[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] California, where the sun kisses the Earth with a golden touch.
nestled deep in the heart of this kingdom stands the Coliseum of warriors,
where the Trojan spirit has reigned supreme.
-[players grunt] -[crowd cheers]
It was the mid-2000s, when the Trojans of USC were a team of destiny.
[LenDale] You're thinking national championship.
[Brandon] We were unstoppable.
[narrator] What was the secret to their greatness?
The key that unlocked a football dynasty?
[announcer] Throws at the last second. It is caught...
[narrator] Was it the charismatic head coach?
Or maybe their gritty, all-American quarterback?
[announcer] Leinart, pass to the goal line. Touchdown, Bush.
[narrator] Perhaps it was their tandem of electrifying running backs.
-[announcer] Touchdown. -[narrator] Or was it someone else?
Maybe some dude who rode the bench by the name of Owen Hanson?
Yeah, Owen, he may not have done as much on the football field,
but he was probably the MVP
when it came to all the extracurricular stuff outside of the Coliseum walls.
-[player] One, two, three... -[all] Trojans!
[LenDale] Like, bro, what the fuck is your secret?
Like, how are you so jacked? And he's like... [laughs]
You know what I mean?
-[cheers] -[sword unsheathing]
It turns out that Owen was smuggling steroids.
[LenDale] A lot of us went on to play professional football.
But Owen just took it to the next level in a completely different direction.
Say hello to my little friend.
[gunshots]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Brandon] He drifted into some darker pastures.
You know, go full throttle in the wrong direction.
[Lou] The conscience that we all have that says,
"Hey, maybe you should think about this." It's like he kind of muted that.
[Tank] This guy's partying with Kim Kardashian
and Paris Hilton, you know, all this crazy stuff.
[LenDale] Are you serious? This is real shit. And I'm like, "Yeah." [laughs]
He's a national champion at USC, turned kingpin.
[newsman] Villains worthy of a Martin Scorsese film.
Flew in private, with like 40 keys of heroin, coke, guns.
They were stupid, stupid idiots.
This is a serious motherfucker. We gonna collect that fucking money.
[man 1] So that's the suitcase. There's $700,000.
[man 2] He's fucking running, ain't he?
He did say, "The less you know, the better."
"If you don't bring your passport, I'm going to slit your fucking throat."
[man] I regret the day I met this guy.
[newswoman] Former USC football player Owen "O-Dog" Hanson...
This can't be my boy.
...allegedly used violence to collect millions of dollars.
He just went full steam ahead as if this was a major at USC.
Drug empire kingpin.
Let's do that.
-[credits music playing] -[gunshot]
[Owen] I'll remember that day for the rest of my life.
[dramatic music playing]
[car engine running]
I wake up that morning, and I get in the car.
And I'm a little late, and I'm just fucking flooring it.
[gear shifts]
And I'm passing cops, and no one's stopping me.
My mind is racing like crazy,
and there's a lot of money being moved around,
and I'm so fucking stressed out.
Man, do I just take my encrypted phone, put it under the tire...
[glass smashes]
...and I'm on the run for the rest of my life?
[camera clicks]
And do I trust the cartel?
[car speeding by]
I get busted, then what? I do a life sentence?
[camera clicks]
I said, "Man, maybe I'm just being paranoid."
I took a little bump of some coke, and I said, "Fuck it."
-[sniffs] -I'll handle this transaction. That's it.
[engine revs]
I get to the golf course. I go, "Where is everyone?"
-[trunk opens] -There's something weird about this.
Something didn't feel right.
I look at the caddy, I said, [echoing] "Hey, where is everybody?"
And as soon as I turned around, I see a bunch of...
[melodic tone on phone]
[dispatch] This call is from the federal prison.
[Owen] Sorry about that. That's my secretary.
-[intense music playing] -[alarm ringing]
I've got ten years under the bureau of prison custody,
and at the end of the day, they're getting a total of 20 years out of me.
I spent many, many long nights just sitting in bed,
not being able to sleep, reflecting on what went wrong, where it went wrong.
And I realized, fuck, I got a hell of a story.
[door buzzes, opens]
[footsteps]
My name is Owen Hanson. Federal inmate number 50825-298.
I remember that first day I got to prison, I get into J block, where I'm living,
and this Caucasian man pulls out a bone crusher about that big.
