1231: Owen Hanson | From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin

23:32And I was making, you know, my first year out six figures. And I was like, this is great. This is the life. Most people can't do that. They're like, why should I work when I can just arbitrage and not actually do anything and just party all the time? But you were like, this is not going to last forever. Yeah, I just knew like eventually my dad's going to wonder how am I making money. Now I got to show him that I have a legit job because I still fear my own man. And I'll never forget it. The recession hit in 2007 and I lost that job. And that's when I was like, okay, now I'm scrambling again, just like I scrambled before.

24:06But what am I going to do? And I'm like, okay, I don't want to get involved in the drugs. Let's do bookmaking. I'm going to be a bookie. Love sports. I'm friends with a lot of athletes. I got these A-list celebrities that are partying with us. I got all these fraternity kids with a lot of money. Why don't I just start being the bookie to these guys that I'm basically grown up with? And I'm going to also guess the penalties for being an illegal bookie are way lower than a guy holding a kilo of cocaine in his dorm room or whatever. Yeah, for sure. It's a slap on the wrist. Okay. That's not a bad idea.

24:37And now are you meshing the black market concierge stuff, expertise, I should say, with gambling? So what I would do is I would have these VIP customers that are quote unquote whales. I would provide the VIP service to them where like instead of them going to Vegas, I bring Vegas to them. Okay, so what do you want? Okay, so you want to gamble? No problem. Here's my website. You can gamble on all the sports you need to. What else do you need? Oh, you want an eight ball and some Patron? No problem. Let me have that dropped off. So that concierge service still came out, but only for my like VIP customers.

25:08Oh, you're going to a Tiesto concert? Let me get you some XTC pills. Let me get you some Molly. You want some girls? Let me call a couple of my girlfriends I know. Just pay for their room and board and they'll come and hang out with you. Now it started to be like Vegas, right? But I brought Vegas. All you had to do is the girls didn't need to make any money off this? No, the girls make money when the guys are winning. So the way the girls make money is if the guys are winning on the tables or because I have a live dealer on my website. So you can play blackjack or you can bet on sports. So when the guys win, the girls get tipped.

25:38They get tipped out. Is this like explicit? How do they know to do that? I tell my VIP customers, listen, take care of the girls if you win, because this is part of the service. That's what they do in Vegas too. Because are they, I have no idea. I rarely pay women to hang out with me. I wouldn't even know how to do that. You wouldn't believe how many guys, that's all they do. You're paying them to leave at the end of the day. That's all it is. These guys have wives, right? Yeah. They have families, so they obviously don't want their wives to know. So these girls, they flirt with you and have drinks with you and whatever else they do, that's on you guys.

26:07But I tell them, make sure you take care of the girls. Yeah. You said you have a live dealer on the website. Am I watching a real person in a room somewhere? I have someone in Costa Rica that's stealing the cards. Oh, wow. And you're on a camera. And I'm able to say, hit or stay. And I was one of the first ones. I was going to say, you must have been one of the first ones to do that. Because I assume now people do that because we have Zoom and everything. It's everywhere now. But I've never seen it because I don't gamble. And that must have been, what year was this? 2008? This is 2009. So video conferencing stuff to have a live dealer.

26:37Again, I don't gamble and I don't advertise gambling stuff on the show. But it's a novel idea. especially at that point. And people are like, okay, I'm at home and I can't get to Vegas, but I'm with all my friends or something. I can see the appeal. Yeah. It was appealing because now you're not going against the computer. Like when people play these, these games, yeah, like, oh, this thing's rigged. Now you can't tell me it's rigged because you're actually playing with the dealer with a full deck of cards. Yes. No, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. And you're treating this like a business. Yes, it's gambling, but it sounds in the book, it sounds like you're paying people when they win.

27:09You're not dicking them around. The game isn't rigged any more than gambling already is for the dealer. It's a real business. Good luck collecting from me, pal, kind of situation. Like people say in the documentary, Owen ran it like a Fortune 500 company. You got paid on Monday. And when you lose, I expected to be paid the same time. And I treated it like that. And the more I treated it like that kind of business, the more clients I would get. Because people would spread the word like, wow, this guy, he pays you on Mondays. He gives you 10 % off your losses. He gives you free play when you lose.

27:38He invites you to dinners and he takes you to wherever. So you don't feel like a schmo when you like an idiot when you lose. I'm not just treating you like some piece of junk. Yeah, that's interesting. Who are the clients? Like what kind of people? Listen, literally, I talk about in the book, one of my clients I took a bet from was Paris Hilton, right? My buddy was dating her for many years. And obviously a lot of professional athletes that like to bet. And a lot of that LA life back in the 2000s, the nightlife scene, mostly those A-list celebrities that are in the movies, right? Do you yourself enjoy gambling or is it just a business?

28:10No, it's a business. I know you can't beat the house, but a place Las Vegas is built for a reason. I don't have the wiring for it. I don't feel any elation when I win. I'm just kind of like, oh, that worked out. But when I lose, I feel like, oh, that was stupid. So I have all the downside feeling, but the dopamine doesn't kick in as hard as it does for somebody who really enjoys it. Yeah. If I have an edge, right? Like being a bookmaker, you have an edge because you're charging 10 % VIG for you to bet$110 to win$100. That means I have a 10 % edge. Anytime I have an edge, I'll take that. That's why I'm the house.

28:39But as far as gambling, I tell people, like, I'm already the house. What do I need to gamble for? I'm already taking action. Yeah, I think when I do episodes on organized crime or whatever and somebody's got, like, a rigged game, like they pay a soccer player to take a dive or something, that sounds interesting to me. Like, look, it's illegal, so I won't do it. But if you're guaranteed to win, I'm interested in that. I'll bet on that. In theory, again, I don't want to engage in illegal activity because I don't need to. That's interesting to me. But just actually betting on something where the outcome is uncertain, far less fun for me.

29:10I don't have the appetite for risk. What if someone doesn't pay, though? Surely there were people who were like, oh, I lost 100 grand. Fuck you, Owen. I'm not giving you that. That's where I excelled, right? Everyone's like, how does Owen collect? I'm not scared to, you know, start small, right? If a guy stiffs me and I just paid him like a week before, let's say I paid a guy$1 ,000 a week before, and then the next week he loses$500 but doesn't want to pay me, that's like stealing to me because I just paid you. So what's your excuse? And that's when I turn to my collection department. And usually it's six foot six Samoans from the Booyah tribe, a blood gang in Compton or Carson and tattoos on their face.

29:45And that's my last resort. First, we'll start small. We'll call them and let you know, like, hey, we know your wife works and we know your kids go to school here. Just a little scare tactics. Obviously, violence is not allowed in our business because that's going to put you in prison for a long time. Always a little scare tactics. And if that doesn't work, then we send flowers to the wife's work and saying, hey, let your husband know we're trying to collect the money he owes. Why flowers? Just because it shows you know where she is and the message gets delivered. And if that doesn't work, then we will do like a pizza delivery where the pizza man will come to the house now and we'll say, hey, this is from so-and-so.

30:19It's time to pay your debt. Except the pizza guy's a Samoan gangster with his debts. Sorry, the pizza's cold. Samoan's the last outcome. And then that's where it costs money because now this guy's actually putting his life in danger because the cops can get called. He's never asked to do anything as far as hurt, touch. He's just intimidation. Those guys are still taking a risk though, because if I'm a degenerate gambler and armed or something, and some big guy comes to my house, I don't know that he's not going to hurt me or my family. So I might - Shoot them, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they're definitely taking the most risk, but they get paid the most.

