Prison Business Lessons From a Former Drug Kingpin | Owen Hanson DSH #1413

I've seen him seen murders seen stabbings

Seen a guy hang himself see seen two guys overdose on heroin.

Jeez.

Oh, I mean it's I think anytime you put a needle in your arm You don't know what's gonna happen.

Yeah, but I think it was accidental.

What was crazy is him and his bunkie both did a shot and they both died dang

All right, guys, Owen Hansen here, also known as the California Kid from USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingpin.

Thanks for joining us today, man.

Thanks for having me, Sean.

Yeah, what a story.

Glad to be here.

High highs and low lows, but here you are now.

Glad to be alive, right?

Yeah.

You're back on the come up now, right?

That's right.

Everyone loves to come back.

You excited for the new chapter?

I can't wait, man.

I'm just

tasting the freedom.

You know, I'm almost there.

Three more months and I'll be out of the Federal Bureau Prison halfway house.

And you had a 255-month sentence, right?

Yes.

It was a battle and

it took some finesse and we got here did you have to serve all the full amount or how did it work no i got some love in the court and uh you know you'll you'll you'll be able to hear that later on in my uh my docuseries that's coming out but it's it's an amazing amazing journey and uh

uh you know the lord was definitely looking after me

did religion play a major role for you yeah you know the the whole time you're you're wondering is there is there a lord up there and you know you're praying every night and then finally that that that moment hits where you're like wow there

there is somebody up there that's looking after me.

There's definitely a higher up.

Yeah, I definitely believe in a higher up and a sense of purpose, right?

Yes, for sure.

I love that.

Your story began at USC, right?

Two times national champ.

Yeah, back-to-back national champs under Pete Carroll.

Played with Reggie Bush, Matt Leinert, Mike Williams, Sean Cody, you name it, Clay Matthews.

And fuck,

what an amazing.

amazing time at USC, you know, never playing football in my life and walking onto one of the greatest football teams of all time in college legendary legendary coach yeah legendary pete carroll legend for sure a player's coach right yeah and just uh he's going to be at the raiders now and we need we need him

you guys are lucky but i think uh i think he will do well there you know he's he's older but he's got it in him yeah

how did it feel seeing all your teammates go off in the pros do their things you know that's where kind of my life took a turn right you know you're seeing your buddies making millions of dollars and you're like how can i compete and uh that's where i got into organized crime i was watching them going 20 million dollar contracts i'm like okay i'm going out to vegas with them they're buying bottle service and i just i like i feel like i'm not throwing my my weight carrying my weight and i'm like

you know what it's time i step it up and that's when i got into illegal bookmaking and started being a bookie for professional athletes a-list celebrities and i took it to the next level and one day i i eventually started taking bets for the cartel yeah and that's where this thing took a a turn.

Did you know they were the cartel at the time before?

No, you know, at the time I didn't know.

I was accepting these bets from someone over in Mexico and I was getting duffel bags of cash dropped off.

And I was like, well, this is a really good customer.

But I'm telling my sub-bookie, you know, keep him happy, give him his 10% free play and whatever he needs from me, just let me know.

Because I treated my business like a concierge service, you know.

And that's what he did.

This agent that worked for me, which we call a sub-bookie, he just kept bringing those bags of cash.

And I remember remember finally this, this guy from Mexico hit.

And I said,

I called the agent.

I said, hey, man, you got to pick up this cash and pay him early.

I want to pay him on Monday because no bookie in the business pays on Monday.

I said, as soon as he gets there, 8 a.m., I want you to pay him.

And that's what I did.

I paid El Hefe back.

He won like $250,000 on a parlay.

And come Monday morning, he showed up with the duffel bag and paid this guy El Hefe.

And

that's what it took for him to reach out to me and want to know who I was.

You know, I was so prompt, and in my business ethics were, you know, spot on.

Yeah,

so he gained your respect.

Yeah, he loved it.

He's like, Man, I want to do business with this kid.

You know, I was 24 years old at the time, and I said,

Uh,

the kid, this, this agent came and brought me an encrypted phone and he told me, Hey, my uncle wants to speak to you.

I'm like, Your uncle, he goes, Yeah, it's my uncle that's been gambling.

I said, All right, well, what does he want to speak to me about?

He goes, I don't know.

Here's this encrypted phone.

And I remember looking at this thing and going, what the fuck am I going to do with this?

Right.