And he said, "This bone crusher is yours. You have to keep this on you at all times,
if we go to war." Yeah. [laughs]
So I'm saying, "Fuck this. This is crazy."
"I'm some fucking surfer kid from Redondo Beach."
"And you're telling me I got to go to war?"
I said, "Fuck, I didn't sign up for this."
[light music playing]
To understand my story, you got to go back to my roots.
You know, the round town, Redondo Beach, California.
King Harbor. There's parts of Redondo that are really nice.
And there's other parts that are beaters.
That's where I grew up.
[basketball bouncing]
This is where all the magic started, where he got his competitive spirit.
[groans]
Where's the other ball?
[Owen] Came from a blue collar family. My dad was a construction worker.
He worked 60 hours a week, swinging the hammer.
He wanted the best for me.
I never wanted children, but it turned out to be a fantastic ride.
[Owen] And my dad's doing anything he can to make ends meet.
Living on a bunk bed, and I have a pro surfer sleeping on the bottom bunk.
My dad's renting out to make a little extra money.
[Lindsay] With Owen, you knew his dad was probably busting his butt
to support Owen and get him through school and all that.
It is surprising to think of like this guy that I met in third grade with tanned skin
and like, the step haircut, just a surfer boy, is like a kingpin.
He broke the law and got what he deserved.
But I could have been a better father for sure.
I have to accept that.
[Owen] My dad wanted to be the best father he could,
but he suffered from addiction. He suffered from alcoholism.
And I remember my sister is four years old, and I was eight.
And we were watching my parents just fight like cats and dogs.
Like, what's going on with our family here?
Every night, my mom would sing lullabies and rub my back.
One day, it just all stopped.
She decided she wanted a divorce. Biggest mistake I ever made.
[Owen] My dad was going to keep me,
and my sister was going to go with my mom, and she was going to move away.
I was like, "Man, where did I fuck up?" Like, I thought I did something wrong.
You know, I let my mom down. Like, why is she leaving?
I remember him crying on the front porch when he heard the news.
And my dad says, "We don't cry in this household. We're men."
And he said, "Hey, go grab the volleyballs."
-"We're going to the beach." -[gulls chirping]
[exciting music playing]
I was hurt, and volleyball was my drug, and I would practice day in and day out
to keep my mind off of my mother and my sister.
Volleyball, volleyball, volleyball, and that became my life.
[rock music playing]
Owen Hanson didn't receive--
[man] Best volleyball coach in the South Bay.
[music continues]
I knew Owen Hanson was going to be a tremendous player
because of his competitiveness.
He had an edge to him and doesn't like to lose.
He wanted to beat 'em physically, psychologically, in every which way.
He got a kill, he was letting you know.
[man] Owen Hanson...
[Tommy] He was the big league MVP,
and all the other coaches recognized how great he was.
[Owen] And I felt like, "I'm going to be a professional volleyball player."
This is me right here. Senior year, I got everyone recruiting me.
University of Hawaii. Long Beach State.
Pepperdine, and I'm like, "Fuck, man. This is crazy."
Next thing you know, we get a call from USC.
"Hey, we want you as part of our program."
Being a SC fan my whole life, that was huge.
A feather in the cap for the old man.
[Owen] USC was Time magazine's School of the Year at the time.
We could never afford USC,
so my dad's like, "Son, I mean, if they're going to offer to pay for this,
you might as well jump on it."
And I said, "Man, let's go with this, Pops."
[energetic music playing]
[Brandon] They always tell us, "When you come to USC,
it's not a four-year commitment, it's a forever commitment."
This is a lifelong family that we're building here.
So that factored into Owen coming to USC.
But USC's got a lot of rich kid, trust fund types and stuff.
[Owen] And here I am,
the kid that barely has enough shirts for the whole week.
You see these guys wearing Rolex, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton,
just watching everybody pull out an American Express black card
and thinking to myself, "Man, how in the hell
am I going to fit in around here?"
[engine revs]
The parents of these kids are, you know, CEOs,
doctors, lawyers and celebrities.
[driving music playing]
[Lou] My name is Lou Ferrigno Jr.
My father is Lou Ferrigno, and he was TV's Incredible Hulk.
-[dramatic music plays] -[growls]
-[yells] -[grunts]
I guess we could all learn something from a big goof.
[Lou] Owen was the type, he didn't want you to hear his come up,
because nobody wants to hear someone complain
and say what they've been through and what they've overcome.