30:50Oh, they do? What do they take? 50%. 50%. Okay, so now you're losing money. Yeah, at this point, it's principal now. Right. Yeah. And also setting an example. And you're making a name for yourself. And that's why I was so big in the industry. I had like a 90 % collection ratio. and people like dude Owen was the best in the business it was just a look for me it was a mind fuck I was going to figure out a way to scare you enough where you're going to pay me yeah I would imagine you call someone's mom or whatever a private investigator would get me the mom and the dad's phone number always yeah that's got to have a high success rate like not only are we disappointed in you but this dude showed up to your mother's place of employment or your mother's knitting club had an interesting guest this evening do you want to explain why you're gambling and then not paying your debt pal now for some criminally good deals on the fine products and services that support this show.

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34:43Come on and join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. You can find the course, again, all free at sixminutenetworking.com. Now, back to Owen Hanson. There was a guy in law school and for some reason he owed another guy money, but it was like a legitimate thing and he just wouldn't pay him. And we were all friends. So we're like, what the hell? You're not going to pay him? And we couldn't really figure out why. So what my friend did was his mother or whatever knew some guy who was like Mike from Breaking Bad. And this guy called him was the kid's mom and was like, do you know your son didn't pay rent?

35:18Are you giving him rent money? And she's like, who is this? And he's, don't hang up. Your son owes$5 ,000 or whatever dollars to another kid. You should ask him about it. And so this kid ran to my friend to give him the cash. Pay him, yeah. That's usually what happens. Yeah. Imagine your mom calls. Humiliating, right? It is. It scared her. Because I don't think the guy was like, I'm going to beat your ass or I'm going to beat up your kid. I think he was just like, you should talk to your son about the virtues of paying money that you owe. And most parents don't even need to know what that's for.

35:47They're just like, how are you in this much trouble where this guy's calling me and knows who I am? Yeah. Disappointment, fear. It's a potent combination, man. It's a potent cocktail. So you hired a private investigator to find these guys. Wow. On my payroll. What was that guy like? I can only imagine a guy who's a PI for gambling operations. He actually worked for the DEA and FBI. Oh, wow. And he was retired. Did he have any thoughts about what you were using his services for? I told him. I'm a bookmaker. I said, listen, I do this illegally. I'm not legit. This is illegal business. And sometimes guys want to stiff.

36:23He's like, well, how are they stiffing you? I said, because in my business, we give people lines of credit. We don't get money up front. And so now he understands. He goes, okay, I can help you out. Did he want to make sure that you weren't using his services to go kill someone? Exactly. Okay. Because I'm thinking if I'm a PI and I'm a retired federal agent, I'm not going to prison because you found someone and then turned him into a paraplegic with my help. He's on the hook for that. He was actually part of the indictment. He ended up doing two years. Oh, shoot. Yeah. You'll see that in the movie.

36:52Oh, yikes. You had another interesting business idea, which you were working with some other guys. You kind of ended up licensing their business or their software. Tell me about that. Yeah, so now I'm providing obviously the software. I'm a bookie, right? I'm having this live dealer. So now people are able to gamble and play blackjack live. And I'm like, okay, I have my company called BetoDog. Why don't I use my same software and my same gambling platform and just offer it to anybody that wants to be a bookie and just pay me for the software service? So it's not costing me any more overhead. I'm just giving them a domain.

37:27So betjordan.com, I'm giving you an 800 number. you're using my software and I'm charging you rent based off your customer list. So if you have a hundred customers, I'm saying, okay, it's$25 a week times a hundred, that's$2 ,500 a week that you pay me. So now all of a sudden I'm making$10 ,000 a month from you and it's not costing me any overhead. I've already got people answering the phone. I've got my servers in Costa Rica. Yeah. You've got your fixed costs. Yeah. Wow. Oh, that's great. Why Costa Rica? Is it legal? It's legal there. Oh, I see. Okay. Tell me about this money pickup, the story of your first money pick up.

37:59First of all, why were you picking up this money in the first place? So I started, the business started to go international. I told one of my sub bookies, which is a guy that works underneath me. I said, Hey, I'm going international. I want to go Mexico, Canada. If you have customers or family there, let me know. And so I started taking bets from someone in Mexico through one of my sub bookies. And the guy kept losing like duffel bags every Monday dropped off a couple hundred grand here. I'm like, dude, this guy's like a whale. Keep him happy, whatever he needs, he keeps losing. And the guy's bringing me$200 ,000 every week.

38:31I'm like, dude, this guy's awesome. In a duffel bag? Duffel bag. That's first red flag. First red flag. My agent's happy though, because he's making 50%. I'm making 50%. So we're all like, dude, this is a perfect customer. We're not asking questions. And it's not my business, because he represents his customers. So it's in another country. What are you going to do? Hey, PI, go down to Mexico and figure out who this guy is. It's not happening. And then finally, I see that on Sunday night, the NFL football game's going. And I'm like, dude, this guy's finally going to win. And as a bookie, you always want your customer to win.

39:03Because if they lose, they're never going to keep playing. They're going to eventually learn their lesson. Yeah, you can't beat the house. So I'm like, yes, this is what I wanted. I called my sub bookie and I said, hey, your customer's about to hit. I said, do me a favor, come over here tonight and I'm going to give you his payment. I want you to pay him exactly when he wakes up on Monday morning. I want him to show that we do good business. And he comes over and I give him a duffel bag. I think it was like$220 ,000 he hit for. And I said, 8 a.m. sharp, wherever this guy lives, I want you at his front door.

39:31And I'm telling this bookie, I said, you've made almost half a million dollars off this guy. Let's take this bag and make him show that we do the same. And he paid him. Jordan, when he paid him on that Monday, I'll never forget this. He comes back like four hours later and he goes, hey, my uncle really liked the way you did business. I said, what do you mean? Your uncle? He goes, yeah, that's who's gambling. I'm like, okay. I'm glad he liked that we paid him. What else? He wanted me to give you this encrypted phone. And I look at this phone and it's a Blackberry. There's three passwords to get in.

40:01There's no GPS service in it. There's no camera and there's no microphone. I'm like. So it's like text only. Text only. I'm like, okay. So I go and open up this phone with three passwords. It's literally a Blackberry stripped of everything. And it says, I like the way you do business. Just that. And I was like, okay, I appreciate it. Anything you need, let me know. You're our VIP customer and making them feel good. So he wants direct contact with you, not via his nephew or the agent? Yes, his nephew. He goes, I know you're a bookie and you do good business. Would you be willing to help me out?

40:30And I'm like, how? What's this guy getting at? He's like, sometimes I need money dropped off in the US and I can't use my cash because I'm in Mexico. Would you be willing to do that for me? Because as a bookie, you have money all over the United States. So for me, it's easy because I have people holding money everywhere in pretty much every state that worked for me. So I'm like, okay, what are you thinking? He's like, I need a hundred grand dropped off in San Diego. I'm like, no problem. So I have one of my sub bookies drop off a hundred grand. He goes, okay, every time you drop off money for me, I'm going to give you 10 % of the money.

