So their kids could get into schools, making up shit, like they're on the volleyball team, for example, fencing team. growing team. There's someone I know who I won't name who during COVID, I think, had to go to solitary confinement and sit in there 23 hours a day in darkness. I was with him. No, no window. And he came

Starting point is 00:23:52 out and he wasn't right. And he still is not right. I think he was in Lompop. Okay. Yeah. I'm not going to say his name. Yeah, I'm not going to say his name either. Yeah, I was there during the time. And that's just hard to recover from. And I know he is PTSD. I see him. I won't even say where I see him. But I see him regularly, and he's with his family, and he takes time by himself, usually on a daily. I'm not even going to say what it is, because, again, I just don't want people to try to figure out who he is. But he's never going to be right, no matter how much therapy he has. You have PTSD as well when you hear kind of certain sounds, a key jingling or shoes. Speaking of the shoes.

Starting point is 00:24:33 So how much does PTSD factor into your life today, and do you think you're ever going to get over that? I mean, I think there's going to be that piece of me that always has it. I still wake up to this day in hot sweats when I hear the keys, right? I like, you're just like a nightmare because that's what you, you wake up to for half an hour every day for the whole time I was in prison from 930 when they put us down for count all the way until 6 in the morning. At every half an hour, you have your keys because they're opening the gates and they're taking flashlights and they're sticking it in your eyes to make sure you're breathing for for nine and a half years while I was incarcerated, right? Yeah. And so anytime I see a light, anytime I hear keys, or like I said, squeaking in the shoes, I feel like there's a riot going on. And, you know, I hope it gets better. But, you know, I've learned to cope with it. In the beginning, it was a lot worse. And I'd love to talk to your friend and tell them, listen, it's going to get better. It just takes time. And there's, there's things we can do to make it better. But no, I agree with you. It's going to be there, like you said, probably forever. When you were sentenced to 21 years, a little over 21 years, your lawyer, you mentioned that, hey, there's a crooked lawyer on the other side, and you had a lottery ticket to get out of jail possibly at some point. Tell us about what the Rule 35, Stitch Rule is, and how that works. You can call it whatever you want, but guess when I'm here, baby, right? There's certain people that look at it like this.

Starting point is 00:26:03 It's a lawyer for me is someone that's supposed to defend you, right? It's like an officer of the court, right? And he's supposed to protect you and serve you, right? And it's just kind of like a police officer. If there's a police officer under case and he's corrupt, guess what I feel like the same thing should happen to him. And for me, when they gave me the option to cooperate against my corrupt attorney, someone that I feel that one of the factors that I got put in prison was because he made me go disclose something that wasn't true. and he gave me bad legal advice.

Starting point is 00:26:35 So in betting, we call it when you lose a bet, it's called a get back where you get to go make another bet to try to get your money back, right? And I tell people, anyone in the gambling knows this was my get back. And this guy thought I was going to rot in prison and do 21 years and just keep my mouth shut. And he was just going to sail away on the sunset with all this money, he took in mind. So when that day came, and, you know, I didn't know, right? I got that knock on the door and the U.S. Marshals were there. to pick me up and they didn't tell me what was going on they said hey we're taking you right now you're getting extradited and i was like for what you're going to australia i said i needed to call my

Starting point is 00:27:12 attorney they're like you can't call him and i remember we got to the lax airport and there's three guys in suits and those three guys are ozies and they're like may we can't tell you what's going on he says you're going on the plane when we get to australia you can call your attorney and the whole time i was stressing randy i was like oh my god what's going on am i like Am I going to go do a life sentence in Australia? And I didn't know, right? And my lawyer didn't give me any kind of heads up. And I got to Australia and I get on that phone.

Starting point is 00:27:44 I go, I said, Mr. Adams, you know what the hell's going on? They got me in Australia right now. He goes, remember what I told you about six years ago? I said, yeah? He says, you just won the lottery in life. I said, really? He says, yeah, that corrupt attorney you had is taken it to trial. and you're going to be their star witness.

Starting point is 00:28:03 And I said, fucking let's run it, right? And I remember it was right when COVID happened. Randy, I was just like, oh, man, COVID's happening in the world, shut down. And the judge is talking about,

Starting point is 00:28:14 you know, the prosecution and the attorney for this corrupt attorneys trying to get it, you know, like, hey, we got to shut down the courts. It's COVID.