[Owen] I'm like, "Man, I do not belong here."
So I'm thinking to myself, "Okay, just focus on volleyball."
We were ranked like top three in the nation at the time,
and volleyball was my vice.
I didn't drink. I didn't do drugs. I used to sleep with my volleyball.
I'm thinking I'm the man, I'm 6'3" with a 36-inch vertical jump.
And that changed real fast.
[announcer 1] Back set to Billings off the block.
-[crowd cheers] -Wow.
[announcer 2] Billings is a Trojan's quick study...
[Owen] I was playing behind Brook Billings,
who's an all-American Olympic volleyball player.
I rolled with the punches the first year, you know, a lot of rubbing the bench.
[dramatic music playing]
And then one day coach came in,
and he says, "Hanson, I need to see you in the office."
And he goes, "You're not good enough for this program."
"We need you to work on your arm strength and your vertical jump,
or you're going to be cut from the volleyball team."
I'll never forget, man. What a shitty day.
[Alex] He had built himself up, so that rejection wouldn't happen.
He didn't want to face that rejection. He didn't want to feel it.
So when he did feel it with the volleyball situation,
it was like the rug being pulled out from under him.
It was completely upending his life and his core identity.
[phone buzzes]
-Oh, shit. He's calling. -[interviewer] Yeah, yeah. Pick it up.
-Yeah. -[dispatch] This call is from...
-[whispers] Owen. -[Owen] Owen.
[Alex] Owen and I had developed a friendship behind bars,
through the phone and through email.
It's not something I've ever really done before.
-[dispatch] You may begin speaking now. -Hey, brother. How you doing?
[Owen] I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.
[Alex] You know, like there's no dark, gravelly undertone.
He was just a normal, nice guy.
You know, holy shit, there's a drug kingpin in all of us actually.
[Owen] Abandonment was a big deal for me.
I lost my sister, I lost my mom.
And now, all of a sudden, I'm gonna lose volleyball.
And I was so bummed.
I'm like, "Man, I'm going to go to where I feel comfortable."
And I remember getting in my Camry, and I drove down to the South Bay.
[guitar music playing]
[Spanky] In Redondo, everybody knows each other since we were kids.
You know, we had the Mexicans, the homies, you know, my side.
And then we had all the white boys.
But one thing about Owen, he's a chameleon.
He can go anywhere.
[Owen] Next thing you know, I'm hanging out
with homeboys from the north side Redondo gang.
I shaved my head, and I started getting tattoos.
You know, it's like, "Why do you do that? You're fucking a smart guy."
"You're going to fucking USC."
I needed to get back on the volleyball team any way I could.
And I remember one of the homies, dude was just jacked.
I told him, I said, "Hey, this is my situation."
"I need to work on my vertical and my arm strength."
"I want to do whatever it takes."
He told me, "If you got a set of balls on you, you can go to the veterinarian."
[lively music playing]
[chatter in Spanish]
[Owen] So I pick up Spanks. We go down to Tijuana.
[Spanky] Take me through some grimy street,
and then we go to the fucking veterinarian and fucking...
It has pictures, like horses and dogs.
Birds, cats. I see a bunch of fucking jacked Americans.
And I was like, "This is the right spot for sure."
Next thing you know, they're giving me the pills and vials
for all these fucking steroids.
And I was like, "I don't even wanna know how you're bringing that back." You know?
And I was just laughing. I'm like, "Fuck."
[Owen] I pour all my pills in this Ziploc bag.
I'm taping it up.
-[knocks] -He's knocking on the door.
and it's just this tube.
I drop my drawers. I put it literally...
I remember, in the crack, not inside the hole, in the crack, all right?
In prison, we call it the keister.
I remember going to Spanks, I said, "Hey, can you tell?"
[laughs]
-He'd get it in there. -He goes, "Tell what?" I said, "Good."
-I said, "We're good to go." -[door closes]
[intense music playing]
I get in line, and it's like a two hour wait.
And the whole time, I'm sweating, I'm nervous.
I'm like, "Okay, what's the worst case scenario?"
I'm gonna lose my scholarship.
I'm probably going to be sitting in a Mexican prison,
and most likely, I'm going to have a felony on my record.
US Customs says, "Are you bringing anything back?"
And my heart just dropped.
