Owen Hanson Went From USC Football Player to Drug Kingpin — Where Is the California Kid Now?

Back in the early 2000s, a young kid from Redondo Beach, Calif. decided to attend college a stone's throw from where he grew up. Although Los Angeles wasn't far from where Owen Hanson was raised, it might as well have been light-years away. Although movies and television shows like to tell us all of Southern California is glamorous, Hanson had a difficult childhood. "I was willing to do anything it took to be able to fit in with those USC kids," he said in an interview with The Mob Museum.

What Hanson was willing to do involved a drug trafficking enterprise that landed him in federal prison. In December 2017, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California revealed he had trafficked thousands of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, MDMA (also known as “ecstasy”), marijuana, anabolic steroids, and Human Growth Hormone (“HGH”). He was subsequently sentenced to 255 months in prison. Where is he now? Here's what we know.

Hanson was released from prison in August 2024 after serving seven years of a 21-year sentence. According to an Instagram post, he was initially released to a halfway house where he was helped by family and friends. The former drug dealer said they gave him everything he needed to rebuild his life: opportunities, resources, and unwavering support. He is now an entrepreneur, author, and subject of a documentary produced by Mark Wahlberg called Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel.

While he was incarcerated, Hanson had nothing to do, and he soon realized that keeping his mind occupied would keep him out of trouble. Hanson wanted to do something healthy, so he came up with the idea for a protein ice cream and worked on various flavors while behind bars. "I've perfected everything about it," he said in a video posted to Instagram that appeared to be a recreation of his time in prison.

Hanson looked straight to camera, in a fake prison uniform, and said if he can do it in prison, he can do it on the street. That's when California Ice Protein was born. "I've lived the fast life, cut corners, and paid the price; now I’m still moving product, but legally, and the grind didn’t change, just the mission," said Hanson on Instagram. "For those who might ask, moving protein ice takes more work than moving what I used to," he joked.

Hanson started dealing when he was at USC, where he sold recreational drugs and steroids to teammates and friends. He graduated with a business degree that Hanson parlayed into a criminal empire. United States Attorney Adam Braverman said Hanson went on to ship enormous quantities of dangerous drugs around the globe. From there, he moved up to operating illegal bookmaking enterprises and laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.

From 2012 to 2016, Hanson operated a violent international drug trafficking, sports gambling, and money laundering enterprise in the U.S., Central and South America, and Australia, per the FBI. He was caught by an undercover FBI agent to whom Hanson provided five kilograms of cocaine and five kilograms of methamphetamine. He was arrested the following day.