Starting point is 00:28:24 Let's send them back. And I'm like, do not send me back. I'm here. We're going to go. Like, whatever. I'm not. humming back, all right, guys? I can't just go back to a U.S. prison. They're going to ask what

Starting point is 00:28:35 happened, and then I'm going to get sent back. It's going to look bad. And the prosecution says, we've been waiting for this guy for years. I said, they said, we're not allowing him to leave until we go to trial. And the judge, thankfully, said, you know what, this is my last trial until this COVID's over, and we're going to trial. And I was the only guy in the courts during this COVID. And they put me on the stand, and I said, the lawyer gave me this legal advice. He knew it was dirty money.

Starting point is 00:29:04 He wanted me to tell you guys this fake story so he could gain 50% of the proceeds. The Zizi Top Fleet with Max Story. Yeah, the Zee Top Fleet with Max Story. And I told him, I said, listen, it was orchestrated by him. We had the manager of Zizi Top, who you guys have already heard.

Starting point is 00:29:21 He testified saying it was all made up. And I'm here to tell you, yes, it was made up. You know, I told him I didn't want to go speak to the police in Beverly Hills, but he insisted it wasn't a U.S. matter. And I took his legal advice. And two days later, he was found guilty. And then that judge wrote a lot of recommendation to Judge Hayes. And then how long was it after that that you felt like eternity? Because you knew it was coming?

Starting point is 00:29:45 No, you don't know it's coming. Because the government is the only one that's allowed to move on this motion, a Rule 35. us as the defendant, we can't go to the judge and say, hey, look at what he did. The government has to make the move. Yeah. And my lawyer speaking to the government, and the guy that prosecuted me, Andrew Young, had already left.

Starting point is 00:30:05 He left to become basically a defense attorney. And he said, you know what? I'm going to recommend the most time off for what Hanson did because that took some balls for him to go over there and basically do what he did. And finally, after COVID was finally over, like around 20, 23, the court started reopened. I got a legal call from my lawyer, and he says, hey, Owen, we have our letter of recommendation from prosecution in the judge in Australia. Andrew Young recommended your old prosecutor recommended the most time off. We're going to go see Judge Hayes.

Starting point is 00:30:42 He says, wish me luck. And I remember the next day he came back and he called me. He said, Judge, Judge asked about the letter. We gave him the letter. Judge Hayes also asked about your prison conduct and what you're doing. And he then presented him my master's degree, and I had graduated in honors. And the judge looked at it. And then he said, Mr. Hansen's also been teaching GED.

Starting point is 00:31:05 And he's looking at it. He said, Mr. Hansen's also been sewing gloves for the U.S. military because I was a sewer in prison. And Judge Hayes says, man, I can't argue with this. I'm going to recommend the most time off. I'm going to take an eight and a half years off of a session. I was like, wow, this is life-changing, right? I won the lottery in life. And I was like, wow.

Starting point is 00:31:23 I said, so what now? He says, President Trump just passed the first step back. He says, you're going to get two years, halfway house. He says, you're going to get one and a half years good time. And he says, it looks like you earn another year off due to that master's degree. I'm like, okay, so when am I coming out? He says, you're coming out in March of 2024. And he says, we'll put you in the halfway house for 18, 20 months.

Starting point is 00:31:42 And here we are today. How much time did you have to wait before you knew the news? you're going to get out between March? About seven months. Oh, it's still a long time. Yeah, it was a long time. I mean, just counting down the days. And you're like, anything can go wrong.

Starting point is 00:31:56 Right, right. A riot could happen. I get put in the shoe, and then they lose my good time. And they say, you're not getting your halfway house. So it's like you're walking on pins and needles the whole time. When you're on that plane, it's an 18-hour flight to Australia. Yeah. And I'm sure there's no non-stop from Lompocke.

Starting point is 00:32:11 I think you were in your third prison at that point in time. Yeah. And so are you on a cargo plane, like one of the C-Rour plane? I wanted to see government planes, and are you chained the whole time where you can't move around? No, on the flight there, I was with Qantas Airlines. Okay. So you're in the back of the plane? Back of the plane.