My father's always telling me, "Son, we never lie." But what do I do?
Do I tell them I have $500 worth of steroids strapped to my fucking balls?
I said, "No, sir, not bringing anything back,
was just here drinking some beers at Señor Frogs with my buddy."
[intense music continues]
He goes, "You're good to go."
[energetic music playing]
Holy shit. The rush, man. I still got goosebumps right now.
Look at that. In that rush was the beginning to my madness.
For the rest of my life I was chasing that high because that's what it was.
-It's a high. -[sniffs]
To this day, I think about all the tons of cocaine I brought into Australia,
and it started right there when I was 19 years old.
You got to remember, I don't do drugs, and all of a sudden, every three days,
I was doing these injections. And after like two fucking weeks,
I'm like, "Man, I'm starting to feel like fucking Superman."
I was like. "Fuck, man, look at that."
He was gigantic, you know? Like, fuck.
It was definitely an eye opener for the coaches,
and one of the strength and conditioning coaches for the football team,
he goes, "Man, you're looking fucking jacked."
"Why don't you try out for the football team?"
I said, "USC football? That's like the best of the best."
National championships, Heisman Trophy winners.
That's a dynasty.
But I've never even played football.
Never once, ever, did we touch a football.
Too many horror stories about injuries.
Guess what? I'm an adult, so I can make my own decisions now.
-[bombastic music playing] -[cheering]
What have I got to lose?
At that time, in LA, USC football is the pro team.
2002. You have no Rams, you have no Raiders.
So there's a huge thirst and appetite for powerhouse football.
[announcer] Palmer, pass his way to the end zone. Touchdown!
[Brandon] Championship caliber talent.
[Owen] This is the beginning of the Pete Carroll era.
We had Troy Polamalu, a first round draft pick.
Carson Palmer just won the Heisman.
-It's insane. -Nobody comes to the Coliseum...
[Owen] We had all these big recruits coming in.
Matt Leinart, of course. You had Reggie Bush.
You had LenDale White.
[LenDale] Me and Reggie, Thunder and Lightning.
That was the heart of USC football.
And the hopes was, you know, you're thinking national championship.
[announcer] LenDale White, left side, touchdown, Trojans.
[cheering]
[Owen] USC football team.
They had the best life. They got the best looking girls.
I wanted to be part of their crew.
-[announcer] Touchdown, USC! -[Owen] Part of this family.
And I kept telling myself, that's impossible.
[Lou] I think with Owen, he wanted to be the top dog.
But he was constantly reminded that
that wasn't supposed to be in the cards for him.
And so he kind of would do whatever it would take.
He would just dive in there, no questions asked, full force.
[Owen] I showed up to the tryout. There was like 50 guys.
Everyone's wearing cleats, football cleats.
And I show up in my volleyball shoes.
-I must look like an idiot out here. -[whistles]
[energetic music playing]
We're running cone drills. I don't know what I'm doing.
I had five balls thrown at me.
You know, I'm trying to throw it back,
and it's just going like this, it's tumbling.
I'm like, "Fuck, this is maybe not the sport for me."
The next was the vertical jump. I said, "Oh, this is me."
This guy has a 32-inch vertical.
-[starter gun shot] -Has a 4.6 40.
[Owen] All the coaches are looking at the stopwatch.
Their eyebrows are raised. I'm like, "What happened? Was I slow?"
I think he benched 225, like more than Clay Matthews.
[Owen] 21, 22, 23, 24. I got this, 25, and I just racked it.
Um, who's this freak? [laughs]
[Owen] Yeah, I mean, let's face it, I'm not thinking I'm going to make
the football team, you know, because I'm a volleyball player.
But there's a piece of me that wants to at least know.
I might as well go check the list.
I see all these guys coming down now I just tried out with a week ago.
It's a lot of disappointed faces.
You see the list on the window, and there is one name on there.
Holy shit. I just made the USC football team.
[upbeat music playing]
It was one of the top five teams of all time, who just walks right on?
Like, it's kind of insane.
[Jim] I didn't want him playing football, but it's a golden opportunity.
Everyone's ecstatic, including me. Proud Dad.
I chuckled because I'm like,
I know he's never played a down of football.
Owen so badly craved a place to belong, a family.
He was kind of willing to do anything to fit in.
[LenDale] I mean, bro, when you're a volleyball player,
that fucking jacked, the first thing that I thought was,
"Hey, either he loves the weights, or he's definitely hitting something."
