Smuggling Steroids Out of Mexico, Selling Cocaine, Running an Illegal Bookie Business, Working for the Cartel & Getting 21 Years in Prison on a RICO Kingpin Case, Owen Hansons's Story is InsaneSmuggling Steroids Out of Mexico, Selling Cocaine, Running an Illegal Bookie Business, Working for the Cartel & Getting 21 Years in Prison on a RICO Kingpin Case, Owen Hansons's Story is Insane
Chasing Heroine: Addiction Recovery Podcast
Former USC athlete and cartel middleman Owen Hanson shares how his path from steroids, cocaine and a 21-year RICO sentence led to a book, an Emmy-nominated docuseries and a prison-born protein ice cream business. The conversation highlights how he redirected the same drive that fuelled his crimes into education, creativity and a healthier hustle after release.
1:28:01•21 May 2026
From Cartel Cash to Protein Ice Cream: Owen Hanson’s Wild Turnaround
Episode Overview
- Ambition without boundaries can push someone from sport and success into high-risk criminal activity very quickly.
- Even in prison, structure, routine and a sense of purpose (study, work, creativity) can make the difference between giving up and rebuilding.
- Skills developed in addiction and crime—hustle, networking, problem-solving—can be redirected into legal, meaningful ventures.
- Creating something tangible, like a book or a product, can turn a painful past into a practical asset for life after release.
- You do not have to have everything figured out to start; Owen began his book and business ideas with no guarantee he would ever get out early.
“I tell people it was from putting bad things on the streets to now healthy treats.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This conversation with Owen Hanson shows just how far a life can swing from chaos to purpose, even when it runs straight through cartel work, an international manhunt and a 21-year federal sentence. Jeannine sits down with Owen, once known as “The California Kid” and “The Cocaine Quarterback”, to piece through his path from USC walk-on athlete to steroid smuggler, cocaine dealer, illegal bookie and cartel middleman.
You’ll hear how a kid chasing attention and status on campus turned a side hustle into a full-blown criminal enterprise, and how that same drive later helped him survive prison and build something new. Owen is candid about performance-enhancing drugs, heavy partying, and the rush of laundering millions across borders. He also doesn’t sugar-coat the fallout: a RICO kingpin case, 21 years handed down, and a moment where he seriously considered ending his life with prison heroin.
Instead, he chose to dig in. Inside, he earned a master’s degree, wrote his book *The California Kid*, and helped create an Emmy-nominated docuseries produced by Mark Wahlberg’s team. But the part that’ll really stick with anyone in recovery is his prison hustle: turning commissary protein powder, milk and bananas into a “protein ice cream” that became both a unit-wide favourite and the blueprint for a legitimate business on the outside.
As Owen says, he went “from putting bad things on the streets to now healthy treats”, with his ice protein now in hundreds of gyms while he’s still on probation and rebuilding day by day. If you’re wondering whether years of damage can ever be turned into something useful, this story might have you rethinking what’s possible after addiction and prison.
What could you do with your own “banana in the crack” moment if you aimed it in a different direction?
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