Starting point is 00:32:26 Handcuffs. They take you handcuffs, but thankfully the captain of the plane came and said, Mr. Hansen, how you can behave? I said, of course, I'm going to behave. And he says, well, we don't allow handcuffs on our flight. I said, no problem. I said, but captain, I think you can send me something from first class? It's been a while. And he looked at me, he smirked, right?

Starting point is 00:32:44 He says, I'll see what I can do. Right. I've told this story before. Literally like seven hours in the flight, he brings me a cheese platter. And I was like, oh, this dude hooked me up, right? You got to remember, I've been eating mackerel. Yeah. And he brings that cheese platter. I said, oh, thanks, Captain.

Starting point is 00:33:01 I looked at the two Australian authorities. I said, guys, is there any way I can get a glass of wine with the cheese? I was like, I was going to try. And they looked at me, they're like, absolutely not. Right? I was like, how about a cappuccino, right? And they're like, we'll let you have a cappuccino. Right?

Starting point is 00:33:19 I haven't had a cappuccino for seven years at this point. And so they brought me the cappuccino and just wasn't the same, right? I was eating the cheese and the cappuccino. But watching Netflix and stuff I've never seen, right? This all became very popular. And I'm watching on the plane my own. I stayed up the whole flight. These guys are sleeping and I'm watching.

Starting point is 00:33:38 Going back to looking after yourself, the federal government, typically doesn't give immunity for testifying against someone unless that person has done something wrong. Yeah, I mean, that's why he was in trial, right? Right. And so there's someone close to my soon-to-be ex-wife who was involved in something. He's an athlete where a teammate died, and he got immunity for testifying against that person. Do you think people like that should be loyal and not an arc on somebody else? And should people like that go to prison?

Starting point is 00:34:09 Yeah, the guy that got that 22-year sentence? I actually know the guy. You know, I was with him in federal prison. The situation was bad. The poor guy was, you know, suicidal about this. And he took it to trial. And his lawyer told him, you know, we got this beat. And one of these athletes came and testified against him. And I don't think that's right because it's not like this, this equipment manager or whatever he was.

Starting point is 00:34:34 So this organization was making these, these players, these athletes take this drug. Right. And at the end of the day, we're all grown men. And we can decide what we want to take. And these guys are all using it and, you know, couple athletes, this equipment manager. And one guy takes it and he lives. Another guy takes it. And he lives and another guy takes it and he dies.

Starting point is 00:34:56 And, you know, he gets charged for murder. I think there's a certain type of cooperation that is fair game, like a corrupt attorney, a crooked cop. but when you're when you're dealing with someone that is partaking in in this illegal activity, I don't think that's, that's right. Someone who reportedly, and this is investigated by every reporter was a big story, the person who narked to save himself contributed to the person that died. And this is not me saying this. This is in the public domain.

Starting point is 00:35:29 Public record. And I don't believe that's right at all. I think that's a big no-no. And I think anybody in life would agree. Switching subject for a second, you go to the halfway house and you're on parole officially. Is that what it's called? Yeah. And are you wearing an ankle bracelet?

Starting point is 00:35:46 People are kind of worried you're going to bail? No, I mean, where am I going to bail out? All right? I'm out, right? So why would I bail? Because I would just go back to prison. So they give you a curfew. My curfew was from six to six.

Starting point is 00:35:57 I could leave at six in the morning and I had to be back at 6 p.m. In the first like five months, I was taking the bus. I was literally taking the bus to the gym. And then from the gym, I'd go to the office. office, and then from the office I'd go to where we started manufacturing the protein ice cream. And it was difficult because, you know, bus schedule is a lot different than driving a car. So you had to, you know, map out everything and everything took, you know, two hours longer. It was a different way of wiggling, as I call it.

Starting point is 00:36:24 The documentary, the cocaine quarterback is absolutely fascinating. I recommend it to anybody who likes stories of redemption. And, you know, your story today is just truly incredible. One of the best craziest ones I've ever heard. How did you get Mark Wahlberg involved in this to produce the movie? And for those people who don't remember, Mark Wahlberg, who, by the way, is an incredibly nice guy, great businessman, great family person. I managed to spend a little bit of time with him up in Cortland, Idaho, and he's just all about family. Family, the Lord, right? He's great.

