Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel could very well have been a brilliant underdog story had Owen Hanson been drafted for the NFL. But since that didn’t happen, we got to witness a story where a player, who made his name in the sport and was considered one of the best in the business, got involved in all sorts of illegal activities. You know what hurts more than never getting a chance to prove yourself? Getting an opportunity and letting it slip away. Owen Hanson had the potential, and he had made a name for himself at the University of Southern California, but I believe his addiction to adrenaline rushes became the greatest obstacle in his way, and the search for temporary pleasure led to a permanent abyss. When I was watching the documentary, I couldn’t help but think of those players who once became popular in their local arenas, who were hailed as future greats destined to bring glory to their club or country, but ultimately faded into obscurity, becoming just another name lost in the crowd. The story broke my heart, but I guess Owen Hanson made sure that even if he failed, he never surrendered. Owen’s story is a testament to the fact that there is always a silver lining amidst hopelessness. When you feel it’s the end, all you need to do is put your head down, let bygones be bygones, and hustle every day. I am not glorifying anything wrong that Owen Hanson did, but he didn’t have much of an option, apart from hustling every single moment, when he hit rock bottom. So let’s find out how Owen Hanson became a quarterback, how he got involved with the Sinaloa cartel, and where he is now.
How did Owen start playing for our football team?
Owen Hanson’s parents separated when he was quite young, and I believe that incident left a huge impact on him. His sister went to stay with his mother while he stayed back with his father, Jim Hanson. The one cardinal rule of the Hanson household was that men don’t shed tears, and so a young Owen hid his emotions and went to the beach to play volleyball. Volleyball became his escape, and he eventually got so good at it that he got a scholarship to the University of Southern California. Being a Redondo Beach kid, he had never imagined that he would ever be able to attend such a prestigious university. He packed his bags, and he went there to make a fresh start. He knew that it was a golden opportunity and that he should grab it with both hands. He got the first shock of his life when he was told to work on his volleyball skills, something he hadn’t heard since the day he had started playing the sport. But USC’s team consisted of the best of the best, and so their standards were very high. I have seen that men and women often get a reality check after they become a part of the university team. Something similar happened with Diana Taurasi too, when she started playing basketball for her university. Though Diana took the decision to work on herself, Owen Hanson changed sports altogether. Actually that too was a very interesting story, about how he got noticed by the coach of the USC football team. Owen Hanson was always interested in bodybuilding, and he saw that a lot of people used performance-enhancing drugs to get jacked. He went to Mexico, bought himself a stash of steroids, and smuggled it into California. He knew that if he got caught, he would be sentenced for a really long period of time, and his career would be ruined. But he took his chances, and he was able to traffic the steroids without any hassle. He started consuming it, and within weeks he felt like a superman. His coach noticed that there was a guy in the gym who could lift weights that even his premier players couldn’t. Owen Hanson got a chance to represent his university and be a part of the football team. He grabbed it with both hands, and in fact, he was even a part of the championship-winning team in 2005. But things went downhill for him after that, and before he knew it, he was drug trafficking for the Sinaloa cartel.
Who was Robin Hood 702?