41:01I'm like, perfect. This is easy. You've already got cash in the place and you're getting 10 % immediate pay on this. Via wire. And for me, I need wires because I need to pay my office in Costa Rica. So I'm like, okay, send it to Costa Rica bank. And now all of a sudden these guys are asking me, just moving money for it. I'm like, this is the easiest 10 % I've ever made per day. And then finally he goes, can you pick up money? I'm like, yeah, I can pick up. What do you need? He goes, I got a million dollars in Brownsville, Texas. And I'm like, okay, a million dollars. I'm doing the math. Okay. 10 % is a hundred thousand dollars in one day.

41:33I'm like, okay, that's a no brainer. I'm the son of a construction worker. But remember I'm that ambitious kid. How old are you at this point? I'm 25 at this point. Oh my God. Irresistible. Yeah, you can't turn down 100 grand at that age in one day. So I'm figuring out, I'm coordinating a private plane, security, and figuring out how to make this happen. Brownsville, Texas. He's like, it's our rival. We can't go there. Once he said rival, I was like, okay, this guy's obviously involved in some organized crime. Oh, he said rival. He said, yeah. He doesn't mean football rival. Yeah, yeah. Right, okay.

42:04So he was obviously from the cartel. And then that's when I picked up that million and I literally dropped it off within six hours to where he had it delivered in Torrance Airport. He's like, wow, you're one of the best workers I've ever seen. You're so prompt. And he goes, I've never seen anyone work so professionally. You didn't try to run away with his money or any crap like that. I didn't know this guy. I could have easily took it if I was a thief, right? Sure. Then after that, he's like, okay. A week goes by. He goes, how would you like to make a million dollars a day? doing the same thing you're doing now, but in Australia.

42:32I was like, a million dollars a day? I would love to make a million dollars a day. Sounds like a good fun year. Where do I sign up? And then he broke it down. He says, I have product in Australia. And that's when I knew. I said, product? Like, what is it? He says, I have cocaine in Australia and I need someone to move it and take the money and bring it back. And I'm like, sign me up. I'm gonna figure out a way, right? The problem is Australia is notoriously difficult to get things into, I don't know about out of, but into for sure. For sure. And that's what happened. He's like, it's already there.

43:01And I'm like, okay, the hard part's done. So now I got to figure out I'm not an international drug kingpin yet. Right. So I'm like, okay, what am I going to do? So I put together that Rolodex and I just start going through it. Okay. Who can do this? Yeah. I remember I have a guy that played baseball at USC and his brother was a weed dealer. Maybe I'll go ask him. And that's what I did. I remember I asked my buddy at USC and he introduced me to his brother who's a weed dealer. And his brother's like, oh, I got a guy that's an Italian guy. And this Italian guy, he's an international dude. He knows everyone.

43:32I'm like, I need to talk to him. And I literally had to fly to Naples to meet this guy. Italy. Yeah. Naples, Italy. And I meet this guy and he's like, there's no way you have product in Australia. He says, that's the number one hardest place in the world to get product into i'm like dude i have it he's like don't waste my time i said i'm telling you i have it there he goes well you do this he says you get over there and when you see it with your own eyes you message me i was gonna say the same thing somebody's gotta lay eyes on this he goes i don't believe it and i don't blame him i did so much research i see why it's so hard you're the farthest point in the middle of the ocean right yeah and also their customs is crazy for environmental reasons too like i've flown there a couple times and i remember they were like searching everything with the dog.

44:16And I was like, you can open my luggage. They're like, we do this with everyone. And I was like, what are you looking for? She's like, literally apples, bananas, kiwis, whatever it is, and maybe some drugs. And I was like, okay, fine. And they went through everything. And I used to know another guy who smuggled steroids as well. And I was like, well, how does it work? And he explained how they mail it. And I said, wow, so you can just order this anywhere in the world? He goes, I won't send anything to Australia because it gets seized like nine times out of town. Oh, yeah. So they open every package of mail, everything.

44:44And this is like 10 or 15 years ago. Now they probably have way better tech. They probably can scan everything. They got cameras everywhere. Everywhere. And like, so getting a bunch of cocaine to Australia, how do you think he got it there? I didn't ask questions. I just, it's not my business, right? You got to have a customs agent. For sure, there's a crooked customs agent, no doubt. So I literally fly to Australia and this El Jefe is like, okay, you ready to work? I'm like, yeah. What do you mean? And he goes, I'm having product dropped off next week. I'm like, oh shoot, I'm scrambling. So I'm telling this Italian guy, I'm like, hey, it's here.

45:15I've seen it. Come hurry. I didn't see it, but I'm just taking this guy's word for it. At this point, I don't want to mess around. You also don't really know. Why would he lie to you about this? Yeah, he's paid me all this money already. So I'm like, hey, it's here. Get over here. So he flies over and that's where it started. Literally, first 10 kilos, sample run, boom, million dollars brought back to me. The street price in Australia has got to be a multiple. Wholesale is 100 grand a kilo. he was buying it for a hundred grand this italian he's selling it to his people for 150 150 000 for one kilo just so people don't know the price in the u.s right now is probably like 15 000 wow so this is a 10x markup retail because it's hard to get stuff into australia and that's u.s pricing and it's probably coming from mexico where it's 500 to produce that kilo or whatever Yeah, for sure.

46:03Crazy or less. Less. Wow. Wow. So this dude, his name is Uncle Louie, right? Yeah, we call him Uncle Louie. Somehow very typical. So what was the first sort of deal you did? You said it was a million dollars just right there? Yeah, it was just a million right off the rip. Jeez. And then the next day was two million. The next day, another two million. So he's bringing that much in every day. Yeah, every day. It really was a million bucks. Holy smokes. What was a better high than doing cocaine or doing a deal like this for cocaine? I think doing a deal like this. Right? I would rather be a millionaire than a drug addict.

46:33Yeah. Okay. When you put it that way. Yeah, that's true, man. I am having some kind of reaction right now. I could very well see myself getting into this type of business in my twenties and thirties and being like, I'm just going to quit after a short period of time, but I'm going to have $50 million. I'm not getting caught. There's no heat on me. I'm working with the best guys in the business who would wrap me out. I'm not hurting anyone. Like I'm already rationalizing it. I'm 45 and no better. And you're sitting here, you spent time in prison, spoiler alert, but it sounds so easy. It sounds like you're just right place, right time, great market.

47:08What could go wrong? Yeah. Famous last words. And I think that's where things went wrong, right? Yeah. You're now sitting on close to$10 million of the cartel's money. And you're like, okay, now how do I get it out? You're thinking El Jefe is going to come and have somebody pick it up, right? And he's, no, that's why I hired you. That's why you're making a million dollars a day. This story took a turn. Different methods to get it out. And one of my best methods in my mind was to use someone to basically launder it through the casinos. So let's talk about the first round. I give them a suitcase full of a million and a half dollars.