Starting point is 00:36:56 You know, I had a producer, Van, my buddy came, he visited me from Colorado. This is a Canadian producer? Sorry, yeah, he visited me from Canada. he was referred from this girl that used to be a VIP bottle service girl in Hollywood, right? And I used to be... Captain Toddler there when you were hitting the club with Matt Liner? She reached out and says, hey, your story's awesome. She said, have you ever thought about doing anything?

Starting point is 00:37:20 I'm in prison 21 years. Yeah. Sure, whatever. Let anybody come do whatever they want. So she goes, I got a producer from Canada. His name is Van. I said, we'll bring him. So I got him on my visiting list.

Starting point is 00:37:30 And he came to visit me in my first prison at the United States Penitentiary of Blompoc. And he came and he says, man, I won. I read your article on Rolling Stones. I read the Bice. He says, you got an incredible story. He says, can I pitch it? Will you let me pitch it? Can I manage your life rights while you're incarcerated? I said, do whatever you want, man. I got 21 years. He says, I want to, this is what I want to do. I want to get a movie deal for you. I want to get a book deal for you while you're in prison. I'm like, go for it. He says, who would you want to do a movie if you could have anyone in a Hollywood? I said, Mark Wahlberg. He's an athlete. He loves golf. I'm left hand just like him. He believes

Starting point is 00:38:04 in God like me. And people forget when he was 16 years old, he actually served time in prison. He's a felon. Former felon. Former felon. And I said, that's the guy. And he's like, all right, that's who I'm going to try first. And he went to Mark Wahlberg's documentary company called Unrealistic Ideas. Archie and Dave were the head of the show there. And he gave him this pitch deck and they're like, wow, we want this story. And at the same time, I started writing the book, the California kit. And that just became like the Bible of my story. Eventually, they came in 2020. And they said, hey, we're going to start producing this thing. We're going to need to start interviewing you from prison.

Starting point is 00:38:39 And they started literally 15 minutes a day because that's all you get in prison, a 15-minute phone call. For nine months, I spoke to the director for nine months straight and just told them the story from the prison phone. And they just built this thing. And then they started going to get, you know, the collectors, the FBI informants, the coaches, the DEA, the FBI. And they started to put this thing together.

Starting point is 00:39:00 But they're not filming in prison. Well, they take the phone calls. And then at the end, they got me in my khakis. Right. But did they put your khakis when you're not in prison anymore to make it look like you're in prison? Yeah, because you're not allowed to just, yeah. You can't, you can't do that, yeah. Right.

Starting point is 00:39:14 My job is asked the tough questions. So here comes a doozy hill of question. All right. The story of redemption is a great story. Everyone loves it. And there are people out there who think, all right, criminals should not profit from their crime. In this case, you're a drug kingpin. You're bringing in thousands of kilos of cocaine that no doubt ruin lives.

Starting point is 00:39:33 bankrupted people and probably led to a lot of deaths. Should you be profiting from your story today? I'm not profiting. I haven't made a dollar. I've never made one dollar off the documentary. It's not allowed. That was part of the agreement. When you're incarcerated, no money's allowed. I get out of prison. Now if they want to buy my life rights now that I'm out of prison and I've served my time, I feel that's fair game. But yeah, I haven't made a dollar from the documentary. I love the story of redemption. You're on the speaking circuit right now and I want to tell everybody that you're willing to speak for free because you do want to prevent people from going down the path that you went down through greed, through excitement of winning.

Starting point is 00:40:11 Betting is addictive. And you want to help people now. And who do you want to speak to and tell everyone that you are willing to speak for free? Because you're now want to give back to the community. Yeah, I like to speak to the athletes because I was an athlete. And as an athlete, we have, I tell people, we are adrenaline junkies. And we like to win, right? And I wanted to win so bad, I took it to the next level.

Starting point is 00:40:34 Any college program out there, I don't care if it's D3 to USC or Michigan, right? Go blue. Basketball, baseball, anybody that can gamble on their sport, I want to speak to because it all started with one bet. Right. Have you thought about expanding it to crime-ridden neighborhoods where greed does take over, where drug dealing is a thing, where a lot of kids in school are taking, drugs and for a lot of people in these really hard hit communities, like Compton, for example, where there are a lot of gangs, where kids have a choice to say, okay, you know, can I join the gang to make money and to be safe? Because greed is behind it, right? Make money. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:16 Cars, jewelry. The first interview I ever did was to the Boyle Heights, Inner City, Pop Warner football team from ages of six all the way to 16. And you see it in the documentary at the end when I'm talking to the program. And I'm just telling them, Like, you know, a lot of these kids' fathers are in prison. And so they've grown up without a father. And I let them know, like, do you want to be like your dad that was, you know, gone your whole childhood? Do you want to, you know, do what I did? And I explained to him, I said, I was in a six by eight cell.