It had no microphone, no GPS, no, no camera on it.

It's just like a Blackberry that's used for emails only, offshore servers.

I'm like, wow.

So you can't even call or talk?

Yeah, nothing.

It's just an email through a server that goes to his email and there's no communication with anybody else.

Wow.

Yeah.

I didn't know if phones could be made like that.

It was high-tech, yeah.

There's a company called Phantom Secure out of Canada.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they were like $2,000

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Jeez.

Yes.

I guess you got to stay off the off the grid, though, right?

That's the only way.

Yeah.

So you're going down to Mexico a lot.

Going down to Mexico, he started, you know, asking me for little favors, right?

Drop off $100,000 here, drop off a quarter million here.

And every time I dropped off money, he'd give me 10% on top of it.

Wow.

Yeah.

So I was like, why not?

I already got the cash in the U.S.

You know, I'm one of the biggest bookies in the US.

So I got cash everywhere.

So for me, it's, it's just a phone call away to drop off 100 grand.

And then for him to say, okay, where do you want 110k wired?

Like this, right?

Clockwork.

Like it's a no-brainer.

If you can make 10% a day, you're winning.

Yeah.

And he needed someone like you because he couldn't bet in the casinos.

They wouldn't allow him, right?

That's right.

He couldn't even come to the U.S.

Oh, wow.

And you got to remember, he's running, you know, one of the biggest cartels in the world.

So he has stash houses that need to be protected.

He has people that work for him in the U.S.

Who can he count on?

He can count on me.

I'm his payroll service.

And for me, it was easy.

I'm paying these guys that are working for him.

And he's wiring me the money in Costa Rica where I have my sports betting office.

Yeah.

So it worked out.

When did things start going south?

Because at one point, you've racked up 3.2 million in debt with them, right?

Yeah, I got in debt 3.2 million with the cartel, man.

Fuck,

what a feeling that was.

You're like, oh, okay, what do I do now?

You know, do I put a gun in my mouth and give up or do I pay the guy back?

And as an honorable, as an honorable bookmaker, I did the right thing and I paid him back the 3.2.

So you had the cash on hand?

Yeah, no, it took time.

He made me go to work for him.

Damn.

Yeah, I had to work for him and I had to transport cocaine all over the world for him.

How did that happen though?

Like, how did, did he just

start?

No, I started laundering money for him and he asked me to launder some money.

Yeah.

And I reached out to a guy that was in this gambling business that laundered money, you know, professionally through the blackjack tables.

And I reached out to this guy, Robin Hood, and he says, yeah,

I'll launder the money.

Whatever you want me to launder, I'll charge you 25% big.

So if I gave him a million bucks, he'd give me 750 back.

And that was his way of making his living.

So

I gave him 1.5 and he laundered it perfectly.

He took his percentage and then

he laundered it through the blackjack tables and he got a check at the end and he'd cash it out in Vegas and he'd bring me cash.

Fast forward you know six weeks later he's asking me if he wanted to launder some more money and so i gave him at the time 2.5 million and he laundered that money and he ended up losing all of it whoa yeah and the same day one of my runners got picked off with 700 000 the same exact day so i in one day i lost 3.2 million dollars and it wasn't my money it was the cartel's money so it was a mess sean i'm not gonna lie man i was uh

you know my life was over and i said uh

i didn't even lose the money it's like you know it's a scam that lost the money.

But my face was on the line and I did the right thing.

And I met him in Mexico and I told him what happened.

He says, you don't owe me 3.2 million anymore.

He goes, you owe me $4 million.

I'm charging you interest.

Oh, God.

And I said, you can't argue.

At least I'm alive, right?

I told myself I'm, at least these Sicarios behind me didn't put a bullet in my head.

And I accepted it.

And I said, I'll go to work for you, whatever I need to do to pay you back because I'm a man of my word.

Did you walk into that meeting like, this might be it?

That meeting, I thought it was over, right?

I popped some Zan and took a couple of bikes and then took a shot of ghb and i walked across that border in tijuana and i was like this is it i'm gonna be dead oh my gosh yeah i don't think uh many people would survive that most people would just give up right most people wouldn't show up and they wouldn't show up

they get picked off and whacked yeah so i had it i showed showed my face and it paid off i'm here today right yeah you think that runner that got caught was tipped off or what do you think happened with that 700k

yeah he got tipped off he got tipped off by the the the gambler actually called the police and said hey, this guy, Owens, got a gun.