47:37It's probably about 50 pounds. Okay. That's not that bad. So you could fit that in like a Toomey roller. It's in a Toomey. It's funny you say that. That's what he requested. I will say they do hold up really well. I abuse mine and it looks awesome. It's still in like really good shape. So I can see, yeah, you put 50 pounds of cash in there. although there's not a lot of room for underwear when you fit 50 pounds of cash into a to me roller so the guy who requested that I guess he knew what he was doing yeah he definitely he shook my hand he said for 25 % I'll do it wow that's heavy it's heavy but hey you gotta get it I gotta get it out of there yeah and I agreed he flew over and he did it he went to the casino literally he put his cash up they already knew he was a high roller because Vegas called him they gave him chips and he just started playing little hands just like 20 grand here 20 grand here playing and about after two hours he's you know what i'm not feeling it cash me out so he already knows that he's got close to a million and a half so they cash him out and he takes those chips and he goes to the cage and he says i'm not feeling it today can you cash me out so they give him a check the check is made out to the sister company and their big sister company in vegas is venetian and now he has a check for the venetian and he's able to fly back to vegas where he's a high roller and he goes and he gives him the check for a million and a half bucks and they can give him chips cash whatever he wants and he just laundered 1.5 million dollars in 48 hours how is this not an obvious way that people launder money that is under high levels of scrutiny at this time it wasn't even looked at because he's a high role unbelievable but now obviously it's gotten stricter and there's busts happen all the time now sure the resort world just got busted with guys doing the system Yeah, because otherwise everyone is doing this.

49:15Everyone was doing it for a long time. At some point, the feds are going, how did you launder$150 million? Oh, look, it all went through the Bellagio. Maybe we should do something about that with a simple regulation that says, look, you can waste$10 million gambling. That's legal. We just need to know that it's actually your$10 million. Yeah. Show us any document at all that shows your customer. Yeah. It's like with crypto. Back in the day, you could just be like, yeah, I want$100 ,000 in Bitcoin. my name is john1234 at aol.com and they're like fine all right no problem go drop it off in this atm or this random gold place and here's your bitcoin now it's like no no scan your id if you're going to withdraw this from our system so yeah kyc so i don't know i've done episodes on chinese money laundering and laundromats and stuff so there's people are trying to figure this out constantly because it's the way that you launder drug money every day you're thinking of something new.

50:07So you're laundering money successfully. And then what happens? He does another round, two and a half million the next three weeks later, two and a half million comes, same suitcase, same luggage. This time I get a call in three hours. I was like, wow, that was fast. And he says, I lost all your money. I said, wait a minute. You didn't have money to lose. You had a 25 % window that you're making. Everything else was mine. What are you talking about? I said, you need to come meet me. And that's when I found out he lost the cartel's money. when he lost it did he steal it or was he just like well i'm gonna gamble obviously we were thinking he stole it yeah like he made a deal with the pit boss and after investigations on my side and a couple people i knew at the casino that we found out he really did lose it gambled away so he had a gambling problem he was an addict for sure i guess you need somebody like me who can just like gamble and be like this sucks i want my money back yeah you gotta treat it like a business Yeah, yeah.

50:59Because again, gambling for me is generally so boring. I'd be like, I'm not feeling it. That's a believable thing that I could say that people would buy because they're going to see me completely emotionless, waste 20 grand and be like, I just want to go to Cirque du Soleil in a buffet. Wow. Tell me though about you were shipping cash back in Uggs. This is one of your sort of like more amateurish attempts, I suppose, at money laundering. Before I obviously was working with this gambler, I took it under my own hands and I started to buy gold bullion with cash. I said, okay, I'm going to buy bullion because that's untraceable.

51:32So I'd go to all these bullion stores in Australia and I'd take$10 ,000 every store I went to and I'd buy one ounce round coins, which is at the time was$1 ,600 a coin. so i take those coins and i take four of them for one ounce rounds and what i do is i'd buy all the ugg boots i could and i take the souls out of the ugg boots and i put four gold coins inside so basically you're getting 1600 1600 1600 1600 that's like close to seven thousand dollars per boot so 14 000 let's just call it 15 000 every ugg boot i would send home dude for a million bucks a day that's a lot of uggs you can't do it i would literally ship out like 20 ugg boots a day and I was like, this is taking way too long.

52:13At some point, the suspicion of why you're buying that many Uggs is more than the suspicion. But there's Ugg boot stores on every corner. But you're going to the UPS store or whatever. That's where it looked weird. They're like, this is your business. How are you doing this at a retail level? You almost need to buy a footwear company to export that amount of shoes just to put the coin, it's not going to work. It just takes too long. It was a cool idea. The girlfriends and the wives and everyone was excited for the first. To have every pair. Every color. But that gets older. They're like, hey, no more Uggs.

52:42Stop sending these. Also, why do you keep ripping them apart when you come home? Yeah, I tell them, don't open them. I said, I want to open that gift with you. And I would open them and I'd take literally the coins out before they see them. It's so stressful. I'll be right back. I need to go to the bathroom with all the packages I sent you. Give me 20 minutes. It's like silly when you picture how it's going to work. Also, surely people thought you were either mentally ill or up to something. They definitely thought I was probably both. Yeah. Okay, so this moron loses all your money. How much were you losing?

53:09Two and a half. But the same day I had 700 ,000 picked off from law enforcement because he called the police and said, I think this guy's after me and I think he has a gun. And my personal trainer was literally wheeling a suitcase with 700 grand of mine. And the law enforcement stopped him randomly because all the cameras, and they got this call from this guy. They said, we've got to report that you have a gun. We need to open your luggage. And it wasn't a gun. It was 700 grand. So in one day I lost 3.2 million of the cartels. Oh no. Yeah. So what's going through your head at this point? like I'm going to get killed.

53:40I'm dead. I'm like, this is over. I'm done. Do I just stay in Australia or do I go face the music? And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go face the music. Yeah. Anybody who can get kilos of cocaine to Australia can figure out a way to kill you in Australia. It's a cartel. Yeah. Yeah. So I just took it. I took it on the chin. I went over, walked over, and I literally met this cartel boss with 10 of his Sicarios, like the guys that carry the guns. These are like bulletproof jackets. Their cars are bulletproof. And I literally have a sit down with this cartel boss in this private restaurant in a town called Puerto Nuevo.

54:15I'll never forget it. And he knew about the whole story already. There's already articles coming out in Australia. So he knew. And I told him the truth, obviously. He knew I was telling the truth. And I showed up. So he's like, you know what? You don't owe me$3.2 million. You owe me$4 million. And now you work for the cartel. Oh, man. I'm alive. I was like, hallelujah. Oh, man. So what's the plan then? because you're obviously, if the law enforcement guys just took 700 grand from you, the worst thing you can do is be put in charge of a bunch more money in Toomey Rollers and then just try to pretend like you're - He knew that, right?

54:48Yeah. Yeah. He knew. He goes, you're hot. He goes, this guy's obviously cooperating. He says, you're going to take two years off and you're going to run your bookie business. He goes, you're good at that. Nothing with cocaine, nothing with money laundering. Handle the bookie business like it's your business for two years. Once that's two years is up, things will be settled down by then and you're going to work for me. And I said, no problem. I was just static. I was alive. Yeah, man. So you're laying low, doing your gambling business. So he says, you know what? You're not going to use my routes because you're hot.

55:19Still, you sell my cocaine, but you can't go over there because you're not allowed in Australia right now because I was a wanted man. He says, but I'm going to give you the product in the US and you have to figure out a way to get it into Australia. Jeez. And that's where I was like, oh man, what am I going to do? That's a tall order. Hey, this is one of the hardest things to do in our business, figure it out. Hardest thing in the world to do. No doubt, like on the drug trade for sure. Wow. So what was the big idea then? So now I had to find a buyer that I already knew someone in Australia. And obviously I couldn't go to Australia and I couldn't talk about this on the phone.