Starting point is 00:41:48 I said, to make you guys understand what that is like, I said, go in your parents' bathroom, shut the door and just sleep in there for nine years. How would you like that? When your brother's taking a poop, you're laying right next to the toilet and you're smelling your brother's poop. And I'm these kids, they're like, are you serious? I'm like, yeah, that's how it is. And, you know, I just want to bring that awareness to them so they don't go down that path. We're at the end of our show, and I always conclude my podcast with a game I call Phil in the Blink to Excellence, are you ready to play? Sure. The biggest lesson I learned from becoming a cocaine kingpin and partner of the Sinolaa cartel to where I am today and getting

Starting point is 00:42:24 caught in my story of redemption is believe in yourself. The scariest moment in my life. from being a cocaine kingpin to being a partner of the Sinaloa cartel is? Crossing the border thinking I was going to be killed. The craziest story I have from becoming a cocaine kingpin to becoming a partner of the Sinaloa cartel is? Watching someone's neck get chopped off with a saw. Can you explain that a little bit? Someone shorted El Hefe, a hundred kilos of some bad work. and he told the guy that that shorted him,

Starting point is 00:43:01 he says, whoever gave this to you, you either go get him and bring him back here and take care of it, or you're going to have the issue. And they went and brought the guy from Guatemala, and they brought him back to Mexico. And he made him chop off his head with a chainsaw. You saw it? So with my own eyes.

Starting point is 00:43:15 And why did Al Huffet make you see it? Was it a warning to you? Just to show him, show me, you don't fuck with me. It was a flex. Insane. Yeah, insane. PTSD. My number one professional goal is,

Starting point is 00:43:27 to have an exit with a B. at the end. Do you have a number in mind? We all have, what I like to say when we're growing up is how much money do I need to be financially comfortable? And there's a term out there, which I'm sure you know, which is called fuck you money. Of course. So what's your fucky money where he said, I've made it and I'm good from now? I think a billion. That's good for me. A billion? Yeah, I think I've made millions and I want to make billions now. But my thing is if I could show the world, like, you know, people, you know, oh, he's a kingpin, a drug dealer, fuck him. He didn't. You it illegally. Well, let's do it legally and then we'll say, fuck you, right? And that's,

Starting point is 00:44:03 that's my goal. If you made a billion dollars, how much of that billion dollars would you give back to helping others and give it to charity? Because what am I going to do with Adol? Well, what are you going to do with the other half? You can't spend $500 million. We can give to hopefully some children that I make, some, some my family numbers, my sister, friends and loved ones that were there for me when I was at my lowest point. You find out who your friends are when things are down, right? I was part of a company that went from a $35 billion valuation to $445 a share to $49 a share. Under $135 billion to under $100 million.

Starting point is 00:44:38 I think we had a $50 million market cap at some point. Everyone loves you when you're a winner. No one wants to talk to you when you're part of a shit company. And it's kind of the same thing. I've had friends that have gone to prison. And really they appreciate you staying in touch with them because that's what a true friend is. Yeah. I tell people you can count your true friends on one hand.

Starting point is 00:44:57 And that's how it was in prison. And a couple of those people are your family members, right? The biggest regret I have in my life is crossing the line into the drug world. The best advice I've ever received is... Trust nobody. That's a hard one to live with going forward in life. Because at the end of the day, you have to be vulnerable. You're going to get married.

Starting point is 00:45:17 You want kids. You're going to have to somehow let people in at some point. I think it may be business, right? Maybe business it would be. Because I think at the end of the day, you need to believe in yourself before you believe anyone else. Ten years from now, I'm going to be... An ice cream kingpin.

Starting point is 00:45:33 If you could pick one trait that would make somebody successful, it would be... Be resilient. The one thing I've dreamed about doing it for a long time, but haven't, is... Flying to Fiji again. If I could invent one thing in the world, it would be... That's a... I'm not going to pass on that one. I can't think of that one. If you could go back in time and give your 21-year-old self, one piece of advice, it would be... Be yourself, because that's where it all started.