Can you please check his room?

And we had a hotel room and they came.

One of my runners was on the way to the hotel room and four police stopped him in Australia.

Shit.

Picked off the 700K and shit hit the fan after that.

So not only did he scam you of 2.5, he snitched on the 700.

That's right.

3.2 in one day.

What happened to that guy?

Became an FBI informant.

No way.

What?

Yes.

He became an FBI informant.

In order to save himself, he called the feds and said, I think this guy I just laundered all this money for is going to have me killed.

He says, I laundered his money through the casinos.

And he basically told on the operation how he was doing it.

And they told him, okay, well, you're going to work for us and we're going to try to take him down.

And it took four years to eventually take me down.

Jeez.

So you were fighting that case for a while.

No, this was on the street.

I'm working this four years.

He's working on the street trying to bust me with the feds.

Oh, so that's how it was.

Yeah.

And did you know that?

I didn't know.

The whole time I'm just trying to pay back this cartel boss.

Yeah.

So was he hitting you up at all?

Yeah, calling me, hey, how can I help?

I'm going to launder the money.

I'm going to pay you back whatever I can do to pay you back that money.

I owe you.

Don't worry.

I'm going to get you every penny.

Let me make a deposit in your bank account.

Like, I knew something was up because you don't talk on the phone like that, right?

Yeah.

You don't say, hey, let me clean some money for you.

Right.

You go meet me in person and tell me.

Right.

We're not talking about laundering money on the phone.

Yeah.

That's illegal.

He was wired.

Yeah, he was wired.

So you were moving smart.

I was trying to move smart, not smart enough.

You can't beat the feds.

Right.

When you were finally sentenced, what did they end up catching you with?

They finally

were able to prove that I moved a ton of cocaine to Australia.

How'd they prove that?

Just through encrypted messages, informants.

They had a lot of people on my case that there was a 23-man indictment.

So a lot of people that work for me were able to confirm a lot of numbers.

A couple of people on my case

ended up dying, killing themselves.

Yeah.

it was a wild story like yeah yeah 23 people yeah geez you had a big team huh we had a a syndicate right

geez man what a change from us usc football to that yeah that's crazy who would ever thought you know this was the the life that i was going to end up taking but you know i came from a son of a construction worker i never thought in a million years that i would fall down this path and yeah

i'm just blessed to be alive did you like the lifestyle did you enjoy it were you waking up feeling nice every day?

Listen, I didn't like the lifestyle.

I love the lifestyle, right?

It was amazing.

You're flying private jets and driving the nicest cars and you have security that are armed with AK-47s.

And everywhere you go, you're treated like this kingpin, right?

But at the end of the day, I get out of prison and I realize I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore.

And that feeling right there is like the biggest relief.

When you're doing illegal activity, you know that one day you're going to get caught.

If you don't get caught, you're going to get killed.

So, so that was the feeling of anxiety that I couldn't stand, like knowing that I'm breaking the law and one day I could probably go to federal prison.

And that's what happened.

And you were always on edge.

Always on edge, always taking Xanax, always drinking, always taking any kind of drug I can to put me at, you know, halfway.

Were you on edge in prison too?

You know, to be honest, prison was more.

peaceful for me because now it's like, okay, I'm done working.

It was a relief, right?

And it was time to rehabilitate.

you know i've been parting my ass off for the last you know 10 years and it was like okay finally i can recover rehabilitate i went to school got my master's degree ended up writing my book the california kid

and uh you know doing

working on this this uh the story of my life yeah and uh it was uh it was one of those things it was like okay This ain't that bad.

It's at least I'm alive still.

And when you're in prison, people are like, okay, how do you do it?

And people don't realize the way I did it.

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My mind was not in prison.

Only my body was in prison because I made every day feel like I was out in the real world.

I'd work out in the morning.

I'd go to school.

I'd had a job.

I had a hustle.

You know, there was things I did to keep busy.

And every night I went to bed at nine o'clock and I was exhausted.

I was like, wow, I made 20 bucks a day.

But in prison, that's a lot of money.

Right.

And then eventually I made $100 and then $150.

And I just started to learn a business in prison that was

basically monetized by selling protein ice cream.

Protein ice cream?

Protein ice cream, yeah.

I learned to make protein ice cream in prison.

And that was my hustle.

And everyone called me the ice cream man.