I'm going to take a shitload of steroids and walk on the football team.
What could go wrong? Right?
-[whistles] -[yells]
[Owen] The first day, I'm just getting thrown around like a rag doll.
And we get in the locker room,
I'm starting to take off my pads, and all the guys are laughing at me.
What the fuck are these guys laughing at? I find out I had my pads on backwards.
Fuck, man, how embarrassing. It was like humiliating, you know?
My boy, Brandon Hancock, says, "Hey, chill guys."
"You know, this guy's never played football in his life."
"This guy's a volleyball player."
Think about him leaving volleyball and playing football.
Dude's got some nuts, man, for sure.
It's like he's never really cared about what nobody's ever said about him.
[Brandon] You got to give him credit.
I mean, the guy put in every ounce of energy
he had because he saw what was about to happen with USC.
-[audience cheering] -[dramatic music playing]
-[barks] -[indistinct yells]
[Owen] First game at the Coliseum was sold out, 92,000 plus.
And I remember walking out, "Fuck, this is badass."
"I'm one of the boys. I'm on the USC football team."
[loud chanting]
That 2004 season, we just dominated.
We were destroying, and I mean three, four touchdowns, we're beating these teams.
[announcer] And what an exclamation point with the somersault.
You're on ESPN every weekend.
[announcer 1] Breaks off the tackle, breaks another, and he...
[announcer 2] The last second, it is caught.
[cheering]
-[Owen] We are Hollywood. -[announcer] Touchdown, Bush.
-[man] What up, Reggie? -[Owen] We'd go out, anything we wanted,
-it was comped. -[indistinct chatter]
Matt was dating Paris Hilton at the time,
and Reggie Bush eventually dates Kim Kardashian.
Now, you had paparazzi following you around.
Everybody sitting courtside at Laker games
has migrated a couple of miles south, and they were just littering our sideline.
[LenDale] And we're ranked number one.
And everybody and their mom wanted to get tickets to the game.
-[Brandon] Denzel Washington. -[LenDale] Will Ferrell.
Shaq's on the sideline, Snoop's showing up to practice.
We're going over to his house, hanging out, eating dinner.
People were starting to offer cars or houses, I don't know.
It probably wasn't legal at all, but who gives a shit?
[announcer] And it's LenDale right up the middle, touchdown, USC!
You know, we're going to Vegas, and we got 50 paparazzis taking pictures,
when we're at the Bungalow, at Wet Republic.
You know, it's out of control.
-[camera clicks] -And that's when I met Tank.
[dings]
-[energetic music playing] -[camera clicks]
Once we start partying, there's no sleep, like you're training just to party.
[Owen] And he was with Chuck Liddell, the UFC fighter.
They were chicken fighting in this pool. I said, "Man, I want some of that action."
-[groans] -[man] Whoa!
[Owen] The next thing you know, we're shooting the shit, and Tank's jacked.
[Tank] Bodybuilding was essential
because these are pool events we're hitting up. This is like your stage.
[Owen] I asked him, "Man, by chance,
can you get any of this performance enhancing stuff?"
He goes, "That's what I specialize in." And he had a better hook up than me.
And then he tells me there's money to be made in this.
He goes, "I got you, whatever you need."
[Brandon] Owen may not have done much on the football field,
but he was probably the MVP when it came to all the extracurricular stuff
that happened, you know, outside of the Coliseum walls.
[Owen] Sometimes, guys would get injured.
They'd say, "Hey, O-Dog, do you know what we could take to recover faster?"
I'm like, "Yeah, I think I could get you something."
[music continues]
"Well, let's get you on some HGH,
maybe a little tes cyp and some Deca to get that recovered faster."
[Lou] He helped a lot of guys
that were in a serious amount of pain that had nowhere to go.
It all just goes into him being loyal, wanting to help,
albeit it through the wrong methods.
Next thing you know, guys are saying,
"Hey, O-Dog, I'm having trouble staying up for my test."
I said, "Well, listen, I got you Adderall."
"Hey, O-Dog, I'm having trouble sleeping."
I said, "Don't worry, I've got you some Xanax."
If you're like, I want three pounds of frankincense.
He's like, "I got a guy."
[Owen] All these guys on the team are like, "Man, O-Dog, you got everything."