55:49So we met in a private island in Fiji. This guy from Australia flew in, I flew into Fiji and we were literally just going over a game plan. I'm like, how are we going to figure this thing out? I said, I have to get this product into you. and I don't know what to do. How do you get to Fiji without going through Australia? You can, there's a direct flight there. Oh. Yeah, actually I take that back. You leave from Hawaii. Oh, okay. So you go to Hawaii. That makes sense. Yeah. So I get there and we're literally drinking wine. We're drinking this white wine on the island and I'm like, dude, that's it, wine.

56:17He's like, what are you thinking? I said, I'm going to break down the cocaine and I'm going to put it in wine bottles. He's like, how are you going to do that? I said, we're going to get that 150 proof Everclear alcohol. It's like straight alcohol and we'll break it down. The cocaine will turn into liquid. And then once we put it in the bottles, wipe down the bottles, we'll cork it. We'll put it back in the box. I'll ship it like they're wine coming from Napa Valley because Napa Valley is famous in the US or in California where I'm from. And I said, do you have a chemist that can bring it back and basically take out all the liquid and turn it back to the powder?

56:49He goes, yeah, I got a guy. That works? It works, yeah. So you just evaporate the alcohol and end up with boozy cocaine? No, it's not even boozy. Right, because it's all gone. Yeah, it's all gone. just literally clear alcohol. And the alcohol is basically taken out and evaporated. Surely this is now common that they're doing this. Listen, they probably don't do it anymore just due to the fact that the government knows. I don't think people knew, but the guy that was doing this with me got in trouble and he basically told them the whole operation. Yeah. So the government found out about it. So that's why I talk freely on it because obviously I wouldn't want to give up anybody's secrets because I'd get in trouble for that.

57:24But now I speak openly because this guy's already given it to the DA and the FBI. And I'm like, okay, well, now I can talk about it. But man, if you just did one bottle here and there, that's the problem though. Nobody does that. They go, oh, now I need a whole case. All right, I'll do a case, but not a whole pallet. Fine, I'll do a whole pallet, but I'm not going to... And then it becomes, you're buying your own cargo ship to ship over 500 kilos of blow because you're selling it all every day. Yeah, oh my God. So you just dump out all the wine, huh? Somebody's crying over that. You're doing this manually, right?

57:53You're like ripping out the corks, dumping it out. Yeah. So you're dumping like hundreds of bottles of wine. Breaking bad, yeah. Oh my God. My construction worker that was helping me, he was like, dude, I'm going to drink some of that wine. I said, listen, you better drink it fast. Yeah, to take it in a jug and take it home, but don't, yeah, don't drink it on the jug. He used to put it in one of those big water jugs. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, those big five gallon ones. Yeah, yeah. It's funny. Like, where are you getting this wine? It comes in an ugly ass jug, but it's pretty good. This is actually a pretty good wine.

58:18This is Napa Valley. Some guy making mediocre ass white wine in Napa is like, that's why I was sold out all the time. I didn't think anybody would like this. Yeah, the cheapest white wine I found. You're floating a couple wineries entirely from this business, and the guy's patting himself on the back for making this amazing product. You also use chocolates, yeah? That was kind of unique. Tell me about that. The wine guy started to charge me too much to take it back and to put it in powder cocaine. He wanted to charge me an arm and a leg. I said, you know what? You're going to be out of a job if you want to charge me that.

58:49And I put my foot down. I said, I'm not paying that. And I said, you know what? I'm going to come out with a new route. And I figured it out. I said, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. That's going to be my way. And I went to my Rolodex. I'm like, okay. I had a fraternity brother at USC. His parents were in the import-export business of chocolate from the UK. And they would ship chocolate and sweets, all kinds of candies from the UK into the US. And they had a warehouse in Compton where they would distribute the European chocolate throughout the United States. It was a big business. Yeah, that sounds like a good business.

59:19Good business. That's why the kid had a black card. Yeah, exactly. And I told the kid, I said, I'll give you$50 ,000 a month if you give me your expired chocolate. And I said, I'll give it to you in cash. And how are you going to say no to that? It's not like it's costing you anything. Meanwhile, it's going in a dumpster in the back of the warehouse. Exactly. And all he has to do is be like, hey, dad, my frat bros will eat it. Yeah, they want it. Right. Like, oh, okay, sure. All right, I'll help you load the trunk. So I remember he's like, dude, I want to be there if I'm making$50 ,000 a month.

59:46Can I help you? I'm like, dude, I don't want you to be there. I said, I need you to leave at 6 p.m. when all your employees leave, to be honest, and let me do my thing. And he insisted. I'm like, dude, okay, I'm telling you, you're going to be upset. And I knew he did Coke. So I was like, here's a bag. And he started doing it. I said, that's what I'm bringing into this chocolate. He's like, I want to help. So we're literally like stuffing. Yeah, we're stuffing these kilos inside. We're taking all the bars out. We're putting the cocaine in the bottom. We're putting the bars on top. And we're saran wrapping this pallet.

1:00:14And there's 50 kilos of Coke in there. and we're literally like hiding it. If customs goes through it, they're going to literally have to go through every piece of chocolate to find all these different areas. This sounds like a huge pain in the ass. It is a pain in the ass. But I guess if you're making a million dollars, you're just like, well. Yeah, well, remember, we got to pay back the cartel. Oh, yeah. I don't care right now. You're also going to get brutally murdered and probably tortured beforehand if you don't do it. That's motivating. Yeah. That's true. I forgot about that part. Wow. So it started working.

1:00:43Like the guys in Australia were blown away. Speaking of bad ideas, Now, a word from our sponsors. We'll be right back.

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1:04:39All of the deals discount codes and ways to support the podcast are searchable and clickable on the website at Jordan Harbinger dot com slash deals. If you can't remember the name of a sponsor, you can't find the code. Email us Jordan at Jordan Harbinger dot com. I'm happy to surface codes for you. It is that important that you support those who support the show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Owen Hanson. You used a lot of interesting principles to get El Jefe to trust you. Not even novel or unique, but just stuff most people don't do, like answer his calls on the first ring any day, make sure that he's happy with the service you provided when he was doing the gambling thing.

1:05:15A lot of people, they feel like business is some kind of, or client service is like some kind of big mystery, and you really have to do all this amazing news. No, you just have to be a human being. Be responsible, responsive, and that's it. It's not that hard. It's just hard to do consistently, and that's why most businesses end up dropping the ball. Consistence is key. So who is this boss? Obviously, he's a cartel boss, but he's ruthless, but also he's not dumb. He's a businessman. Obviously, I haven't given up names. I'm not going to say who he is, but let's put it this way. He's a businessman, and he makes a lot of money.

1:05:46So he's still operating. Yeah, he's definitely not in prison. Okay. Now, you're doing drugs and drinking a lot during this time to manage the stress, yeah? Yeah, I'm so literally so nervous that I know the FBI is after me because PI is running license plates and saying it's coming back to authorities. And I'm like, OK, well, I got to get the cartel paid back. I don't care about the FBI. Wow. So they're watching you and you're smuggling cocaine to pay back the cartel who's going to kill you if you don't. Exactly. And did you tell El Jefe like, hey, the FBI is watching me? He doesn't care. I told him, I said, dude, I'm running license plates on these cars around my houses.