How'd you keep it cold in prison?

So there's this way you keep things cold, and it's with salt.

So they don't have refrigeration.

So if you have ice, which we can get ice, and if you have salt, you put it in in a mop bucket, which is what we use to clean the cells.

You throw the ice in the mop bucket and you take your protein shakes and you put it inside the mop bucket with the ice and then you throw salt on top.

And when you shake it for like 15 minutes and let it sit for about four hours, it turns into ice cream.

Really?

No one knows.

Yeah.

Wow.

And I discovered it one day on accident.

My sally's like, just throw some salt on there and I'll keep it colder.

And I got back from my workout and it turned into ice cream.

Like, holy shit.

I said, I'm onto something, right?

You were the ice cream player.

Let's go.

So I became the ice cream from cocaine to ice cream.

That's just a different product.

That's cool, man.

Did the cartel have your back when you were in prison?

Yeah, a lot of respect, right?

You know, I remember getting there.

A lot of people said, huero, mucho gusto, which means white boy, nice to meet you.

I've heard so many things about you, right?

And I remember one group of Paisas from Sinaloa, they wrote this corridor about me, and it's like a folk song.

And that was pretty cool to have a song written about you.

That's awesome.

Did you get caught up in any cartel wars?

Were there beefs going on?

No, the only time I ran into something, my boss from Mexico had

some beef going on with another cartel in Texas.

He wanted me as the businessman to go pick up a million dollars for him.

So I had to fly to Mexico, or I had to fly to Texas, actually, and pick up a million dollars for him on a private plane just because he couldn't pick it up.

Damn.

But hey, I'm getting 10%.

I don't care.

Yeah.

100K right there.

100K right there.

I had a free flight on a PJ.

I didn't know there was cartels operating in Texas.

Oh, yeah.

They're right on that border.

Really?

Yeah, you got to remember the Zetazaro over there.

So it's right on that border of brownsville the private airport right there damn yeah i had uh ed calderon on the show okay yeah you know him yeah i've heard of him yeah cop in tijuana yeah that's right crooked cop was he crooked i think that's what i heard oh wow yeah he didn't mention that on the podcast

yeah yeah

that's funny though i mean if you think about it how do you survive as a cop in tijuana though you gotta be crooked all getting paid right there's no way i remember working with the cartel in mexico right driving in these these bulletproof cars and we get pulled over it's like okay here you go.

Let us go.

Yeah.

It's just, just, they love American money.

Yeah.

They got more authority there than they love that $100 bill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's nuts.

Did you like Mexico more or the U.S.

at the time?

Man, I love Mexico.

I just like the food.

I love the women.

I love the feeling of power, like just being able to be driven around in a bulletproof car and have Sicarios working for you.

Like you have an entrage, right?

And

that power was awesome.

But

at the end of the day, you're still worried that you're going to to get killed so i'm glad it's it's over yeah not a lot of people escape the cartel man no usually you end up dead yeah i mean look at look at everyone that that works for them they're either they're dead or in prison yeah yeah the us is really going after this guy now they got miles and botta chapo all chapo's sons yeah they're cracking the whip it's crazy i remember seeing chapo escape a few times a few times when i was

he's a legend for that man he he figured out a way right dude the one the laundry how was that laundry where they put him in the laundry basket and pushed him out?

Oh, brilliant.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

And the underground one.

Tunnel.

Yes.

That's the movie stuff.

Hey, that's when you know you have a lot of money.

Yeah.

To be able to pull that off.

That was a $30 million tunnel.

Damn.

Yeah.

They had to buy the property next door.

Holy crap.

And that tunnel cost 30 million.

He came right through that shower vent.

That's nuts.

Amazing.

You think they would have been able to get away once he got out?

They got him.

It's hard.

He was a ghost and he wanted to go talk to Sean Penn, right?

Yeah.

That was just stupid.

Yeah.

Plus, I heard being on the run is just so bad for you mentally.

I've had a few guys on the show talk about it.

I've heard, yeah, I've heard a couple guys on the run.

It's just, it puts a toll on you, right?

Yeah.

You age.

Absolutely.

You probably got offered some deals to snitch, right?

Yeah, you know, right when you get there, they say, you want you want to go work with us on the street and take down the cartel.

And that's when you say, okay, you want to kill me and my family.

It's not going to happen, right?

We're not taking down the cartel.

It's never going to happen.