I said, "Yeah, whatever you need. I'm Dr. O-Dog."
Yeah, he's the doctor.
You call Dr. Owen, and he would make a play.
I'm getting this stuff for pennies on the dollar.
So I said, "Fuck, I'm going to make this my business."
"This is how I'm going to afford to live at USC."
[synth music playing]
[LenDale] I just remember 2004 being so crazy.
By the third quarter of every game, the starters would be out.
And you know, you look up at the scoreboard,
it'd be some wild score like 60-13 or something like that.
[Owen] We're ranked number one in the nation,
and we're just destroying teams left and right.
And then, you know, shit, here we are in a national championship game again.
[dramatic music playing]
[announcer] It's the BCS National Championship Game,
and here come the Sooners of Oklahoma.
[LenDale] You're playing against a good Oklahoma team.
They have Adrian Peterson as a running back.
Jason Whitehead just want a Heisman.
Everyone saying, "Oh, Oklahoma's gonna give them a run for their money."
This is going to be the team that beats us.
[announcer] At the Oklahoma six-yard line.
LenDale White, up the middle.
LenDale White in! Touchdown, USC!
Into the endzone. Touchdown!
He caught it, touchdown!
Touchdown! It's intercepted!
Touchdown! What a great hit!
Caught, and touchdown!
Fourth and short, LenDale White's got the short.
-He might have the touchdown! -[Owen] It wasn't even a fight.
We crushed 'em.
They're having a celebration. Mentally, I don't think they care.
[Jim] They beat Oklahoma 55-19.
I mean, they slaughtered 'em, and they called Owen's number
to go in towards the end of the game.
[announcer] Couldn't get enough hands in the air
to get those national championship caps out of that...
[Jim] He was already celebrating with the teammates and stuff.
I was like, "Fuck, man."
"I could have played in the national championship game."
[Jim] Then they showed Pete Carroll up there getting the trophy,
and you could see Owen in the back.
He's got the championship hat on.
"That's my son. I just saw my son on TV."
[Owen] Any time someone wins a national championship, they go to the White House.
It's one thing to be a champ on the field. It's another to be a champ off the field.
By sending good messages about right and wrong behavior.
-[cheers] -I said, "Hey, President Bush."
"Pops is a big fan of you and your father. Any way I can get a photo with you?"
-"Just one selfie." -[camera clicks]
[LenDale] I was like, "The hell are you doing, bro?"
"Like, you know that security can fuck you up for that, right?"
He was like, "Eh." [laughs] He didn't give a damn.
[indistinct yelling and singing]
[Owen] This is the USC football team.
These are your brothers. It's your family.
I don't think you can explain it unless you were part of it.
It's a feeling that I can't compare to anything.
You know, it's a family I've never had.
[Alex] At graduation night, everyone had such an amazing time.
Everybody's partying.
Everyone was getting drunk, and Owen just has one of those rare moments
where everything just kind of slows.
And you're realizing my life is never going to be like this again.
My buddies, they're going off to pro football.
Maybe he wasn't destined for great things, like they were.
Like the party really was over for him. That's what he thought.
Watching the NFL Draft was a surreal experience.
With the second choice in the 2006 NFL Draft,
the New Orleans Saints select Reggie Bush, running back, USC.
[Owen] Reggie Bush. He ends up making bookoo bucks.
Matt Leinart, quarterback, USC.
[Owen] You got Leinart, he's going to go get paid.
[announcer] And White to the left side.
[Owen] You got LenDale White, another bro of mine.
He goes to the Tennessee Titans.
[announcer] The second of the year for LenDale.
[Owen] My boy, Brandon Hancock got a job with ESPN as an announcer.
I'm thinking to myself, "Man, what the fuck am I going to do?"
These guys are millionaires,
and I'm still living at my pop's house in Redondo Beach.
I'm going to figure out a way to make that kind of money.
I started owensells.com.
I chuckle because people were like, "Man, what does he sell?"
And I said, "That's right. You don't know what I sell."
I sell real estate.
[Brandon] His business card said, "Buy real estate from a champion."
And he had all the rings on his fingers, but he was no Tom Brady.
Okay? [laughs]
[Owen] I could easily become a millionaire selling real estate.
I purchase waterfront property.
Resell them for unbelievable-- Regardless of income level.
If you take action now...
Now, it's official. We are in a recession.