After university, Owen’s teammates got drafted into the NFL, while he didn’t have any option but to return to his hometown and get a normal job. The entire smuggling operation where he brought in performance-enhancing drugs from Mexico gave him a high that was unparalleled. He got addicted to that adrenaline rush, and he wanted to keep up with his swanky lifestyle. He wanted to own luxury cars, be around famous personalities, hang out with beautiful women, and live like a king. Often an individual’s want for more makes them do certain things that they later regret. He knew earning that amount of money was not possible with a normal job. So he first entered into the real estate business, but his venture tanked after the market crash. Then he got involved in game betting (which is still banned in California, though as of now a few American states have made it legal), and that’s where he made his contacts. He got in touch with a few people who believed that he could be a good asset for them when it came to the drug smuggling business. Owen Hanson still had his USC contacts, and they came from really influential families. Hanson made use of those contacts, started smuggling drugs into Australia, and earned a huge amount of cash through it. He couldn’t imagine that making money could be so easy. But the problem was that he’d ended up in Australia, and he had to find a way to bring the money back to the United States. That’s when he got to know of a man named Robin Hood 702, aka RJ Cipriani, who was a high roller. This man had figured out a way to launder money using the casinos. So basically he went to an Australian casino and bought chips worth whatever amount he wanted to launder. Then after playing a few hands, he went and told the casino that he was done gambling. They were then obligated to provide him with credit equivalent to the chips he possessed, which he could either cash out or use at any American casino, including renowned ones like the Bellagio. Owen Hanson developed a good bond with this man, and he was quite happy, as he could now bring his money back to the States. This man, Robin Hood 702, stated that he donated a huge chunk of the money he earned through the transactions to underprivileged families, but I believe that was not true. Owen trusted Robin Hood 702, and he felt that he had figured out a smooth drug trafficking channel and that he would never be caught by the FBI. But guess what? He was wrong, and his trusted ally betrayed him and threw him under the bus.
How did Owen Hanson get arrested?
One time, Robin Hood 702, aka RJ Cipriani, went to a casino with around 2.5 million dollars in cash, and he lost it all gambling. It was Hanson’s money, and so he asked Robin Hood to find a way to return it to him. Also, Owen didn’t understand why he would have been so stupid. Cipriani couldn’t or maybe didn’t want to return the money, and that’s when Owen started to threaten him. Owen asked his right-hand man/trainer, Sean Carolan, to go and meet Cipriani, who was staying at a hotel in Australia. Before Sean could do anything, the local police arrived at the scene and took him into custody. At that time, they weren’t able to prove that Sean was linked to Cipriani, but they had a hunch that he was involved in whatever was happening. Owen was in a fix, as the mafia bosses were asking him to return their money if he wanted to stay alive, and he tried to do everything he could to get his money back. He hired a guy named Daniel Hanks, who was a famous private investigator, and he asked him to keep track of what Cipriani was up to. Owen realized that Cipriani was quite attached to his mother, and so he asked Hanks to go to his mother’s grave and bring him the tombstone. Though Hanks was not able to do that, he spray-painted on the tombstone, an act that made Cipriani really mad and vengeful. Following that fiasco, Owen shifted his operations to the US, where he once again established a network to smuggle drugs between America and Australia. Owen was able to repay his debt to the Mexican cartel, but he didn’t stop even after that. The South Wales Police Department got to know about his activities, and they got in touch with the Beverly Hills Police Department. Actually, when Sean Carolan had gone to meet Robin Hood 702 in that hotel in Australia, he carried with him a bag full of cash. The $702,000 in that bag was still lying in the local police department, and Owen wanted to find a way to get it. In this pursuit, he had gotten in touch with a man named Craig Haeusler, who was a fixer, and then with lawyer Michael Croke, who promised to help him out. But that didn’t happen, and in turn they backstabbed Owen Hanson. In fact, Robin Hood 702 became a state witness, and he signed a proffer agreement with the FBI, according to which all charges against him were to be dropped. In 2015, Owen Hanson was finally arrested in San Diego, and a legal trial was initiated against him.
Where Is Owen Hanson Now?
Owen Hanson was sentenced together with 26 others in 2017, and he was sentenced to 21 years and 3 months. But Owen came out of prison in 2024, in less than 7 years, probably due to good behavior or subsequent appeals to the apex authorities. Prison time changed Owen, and he wanted to do something really productive once he came out. He had the idea of manufacturing protein ice creams, something that he did at a small scale in the prison too. That’s how the California Ice Protein brand was born, and today Owen runs that venture and motivates people to join his fitness movement. Apart from that, Owen never shied away from taking responsibility for the wrongs he had committed, and he wrote an autobiography that was titled The California Boy: From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin. He stays in Beverly Hills, from where he operates his business. Though he has a lot of reasons to be depressed and to be regretful, he chose to stay grateful, as he knew that not everybody gets a second chance in life.