Starting point is 00:45:57 It was me trying to fit in with these kids from USC, trying to be like them. Somebody I wasn't. Be secure in your own body and don't keep up with the Joneses. Exactly. If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be? Donald Trump. Well, that leads into my next question. If you were president of the United States today, the first thing I would do is...

Starting point is 00:46:14 Distribute ice cream, protein ice cream throughout the world. The one part of my story that I've never told is... About my wife at the time. I specifically did not bring her up in this interview because... We talked about it was something that you really don't want to talk about. She's out there. She's close to you. You still have a relationship with her, and you don't want her involved in your story.

Starting point is 00:46:35 Correct. Until she's ready to come forward. Okay. Is there anything generically that you want to say about having a partner in crime? Although I'll say that differently. She wasn't a partner in crime because in the documentary. But the government thought she was. Let's put it that way.

Starting point is 00:46:51 Okay. Just due to her background. The story there is you want to keep a loved one out of it. And she really didn't know what you were doing? At some point she did. I think everyone turns a blind eye, right? They love you and there's nothing. Yeah, accepting, you know, who you are.

Starting point is 00:47:03 At the end of the day, she rode with me the entire time I was in prison. Yeah. She was my best friend. For this one, I want you to look into the camera. And I think, you know, my question is the one thing I want to say to everybody today is Never give up in life. Let's fucking go. The one question you wish I had asked you today is?

Starting point is 00:47:20 I don't know. You have some tough questions. Are you going to get married again? For sure. 100%. I like the Institute. of marriage. And for those people who don't know who are listening, I'm recently single. I've been out there now for three months on the dating apps. So I don't know. You can find me

Starting point is 00:47:40 on Instagram. I have a public Instagram at Randall Kaplan. I'm kind of advertising my single status. Last time I did this, I got in trouble. But, you know, there's no one in the picture right now. So it's out there. It's really pleasure to meet you. We have a lot of mutual friends. Everyone loves you. I'm so happy for you and your future and the story of redemptions. Just great. So I'm wishing you the best of luck, last of success, and looking forward to hanging with you. Thanks, Randy. Nice meeting you. Appreciate you. Holy shit, man. This preparation you've done about my story, you've done your homework. And it's some of the best I've seen. I've had a lot of interviews, obviously, with some very

Starting point is 00:48:18 famous people. And I would say this is one of the, if not the top number one interview with what you knew about, you know, my background. Most people don't prepare like you have. I seem to wonder, like, who have you been talking to get some of these questions that you got and the answers that you have in stories that some people don't even know about through my book or the documentary? It's very impressive. Thank you. I appreciate that. It makes it very easy for me to speak with someone that already knows my story because it feels like you and I've been hanging out for 10 years. And when you prepare like that, it just, the conversation flows so much better.

Starting point is 00:48:50 It's part of my podcast. This is how I prepare for any meeting. I always want the first question to be an extreme preparation torpedo. which shows the research and shows that I've done the homework. So how important is showing people that you've done the homework in a podcast or a meeting to how it impacts the future of whatever we're going to talk about? I think it's the most important thing in any kind of business. I go into business meetings, you know, whether it was my past when I had to go into this business

Starting point is 00:49:20 meeting with the cartel and knowing the situation, or now I go into these business meetings with buyers that distribute the ice cream throughout the United States and you know you do your homework you realize who do they distribute for what products do they carry do they have a protein product and when you go into those meanings they're blown away that you you know about them and it kind of gives them a little ego boost and I think that's what you do a great job that how important has my extreme preparation been to continuing the length of the interview because we always keep going right I'm always feeding you with more detailed questions and people seem to get lost in the okay well that's interesting that's

Starting point is 00:49:55 interesting, that's interesting. Yeah, I think with all the content that you have in in different parts of the stories, I think it keeps your audience zoned in. And if they can't watch it in one day, they'll come back the next because the questions you ask are so educational and entertaining. How effective would my extreme preparation be if I coach you on extreme preparation? I think I'd become pretty damn successful. I love it.

In Search Of Excellence - Owen Hanson: From Cocaine Kingpin to Prison Redemption | E190

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.