[Owen] Then all of a sudden, the market crashes.
I'm like, "Fuck, what am I going to do now?"
What can I do to make some money?
[Alex] Because Owen is the party guy, the black market concierge,
he knew so many people,
his mental rolodex is probably like 100 times our own.
He knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy.
Call him up. "Oh, it's Owen. It's O-Dog. Fuck, yeah, I'll help him out."
[Owen] And I remembered this degenerate gambler in Vegas.
He was betting on sports, and he was losing $100,000 a week.
Man, whoever's on the other end of that's making some good money.
It must be a bookie.
Owen put two and two together and thought, "Maybe I'd be really good at this."
[Owen] With being a bookie, you need to have clients that have money.
Obviously, I had the clients from USC.
You need athletes because if you have athletes, you're gonna get more clients.
And I had the athletes, you know, I think I found my career.
So I started a sports betting business. BetODog. B-E-T-O-D-O-G.
I just wanted to make fucking money. Start an office in Costa Rica.
Next thing you know, I'm shaking and baking. I'm hustling.
I got 20 NFL guys placing bets.
A lot of USC alums losing thousands of dollars to me.
And sometimes, you get a degenerate that doesn't want to pay.
And that's when you got to call it your boy Kobra.
[hip hop music playing]
My name is OG Kobra. Triple OG Kobra from the Booyaa Tribe.
[hip hop music continues]
Booyaa, it's me and my brothers.
The name Booyaa comes from the sound of a shotgun, "Booyah!"
He said, "Hey, man, check out these big Samoans, man."
"Who the fuck are these motherfuckers..." Booyaa!
[Owen] Kobra's a 6'6" Blood, tatted up from the neck down
and the biggest fucking beast you've ever seen.
[Kobra] He's talking. He goes, "Yeah, man, I got this business, man."
"Sports betting. It's called O-Dog. I need some muscle, man."
And I go, "Man, say less." He goes, "Man, what's your price?"
I said my price, and he goes, "Let's fucking roll." [laughs]
[guitar music playing]
The unique thing about Owen Hanson is that he has all the innate qualities
to have been the type of guy that could run a Forbes 500 company.
Wanting to be the best, willing to take risk, and charismatic and fearless.
But it's kind of a double-edged sword.
You go too far, sometimes you can't pull it back anymore.
[Owen] Next thing you know, this thing snowballs.
I started taking these bets from a client in Mexico.
The guy started losing like $100,000 a week.
He's what we call a whale in the gambling business.
But then he hit like a five-team parlay that paid close to $220,000.
You win, and I pay you right away. Boom, paid him on the spot.
He goes, "Hey, I like the way you work." And then he sent me a package.
He tells me, I got this encrypted phone for you.
It's got the microphone taken out, the GPS taken out.
And within 20 minutes,
I get a message on this thing that, "I need you to pick up $1,000,000."
"I'll give you $100,000."
Fuck, $100,000? I said, "That's great. Okay, where is it?"
He says, "Brownsville, Texas. We're not allowed in this area."
I knew something was wrong. I'm like, "What do you mean you're not allowed?"
He says, "Oh, we have a rival over there, so I need you to pick it up."
"And you're probably going to have to fly it."
Fuck it. You're going to make $100,000 in a day? Let's go.
[dramatic music playing]
So I get this private plane, and I get my boy, Tank.
There's not too many people you can trust with millions of dollars cash.
[Owen] And we land this plane, I'm like fucking looking around.
And sure enough, this truck comes in, it said "Gardener."
I'm like, "What the fuck? A gardener?"
This Mexican guy has these overalls, he's got dirt all over him.
He handed me this duffel bag, and he says,
[echoing] "Este es para El Jefe."
[energetic music playing]
And I get back on the plane, I'm looking around.
You know, I'm scared.
[Tank] There was the big bag of money.
So I had like a million of cash in this duffel bag.
[Owen] And we land in California, and I drop it off, and he was stoked.
He's like, "Man, you do great work."
And he says, "Do you know anyone in Australia?"
What kind of question is this? You know?
And then he broke it down to me.
He says, "Hey, I work with the cartel. I'm a lieutenant."
"I've got cocaine, and I need you to move it."
I'm thinking to myself, "What have I gotten myself into?"
[synth music playing]
I went from Dr. O-Dog, to being a bookie,
to now being recruited by the biggest cartel in the world.