1:06:19You got to pay me back. TikTok. I remember he texted me. TikTok. Oh, that's scary. Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay. I just literally, every time I would see them, I was just like, okay, I got to keep going. I got to hurry up. Because I knew it was crashing down eventually. You just feel it. That's a stressful way to live. Yeah. So that's why I was doing a lot of drugs and alcohol. I just wanted to be numb. Man. So how's that affecting you at this time? Because your stress levels through the roof and you're self-medicating. Are you thinking clearly? I mean, I was just a machine. Like literally would golf at six in the morning, still doing blows, still working out.

1:06:51I just was like literally like a robot. nothing would faze me. I was taking so much blow and so many Xanax and alcohol and GHB. And I'm like, sad to say, but like, I just wanted to be put out. I was so stressed. This is the part where people need to pay more attention because the good times sounded really awesome, but this part does not sound like it was worth it at all. No way. And even then you're lucky that you weren't dead. No, I should have been dead. I tell people like, I should have definitely overdosed on drugs. Yeah. Or been murdered by the cartel. Yeah, that was next. Yeah. It was one of those two.

1:07:23And then luckily, the spoiler alert, I did go to prison. We'll get to that in a minute. Tell me about this Cipriani, Cipriani guy. He keeps trying to get you in trouble. Who is this guy first? Because I don't think we introduced him. So Robert Cipriani is the guy that laundered the money. Oh, he's the guy who lost your money. Yeah, he's lost my money. So he keeps trying. And I already know at this point he's working for the feds because we see that. There's little checkpoints that you're looking at, okay, this guy's definitely working with him. And then he'd make these phone calls and he'd call me on my cell phone like, hey, buddy, I got to pay you back your 2.5 million that I laundered.

1:07:53Yeah, I'm so concerned. Like, why are you calling me and why are you saying that I laundered on the phone? Like, no one speaks like that. I need to do more of this illegal thing with you. Yeah. We don't want the authorities to ever find out. Yeah. And he's like, can we meet up? And I'm like, dude, I'm not meeting up with this guy. I feel something's wrong. And then that's when we started putting pressure on him. And like, dude, you got to pay us back. Oh, so you did want him to pay you back. We tried, yeah. Of course. Any dollar I could make would go towards my debt with El Jefe. That's a good point.

1:08:19If he gives you a million and tells you this is all I can do, you're that much closer to not dying. Exactly. And he's literally trying to keep me happy and he'll put$2 ,000 in my bank account. I'm like, dude, keep doing that. Every day do that. Make me feel it. Jeez. I'm surprised El Jefe wasn't like, why don't I just send some guys to him and cut off a couple of his toes and maybe he'll pay you back? Because I was the one that was responsible. Remember, I went into business with El Jefe. It was my job to figure it out. It just still seems like you could be like, hey, if you have people that are willing to kill, can I borrow one of those guys for like an hour?

1:08:50I don't need to kill anyone. I just need to make sure that this guy really knows that I can. Yeah. That would have maybe helped. No, he did put a fear of God. Yeah. He sent videos of guys getting their heads chopped off and said, hey, we know where you live. This is going to happen to you. Like stuff that scared the living shit out of them. And we use a bunch of scare tactics that basically caused him to go to the FBI and said, look at what they're doing. I see. So that actually. Hurt us. Blew up in your face a little bit. Okay. Okay. Once again, I obviously would not have operated any better in this business than you because that seems like, oh, yeah, just have these guys threaten him.

1:09:20Oh, oops, he went to the FBI. So how does it all end up unraveling? Tell me about them finally catching up to you. just eventually them infiltrating my network in Australia. My contacts in Australia were realizing that the money was so hard to get back from Australia to the U.S. that it was every time I would have to wait months and months to send new product because we had to wait till our money got back. Otherwise, we weren't going to send new product. So the FBI infiltrated them and went on this yacht in Australia. My contacts were on the yacht drinking and unbeknownst to them, the FBI are drinking next to him.

1:09:54And they're shooting the shit and they're talking and the FBI says, oh yeah, we're in the money laundering business. This is what we do. They didn't know they were FBI agents, obviously. And he's like, dude, perfect timing. What a coincidence. Yeah, like, yeah. What do you charge? That's where the red flag should have stood up. He charged half of what we were paying, like 12 points. Oh, right. I'm like, dude, are you sure these guys are legit? And I'm telling him on these encrypted phones, they're like, dude, these guys are great. Let's just do a test run. Because they hung out with him for 30 minutes and they definitely wouldn't lie or anything.

1:10:22Yeah. They literally send these guys back to San Diego where they set up a round of golf and they're like, my buddy in Australia just gives them 10 ,000 bucks and sees if they bring it to me. And sure enough, they bring it to me minus their fee. I'm like, yeah, they paid me the cash, but that wasn't very much. And these guys are like, well, let's do the next one. Quarter million, right? So we do it to quarter million. And then next one's a million. Right. And the DA is like ramping it up. They're going to keep doing it. Keep doing it. And this whole time now we're being wiretapped. Next thing you know, I'm golfing with them weekly.

1:10:53And finally we schedule another half a million dollar drop and we're supposed to discuss our next way of payment. And we set up a tea time in San Diego where I'm supposed to golf with them. Like I've already been golfing with them. I've already been gambling on the golf course, drinking cocktails with them like they're the bros. and that's when that September 9th, 2015, I show up to the country club and my caddy's literally taking my clubs out of my trunk of my Porsche Panamera. As soon as I turn around, there's 15 FBI agents coming out of the bushes, helicopter in the sky in New South. Oh, because they thought you might run.

1:11:25A bag of clubs running down the fairway. They put handcuffs on me and I'll tell you what, Jordan, that was the best day of my life. Just the relief knowing that I'm done, I'm out of this business. I didn't end up dead. I paid the cartel back. Oh, you'd managed to pay him back? I paid them back every penny. And I was like, this is the biggest blessing. I'm going to prison. People are thinking, this is the worst thing ever. But I'm like, dude, you don't know how much stress I had living, worried my whole life. The last two years I lived knowing that I had this debt and that I was working for the cartel and I'm in so deep.

1:11:57Like, how am I going to get out? Like, I'm either going to die or get killed. And I got arrested, which was even better. And people are like, oh, that's crazy. Wow. But I was blessed. And I tell people that's the best thing that could ever happen to me. I'm here. you and I are speaking right now. I assume at the time the agents, you weren't like, oh, thank God you guys are here. Take me to jail. Yeah, definitely not. Wow. Did the caddy know the FBI was there? For sure. He was so nervous. He was shaking like a leaf. This guy's like, hey, Mr. Hanson. Let me get your clubs out of your trunk. Looking over his shoulder.

1:12:26He probably was an FBI agent now that I think about it. Really? Oh, you think so? Yeah, for sure. He was just like - The caddy? Yeah. Literally, the whole golf course was shut down that day for this thing. Oh, wow. You're like, wow, it's so easy to park today. There was nobody in the parking lot. And I told the caddy that. I'm like, dude, why is no one here? Mr. Hanson, I don't know. And he's literally shaking when he's bringing my clubs out of the trunk. That guy, they're like, we were first undercover gig. You're playing the caddy. And the agents are like, wow, that guy needs a little more work before we put him in a higher stakes situation.