Has someone turned on the cartel before?

Yeah, they end up dead.

Damn.

Chino Antrax, he was a Sicario for the cartel.

He was a hitman.

And Chino Antrax, six weeks after he got out of prison, he went on house arrest and he ended up missing

in Mexico.

That's quick.

Six weeks.

Yeah, gone.

Jeez.

They have too many numbers out there.

There's just no way to go back to Mexico.

Why would he pick Mexico?

He thought he was going to a birthday party to celebrate

one of his family members' birthday parties and he thought he was good.

they probably told him yeah you're good don't worry come down right

and they said they uh they got him and his sister in this bmw x5 and had the whole car shot up jeez yeah that's nuts now throughout this process you were addicted to gambling too right i wasn't addicted i was a bookie so i was on the other side right um i had a lot of addictive friends like my boy matt boyer he was addicted he but he was a big bookie he was successful so

you know i wouldn't say i was addicted to gambling i i i like that that rush, though.

I like the feel of having action.

Yeah.

And that's what I live for: action.

Did you ever have someone just win non-stop when they were making bets with you?

Yeah, I had some wise guys, man, guys that were what we call sharps, right?

Yeah.

That they don't, they don't, you don't, you can't beat them.

You got to beat them.

Matt Boyer was a sharp.

Yeah.

You know, he had his ups and downs, but I wouldn't, eventually I would say, man, I don't want track, right?

We're friends.

Let's let's keep it friendly, right?

But I had a guy from Connecticut, Connecticut, Dave, and this dude went 11 for 11 on college basketball.

You know how hard that is?

And I remember I called this guy.

I said, man, I'm paying you your money, but don't ever play on my site again.

Yeah, because if they win, what is it, 54%?

They're considered a sharp.

That's a sharp.

Yeah, that's an edge.

54%.

That's only that much.

But that's considered a wise guy, a sharp.

Damn.

But those are like super rare, right?

1%.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're very hard to find.

There's a lot of copycats, but they're not beating the lines.

So when you bet on sports, the lines move and the sharps bet the line.

And then that line, whatever that spread is, will move after they bet it because they're that powerful.

What's the biggest bet you took?

I took a $250,000 bet during a Super Bowl game.

Damn, all cash?

It was all cash.

Were you only cash?

Cash and carry, man.

Wow.

I wish I would have took some crypto back then.

Man, I would have been sad, man.

I would have came out.

Everyone's like, didn't you take bets in crypto?

I said, man, that was before our era.

Crypto got big.

I remember hearing about it.

My manager one time called me and says, hey, this guy wants to pay in crypto.

I said, I don't want to fucking take crypto.

Oh my gosh.

I know nothing about it.

It was like a dollar a coin back then.

Bitcoin.

Yeah.

Could you imagine if I would have took it?

It just would have stored it away.

You would have been a billionaire.

Yeah.

Because it's 60,000 now.

It's ridiculous.

And it used to be 100,000.

I know.

Could you imagine?

One day it'll be 250.

Of course.

I'm watching it.

I love the platform.

It's amazing.

I like it for just easiness.

It's like you're not going to the bank.

You don't have to worry about a wire fee.

Yep.

It's just like, well,

it's done.

Yeah.

For you, it would have been great because international trades.

I wouldn't have got caught in Australia.

Yeah.

I wouldn't have had to use this money launder.

You wouldn't even have to shown up.

You could have just sent it from your bedroom.

It would have been awesome.

Yeah.

Would have been a game changer.

I bet a lot of drug guys now use it.

Oh, 100%.

No doubt.

Because flying cash is dangerous.

But you can't do it.

Right.

Yeah.

You get caught, you're done.

Yeah.

More than 10K, they flag you.

we we used to have to send money in the mail we'd put it in comic books we did everything man we'd buy euro notes yeah we'd buy gold we we did it all man but yeah that's it's a whole new world world now, right?

Yeah.

How's the drug market these days?

You think it's as big as it used to be?

I think it's bigger.

Really?

Yeah.

You know, I did a lot of research while I was incarcerated and I read a lot of newspapers.

It sounds like this fentanyl is taken over.

Right.

It's dangerous.

Yeah.

Why are they putting that in there?

It's just an addiction, right?

To get people hooked so they keep buying it.

It's killing people.