[Alex] You can meet certain people in life, and you're like,
"Damn. You're a rare individual."
I had a feeling I'd give you $5 that'll turn into $50.
Then you'll turn it into $100 and then $1,000, and $100,000.
Like there are certain people you meet in life,
you're like, "Holy shit, you can do basically whatever you want to do."
I feel like I keep jumping into these things,
and I'm crossing one thing and parlaying it into another,
and I'm taking that money and giving it more risk.
And I just keep parlaying my bets, and I keep hitting.
I keep hitting big.
[Alex] Why do you think the cartel wanted to work with Owen?
It's not because of Owen's drug dealing acumen.
Owen had no experience running that amount of drugs
across borders, let alone into Australia.
It was because of Owen, his personality, the hustle mindset.
I'm like, "Fuck it, let's go, let's keep going."
[Alex] He didn't know a damn thing about Australia.
I don't have a clue. But you know what? I'm going to find out.
I go in that Rolodex.
[playful music playing]
Going back to my USC contacts, there was a baseball player
who told me his brother was in the weed business.
And he introduces me to Uncle Louis.
[Italian music playing]
And Uncle Louis is this Italian gangster.
He's got the wise guy accent, give Italian kisses on the cheeks.
So I knew right there I was dealing with the main man.
I was like, "Yes, this is who I need right now."
-[pops] -[sizzles]
I tell him, I said, "Hey, this is what I got. I got product, it's in Australia."
I said, "I need to take the product and move it."
And Uncle Louis basically laughed out loud.
He said, "You're fucking crazy, kid. It's not going to happen, dude."
No one's going to believe I can pull this thing off.
But I've had this challenge my whole life,
making the volleyball team for USC,
walking onto the best college football team of all time.
[Alex] Owen is an underdog at heart,
and that's what's made him work harder than everybody around him.
I had dreams. I was ambitious,
and I tell Uncle Louis, I said, "If anybody could do it. I could do it."
He says, "If you can get the product there," he goes,
"I will move every kilo you bring to me."
I said, "Fuck, yeah."
El Jefe told me, "You're at another level now."
He says, "Let's clean up the look. We're going to get your tattoos removed.
I went from this thug, this white boy from the South Bay,
all of a sudden to this classy businessman.
Hey, I'm a chameleon. I can walk the walk, I can talk the talk.
I'm ready to go. It's time for a new chapter of my life.
-[airplane engines] -[dramatic music playing]
We landed in Australia.
Now, I get a room with Uncle Louis at the Four Seasons Hotel.
I open the door, and there is this guy in this DHL outfit,
and he's like, "Package?" "Yep. Thank you."
And we open it up, and we're like, "Holy shit!"
And they have these stamps of Rolexes on them.
[guitar music playing]
Uncle Louis says, "I can just tell by the smell, this is pure cocaine."
But he goes, "Nephew, we've got to be very careful."
Anything over three kilos, it's a life sentence in Australia.
And he took it, and like, literally 25 minutes later, he's back.
He's got a suitcase, and it's $1,000,000.
And Uncle Louie says, "Hey, can you get more?"
I message El Jefe, "Can we get more?"
He goes, "Yeah, I'll have 20 more for you tomorrow."
Next thing you know, we got another package the next day.
We took off on the weekend, and come Monday, we got 20 more.
Everything I do in life is at full speed,
whether it was running down the football field as a gunner,
trying to tackle Reggie Bush,
or, you know, transporting 100 kilos of cocaine.
And that's my high, that's my rush.
And I moved like 200 kilos of cocaine within a month,
right out of my apartment in Sydney.
He kept dealing it, so all the money kept piling up.
[Owen] Stacks and stacks of money.
You go into the microwave, and it's full of cash.
I remember telling El Jefe, "I got five million."
"When's your people coming to pick this up?"
Like, I'm thinking he's got it all figured out,
and that's when he broke it down.
Like, that's your job, and that's why you're getting paid.
And that's why he's using me to launder money out of Australia.
I have over $5 million in my fucking cabinets.
In my kitchen. This is not my money. This is fucking drug money for the cartel.
How am I going to get this back to the US?
If I don't do this, I would end up dead.
And that's when I heard the name Robin Hood 702.
A name that's going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
The name that got me my federal ID number.
He's a fucking cockroach.
[kids shouting]
[credits music playing] .