1:12:52He's like, you can't even take the bag of clubs out of the trunk. Now that guy's infiltrating the Hells Angels or something. Yeah, exactly. He's chief of operations. Yeah, I'm better off at a desk. Man, how long were you under surveillance, you think? 2010, 11, I think so. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, five years. So somebody made their early career. Oh, for sure. The prosecutor made his career off of my case. Wow. Like my kid is six and I'm thinking, wow, if I started an investigation when he was born and I made the arrest five years later and then still the prosecution's after that, that's like longer than my kid has been alive.

1:13:26That's a big project to think about. Wow. And I would imagine you're looking at Discovery. Are they showing you photos of places you forgot? Oh, yeah. Like you forgot. Like, when was that? Like, oh, you were with that girl there? What was I doing there? Oh, Fiji. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. This is my layover in Hawaii. Yeah. Sitting at the Starbucks. That's crazy. So this is where the book ends, right? You go to prison. What was the sentence then? 21 years and three months. What are you thinking when you hear that at the time? Because you're how old are you? It's a life sentence, right?

1:13:5530. Let's see. I got sentenced when I was, I think, 35. When I finally got sentenced. So I'm doing the math. I'm like, okay, I'm going to be out. Close to 60. They want to give me a life sentence in Australia. I'm like, dude, my dad, I'm never going to get to see my dad. That's all I'm thinking about is my pops, the guy that's been there since day one. I'm like devastated. And you look back and you just see that disappointed face. And you're like, man, what do I do? You're scrambling. And you're like, that's it. My life's over. Wow. So what about in prison? Are you depressed the whole time? Or are you like, look, I got to give my shit to you?

1:14:26For sure, the first couple of months you're depressed. But like, okay, am I going to just take this and just be this guy that's going to be moping around his whole life and eating soups and getting fat? Or am I going to rehabilitate like that judge told me in getting that kind of time? It's obviously a time to rehabilitate. And Jordan, I'm accepting full responsibility that, yes, I deserve to go to prison. Now, did I deserve 21 and a half years? I don't think so, but I did break the law and therefore the judge makes that decision. Drug penalties are way too high. Yeah. Yeah. So I do belong there.

1:14:56I'm not going to lie. But obviously I was just going to say, you know what, let's make the best out of this situation. And I went to school again. I went back and got my master's degree. In prison, PhD in prison? I would have stayed the whole 21 years. I would have for sure. Yeah. Because I feel like there's not a whole lot else going on in there. Working out and go to school. Yep. That's all I did. Worked out, go to school. And then once I got my master's, I started a business inside prison that you've actually got to experience. That's right. Is that allowed, by the way, to do that? No, of course not.

1:15:22But what are they going to do? Take my currency? Because in prison, your currency is stamps, right? United States postage stamps. So like, okay, take my money. You guys go spend that. The ice cream business. Yeah. I just was a hustler my whole life. I'm like, man, I'm tired of asking my dad to put money on my books. What am I going to do? He's got a life to live himself. I've already put him through hell. So I was like, I got to figure out a way to make money in here. And I'm not going to be selling the old ice cream. I'm going to start selling this new ice cream. Prison ice cream, but it's no good?

1:15:48No, they don't have prison ice cream unless you know how to make it. I would literally take a peanut butter jar, put the milk from the kitchen inside the jar, take the protein powder they sell in the commissary. Dump that in there. I take slices of bananas, put them in there, little swirl of peanut butter, and I literally shake it up like a protein shake. Usually I would just put it on ice, get it cold. By the time I got back from my workout, I would drink it. It actually sounds really good. It's good. It's just not with the blender. We don't have blenders. We don't have fridges. We're getting ice from the ice room.

1:16:15There's a room where you can get ice and we put it in mop buckets. So you can put your ice in a mop bucket or in a trash can. People put their sodas in there, the protein shakes there, whatever, that needs to be cold. There's no refrigeration. So that's what I would do. I would literally make my protein shake every morning, put it in the mop bucket on ice, and I'd go work out and I'd come back and drink my shake. I told people, my mind is not in prison. My mind is out there in the real world. I just finished my workout at Equinox and I'm just having my protein shake at EarthBark. That's how my mind works.

1:16:43Oh, really? Oh, that's funny. Yeah, that's how I made it work for me. Is that keeping you sane or is it just reminding you that you're in prison all the time? that's keeping me sane it's keeping you yeah that's the only way I can mentally do it yeah it's a good idea yeah I played it right because every day it was like okay we're gonna have this nice fish which is a mackerel tastes like crap obviously but we're now eating this fish at El Pistado in Beverly Hills right like you're just making the best of a shooting situation yeah sure I gotta ask so when you get out and you go to real Equinox you're like nah this is definitely better oh yeah yeah it's surreal like I literally go to that executive locker room and Magic Johnson's like right next to me I'm like you definitely weren't there in prison yeah yeah Yeah, you don't have to worry about getting beat up or anything at Equinox in Beverly Hills.

1:17:25Yeah, man. So this ice cream, you're making this in prison, you're selling it in prison, and then you decide, hey, I'm going to just bring this to the civilian world? Listen, I was making these protein shakes, and one day they ran out of ice. And my celly, he's like, hey, just throw some salt on there. When you get back, it'll still be cold because if you have salt and ice together, it makes it like freezing. Cool, I get back from my workout, and it's frozen. I'm like, dude, you told me it'd be cold, it's frozen. He goes, dude, just try it. Who knows? Maybe it's good. Oh, so you accidentally made ice cream.

1:17:53Yeah. Oh, I see. Dude, it's protein ice cream. He goes, dude, I told you it'd be good. And I'm eating it. I'm like, dude, wait a minute. And then I started making it for my workout partners. And they're like, dude, why don't you sell this? This is amazing. We don't have ice cream in prison. Like, it's hard to get ice cream unless you know how to make it. And I'm making a protein ice cream. And everyone in prison works out. Well, yeah, I would assume so. Yeah, that's all you do. Two hours a day, you're in the morning, you're working out. Two hours at night, you're working out. There's nothing else to do.

1:18:20And if you're eating shitty mackerel - There's mackerel. I'm tired of mackerel. Yeah. And there's soups and there's garbage, right? There's soups and Doritos and Zoom Zooms and Twix and bad stuff. There's nothing that's a healthy, innocent treat. So you guys are eating pounds of whey protein. We only can buy seven packs of protein a week, so one per day. Oh, you're limited. Yeah, you're limited. You can only spend$320 a month on food. Oh, I didn't realize they limited you. Because what happens is people start gambling in prison and they use that money to pay for their gambling debts. Ah, okay.

1:18:51So it's to protect you from getting extorted, basically. Extortion, yeah. Okay. I guess they have to think about things like that. Oh, yeah. Wow. No, I got out of prison, right? And I go to the halfway house and I'm literally sitting on my bunk bed with 20 inmates around me. And I'm like, dude, what am I going to do? I'm a felon now. I know I wrote this book. You can't make much money on book sales. I know the documentary has been already filmed and it's coming out, but I don't know when. And I'm like, okay. So I was like, man, what am I going to do? And I call one of my old gambling customers.

1:19:17I told him. I said, I don't know what to do for work. How long were you in the clink? I was in the clink for nine years, and I did another year in the halfway house. So 10 years under the Bureau of Prisons. So you didn't have to fulfill a 20-year sentence? No, I had a corrupt lawyer in Australia that was trying to get some of the money that I lost, and the corrupt lawyer was in on it. The United States government called me six years into my prison sentence, and they said that corrupt lawyer is taking it to trial, and there's only one person that knows he's corrupt. Mr. Hansen, are you willing to fly over to Australia and testify against him for illegal stuff you guys were doing?