I was with a guy he played for, or he was working for the Anaheim Angels, Eric Kay, and he got 22 years because he he gave some oxycotton to one of the players a pitcher and the guy took it and died and they found out that the oxycontin was laced with fentanyl whoa and they charged this this this guy that worked for the program eric

they gave him that they gave him 22 years and and took you know in in all due respect they're both doing the drug together it's not like he he tried to kill him right you know yeah that's a tricky one because i mean you took it to trial you don't take it to trial oh you don't no you settle you settle.

You can't beat the feds.

If they're taking you to, if they've arrested you, you're going down.

Yeah.

98% conviction.

You know about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He got he got a deal that I think they offered him like five years.

He's like, no, I wasn't guilty, man.

You take the five years.

Now he's in there for 22 years.

I was in prison with him in Colorado.

Oh, man.

Plus, 22, plus, he spent way more money than he would have if he just settled.

Lawyers, he's already, you know, 48 years old.

Like, come on, take the five.

Yeah.

How many people did you see mentally destroyed in prison?

Like, they just gave up on life.

90%.

Damn.

Just ruined.

That's high.

I see the ones that are the most strong are the guys that are in there for life because they know that's their life.

They've accepted it.

They've accepted it and they've moved on and they know they're going to die in there.

So they make it their everyday life.

They're working out.

They've got a job.

They just, they go to church.

They treat it like they're out in the real world because that's how you have to.

Yeah.

But the guys that were getting like 40-year sentences, they were kind of.

Some guys break, man.

They just fall apart.

They're eating soups every day.

They're sleeping.

They're not taking, you know they're doing drugs like there's a lot of drugs in prison people don't realize how many drugs are in prison yeah what was your mentality going into it my mentality was the judge sent me to prison for a reason right and what are you supposed to do you're supposed to rehabilitate so i said it's my time it's my time to sober up my life as a party is finally over and i i wanted to come out a stronger mentally and physically yeah than i've ever been and and now i come out and i just i feel good every morning i wake up 4 30 and i'm ready to go go.

Damn.

Yeah.

I go to bed at nine o'clock.

I go to the gym, I work.

And, you know, I'm here.

I'm not.

Yeah.

Did you have to spend some time in ISO?

Yeah.

You know, I actually I did.

During COVID, we, we got locked down

for literally a year.

Jeez.

Yeah.

In ISO?

Well, it was ISO.

It turned into ISO.

So what I was in a six by eight cell and everyone got locked down.

Yeah.

We could shower.

twice a week.

Jeez.

And they fed us

box lunches through the tray slot.

So So it was ISO.

Like people are like, oh, that's not ISO.

No, that is isolation to max.

It's the same as going to the shoot.

So for me, it was like mentally, it was, it was hard.

And that's when I started to write the book.

I said, I got to do something with myself.

Yeah.

Like, where did this story start?

Let's start writing.

And that's, that's where it began.

Dude, ISO is no joke.

They've done a lot of studies on how it destroys the brain.

Yeah, there's a few people that have showed, I think Mr.

Beast or somebody showed, you know, you go in this, this isolation and

just try it for like 11 days, see what happens to you.

You're going to lose your fucking mind.

People can't stand it a few days.

It's insane.

There's people that have done years.

I got a friend that did 12 years in ISO, solitary confinement, shot color for the Arian brothers.

Beast, man.

Yeah.

Could you imagine?

No.

He said

he was going.

fucking nuts in there.

You can only do so many push-ups, right?

The brain will go crazy, man.

Like the mind is very powerful.

They try to break you.

Yeah.

That's the whole point.

Yeah.

Did you feel like you were broken at a certain point in there?

During COVID, I felt broken, right?

And I just kept going, man.

It's like, okay,

you can always talk to your bunky about so many things, right?

You're like, you're getting bored, right?

You don't have anything to do.

You know, it's this, it's, you, you've read every book in, in the whole block.

So it gets old and repetitive.

And I tell people it's like Ground Hugs Day every day.

Did you get along with your bunky?

Yeah, most of them.

You know, I've had a couple of bunkies that, you know, we bump heads.

heads like he's standing up to pee and and if you're if you're in prison you you sit down to pee because you don't want that spray to hit your bunky when he's sleeping or lying on the bottom bunk because it's right next to the bunk bed yeah to respect things to respect yeah yeah any fights i've seen him seen murders seen stabbings uh

seen a guy hang himself see seen two guys overdose on heroin geez yeah intentionally or accidental oh i mean it's i think anytime you put a needle in your arm you don't know what's going to happen.

