Playboy and cocaine kingpin Owen Hanson has been sentenced to 21 years in jail. Photo / Twitter
Playboy and cocaine kingpin Owen Hanson has been sentenced to 21 years in jail. Photo / Twitter
A former playboy and cocaine kingpin who trafficked large quantities of drugs to Australia and boasted about high profits has lost everything.
Owen Hanson, also a former American footballer, made millions of dollars trafficking drugs Down Under, was handed a 21-year jail term in the US District Court in San Diego today.
The US government is going after $7 million of Hanson's properties, luxury cars and other assets. The assets also include silver "koala" coins and the infamous $702,000 cash found in a suitcase at Sydney's Hilton Hotel.
"By virtue of said guilty plea and the court's findings, the US is now entitled to forfeiture of the aforedescribed properties and forfeiture of proceeds the defendant received in the amount of $US5,000,000," prosecutors wrote in a filing to the US District Court.
Hanson had boasted about trafficking large quantities of drugs at extraordinarily high prices to Australia before his arrest at a golf course near San Diego in 2015. The 35-year-old has been in custody at San Diego's Metropolitan Correctional Center in the US since his arrest. Australian and US authorities conducted a combined covert operation.
The former University of Southern California gridiron player initially protested his innocence but entered a guilty plea in January to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute narcotics charges.
Hanson and prosecutors agreed to a 20-year sentence but it was up to the judge at his sentencing to decide his fate. The deal was made as his trial approached and he faced life in prison.
Prosecutors' criminal forfeiture request seeks "one kilo of Australian silver seized" from a Los Angeles address on Sunset Boulevard and 10 one ounce silver coins "with Australian koalas" from a vault in Beverly Hills. A "Bank of China Australia" safe deposit box containing $65,000 is also listed.
Hanson's downfall from high-flying playboy to jail inmate began in August 2011 when a suitcase containing $702,000 was seized by police at the Sydney Hilton. The suitcase eventually led them to Hanson.
The cash is listed alongside an impressive list of items sought by the US government including Range Rover and Porsche cars, properties in Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru, a sailboat, jewellery, gold bars and numerous golf and club memberships, including one worth $39,000 at LA's exclusive Mountaingate Country Club.
LA-based Hanson admitted to being the founder and leader of ODOG, a criminal enterprise trafficking drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, ecstasy and steroids.
Hanson was a regular visitor to Australia and had boasted he could sell a kilogram of cocaine in Australia for $228,000 compared to $26,000 in Los Angeles.
The good times are no longer rolling for the former American footballer, who trafficked millions of dollars worth of drugs to Australia. Photo / Supplied
Hanson used violence and intimidation to recoup debts, including sending a professional gambler a DVD depicting beheadings and a photo of the gambler's mother's gravestone splashed with red paint.
Hanson was a regular visitor to Australia and Australian authorities were present when he was arrested at the golf course.
He originally faced extradition to Australia, but the US announced its own case months later.
Australian authorities were not able prosecute him until the US trial was over.
Whether or not that happens, the next few decades will be a new chapter for Hanson, whose social media pictures typically showed him smiling and shirtless by a pool with attractive women in bikinis.