1:19:54And I raised my hand. I said, absolutely. And then the judge in Australia basically found him guilty for corruption and wrote my judge in America and asked for a sentence reduction under a rule 35. Which is what? Rule 35 is a significant amount of assistance for helping another case, which is this case. Wow. It obviously wasn't the cartel, thank God. Yeah. But it was this corrupt lawyer. That's one of the luckiest things that's ever happened in your life. I won the lot on life. I tell people that was the Lord looking after me for sure. Yeah. Wow. So they were like, we really want to put this guy away because he worked for the state, I assume.

1:20:28Correct. Or something like a public defender. He was a public defender. Geez. And he was on the take and just trying to steal your money. Trying to get that money back. And he had done this to a lot of other people. They knew he was crooked for years. The guy was like 70 years old and they're like, dude, we finally got him. Like they had their evidence. Wow. Okay. So you get out. why didn't you get back into gambling? You already knew how to run a gambling site. It was not illegal at the time. When I got out, it's legal in 38 states. Yeah. Why not just move to... Everyone's going, you'd be a CEO of these companies.

1:20:53You're great at it. Sure. And I agree. I would love to do that, Jordan. But the problem is when they found me guilty, the judge put on my restraints that said, the restrictions are I can no longer ever work in the gambling world. Nothing to do with gambling. Because, yeah, that makes sense. Because of money laundering. You're money laundering. It's like when Theranos Elizabeth Holmes or Sam Bankman Freed, They can never work in finance or crypto or run a business or anything like that because they've proven that they're not trustworthy to do that. But you can run a business. I mean, you're running this business.

1:21:23Dude, I started this business from prison, right? And I'm like, dude. It's called protein ice cream? Yeah. No, it was California ice protein. California ice protein. I tell people, I'm a California kid like my book. I'm like, I need to have something that ties to my story. I'm like, dude, in prison we called it ice protein because it's not ice cream. It's protein. And by the way, this is super good. And I'm not just saying that because you're sitting in front of me. I didn't even get to have the majority of this because I'd take one or two bites and then I'd be like, hey, you guys try this. And I'd turn around and it's gone because my kids and wife were like, this is amazing.

1:21:52Yeah. So it's gone. Where can people buy it? You're direct to consumer. Our website, CaliforniaIceProtein.com. I usually don't shill products so hard, but it's actually really, really good. And it's a comeback. I tell people, listen, this is a second chance in every bite. Nice. It's like Dave's Killer Bread type of thing. Yes, exactly. So how much protein is in one of these? 20 grams. Each bar. Each bar. And they're four ounces. Jeez, how much calories is in each one? 266? We've redone the calories. We did a test last week on them. Okay. And we got the calories down to all these bars are at 200 calories.

1:22:22And the cookies and cream has about 20 more because of the cookie. Okay. So that's 220. So that's a pretty damn good ratio. It's good macros. Of protein to calories. Better than a chocolate bar with protein. Yeah. It's like similar to having like a protein shake on a stick. Yeah. And that's really good. And my kids liked it. I know you're coming out with a kid version that's a little bit more because kids eating stuff off his stick is already a nightmare. Make it small like a Johnny Pop. Yeah, this is, you're full when you finish this. If you think you're going to have it for dessert, you're not going to finish it because it's actually too filling.

1:22:50Yeah, let's say it's a meal replacement. Yeah, well, questionable nutritional choices, but sure, fair. It is actually more or less that. Do you ever miss the drug game and stuff? You ever think like, oh man, that was cool. Not that you would go back. Listen, everyone's been asking me that. What do you find that makes that feeling, right? For me, it was that rush. Like for me, okay, I was sending a pallet full of chocolate into Australia and watching it land in clear customs. But last month when I first shipped my first three pallets to New York and my frozen ice cream, which is harder to ship than cocaine because we remember frozen ice cream has to be frozen 24 hours.

1:23:26Pallets of cocaine, you don't have to freeze. So when that landed in New York and they got my three pallets and they told me that it's not melted, I had that same rush. the same eye because I felt like, wow, it's just the same business principle, but with a different product. If only you'd gotten to consumer packaged goods before instead of cocaine, but then you wouldn't have thought of the recipe. That's right. Here we are. Everything happens for a reason, right? That's right. Man, what an incredible story. We'll link to the Amazon documentary. It's called Cocaine Quarterback. Correct. And that's on Amazon Prime Video.

1:23:57So that's like - It's top six in the US right now. Wow. And the book, we'll also link in the show notes as well, The California Kid, and people can order the ice cream. Ice cream in the book, I let people order it on my website, and I personalize each message and sign it. Ice cream, though, again, really good. We'll link to that in the show notes as well. Thanks for coming in, man. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, I appreciate it. What if the next mass shooting wasn't random but entirely preventable, hidden behind obvious warning signs that we've been trained to ignore? With school shootings, most mass shooters are using legally purchased firearms.

1:24:29It's an overwhelming majority. We are also a country that has a huge number of firearms, and they're very easy to get in most places. So therefore, it makes sense on a very fundamental level that we have more mass shootings. You want to get a gun, you can get a gun. Everyone goes to their corners. I'm either totally for guns everywhere, or I'm against all guns, and this is all about mental health, or it's about something else entirely. Politics, ideology, it's all these things together. It's a complex problem. For decades, people have tried to figure out, can you predict an act of violence like this?

1:25:00And the answer is definitively no. There is no way to predict someone doing this, but you can prevent it if you can identify the process leading up to it. So that's what the profiling is. It's studying the process of behavior and circumstances leading up to the attack. Each case is unique. They're studying patterns of behavior. There's a body of knowledge about how to go about evaluating and intervening to stop people from committing violence like this. But every case is different, too. I think it's really important to have good, solid, dispassionate reporting on what's happening. follow the evidence, tell the story.

1:25:33That's what I do. The people who are going to do this work are already in place. Teachers and administrators and counselors in a school system, they're already tasked with the safety and well-being of students. It's really more about training and expertise and institutional knowledge of how to handle the situation when it arises. My focus on violence prevention in this space is really ultimately a hopeful story. For more on the overlooked clues and urgent choices that could mean the difference between tragedy and prevention, Check out episode 1140 on the Jordan Harbinger Show with Mark Fulman.

1:26:30in there. Kids and adults love it. Linked in the show notes as well. Advertisers, deals, discount codes, ways to support this show, all at jordanharbinger.com slash deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show. Also, our newsletter, We Bit Wiser. The idea is to give you something specific and practical that'll have an immediate impact on your decisions, your psychology, and your relationships. It's a two-minute read. Comes out pretty much every Wednesday. If you haven't signed up yet, I invite you to come check it out. It really is a great companion to this show. jordanharbinger.com slash news is where you can find it.

1:27:01Six Minute Networking at sixminutenetworking.com. Doesn't matter how you spell it. I bought those domains. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. In this show, it's created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Tata Sidlowskis, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for the show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. If you know somebody who's interested in ice cream, cocaine, money laundering, or maybe just a great story, definitely share this episode with them.

1:27:34In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn. And we'll see you next time.

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