Yeah.

But I think it was accidental.

What was crazy is him and his bunkie both did a shot and they both died.

Damn.

Yeah.

So it must have been laced or something.

Probably fentanyl.

Now, fentanyl was spreading wild in the prison systems.

You think it's still like that these days?

I don't know.

You know, it's been about 16 months since I've been there, but I'm sure they're still getting it in.

Yeah, that's not too long.

Yeah, it's probably still getting in.

But now you said they're switching to like an electronic system, right?

Yeah, inmates now have tablets and they're doing visits through, through the tablets because they don't want to bring the drugs.

People are bringing drugs in through the visits.

So they want to stop that.

And the prisons are trying to change the way people see their, their family with tablets and it's like an iPad kind of.

Yeah.

I mean, shit, it must be tempting if you're just bored sitting around all day.

If you get offered some drugs, like nothing better to do.

Yeah, I think a lot of people feel that way.

It kills time, right?

Yeah.

You know, it.

But I knew I was going to prison to get, to get better, get sober.

So it didn't cross my mind.

My new drug was working out, you know, trying to eat as healthy as possible right is that even possible it's hard i would eat seven mackerel a day damn people are what are mackerel mackerel are those things that you fish with right it's yeah it's bait it's the cheapest fish that you can buy it's a dollar a pack so that's the only way you can afford to eat if you buy seven mackerel a day that's like seven dollars but you use the cans or just they're in a packet of foil and you you drain them but you you only can spend 360 a month on food that's that's the limit that's it that's it

You got to

compartmentalize everything that you eat.

And I map out my whole day like a meal prep.

I have my oatmeal in the morning, a couple of almonds, an apple, my mackerels, and I just go mackerel, mackerel, mackerel all day long.

Why do they cap the spend on food?

Because then what happens is people start using it to gamble,

to buy drugs.

So they put a cap so people can't can't can't keep doing that and spending.

Like if you had $1,000 a month, then you could buy a thousand dollars and in commissary and use that to buy drugs because that's how people buy that's the currency interesting is fish or stamps

like uh postage stamps yeah do you agree with that rule the 360 a month i mean i i know why they do it right they they want prison you you don't want to be comfortable in there they want to they want you to be uncomfortable so i i don't agree with it but i mean i see why they do it yeah yeah from a mindset point of view it makes sense right yeah absolutely.

Yeah.

Plus, you are a bookie, so you can kind of see how people.

Yeah, and there's gambling in there too, right?

So if you want to gamble on something, guess what?

You're gambling with your commissary.

So that stops the gambling, right?

You can only gamble so much.

Yeah.

Or are they playing like poker or chess?

A lot of poker.

Guys, some guys gamble for chess, but mostly poker.

It's the sports.

There's bookies gets the lines off the ESPN channel.

And they put out a ticket.

You guys had access to watch that.

Yeah, there's usually about two TVs per race.

So the whites got two TVs, the blacks have two TVs, the Mexicans and the Pisces.

So

everything's segregated in prison, right?

Prison politics, but

there is a spot to watch sports always.

Sports is always playing in prison, which is nice for me coming from being an athlete.

Yeah, that's cool.

You still watch sports these days?

Not right now.

Right now, I'm living in the halfway house.

There's 200 inmates and one TV.

So it makes it difficult to watch sports.

Who gets to pick what's on?

It's whoever gets there first.

And that's probably not you.

Definitely not me.

Even though you're up at four.

Yeah, 4:30, they got it closed.

They open it up at six.

And by that time, I'm out of there.

Yeah.

I'm at the office.

You're at the gym.

Yeah, at the gym or at the office assigning books.

I love that.

Yeah.

You doing some personal training on the side?

No, but a lot of people at the gym, like, hey, ask for tips.

Everyone's supporting the comeback.

So I'll get like 100 thrown at me and say, hey, here, buddy, here to help you out.

Sometimes I'll train a guy and a couple of days a week.

And he's like, can I work out with you?

I'll give you some money.

I said, yeah, absolutely.

So it's not my

end result, but it's cool to help kill the time, right?

Yeah.

You still keeping up with USC football?

No, you know, I actually, I got to go to USC about two weeks ago on a pass.

And I got to see a couple of my old teammates that are coaches now, Mike Williams.

Yeah, that was cool.

I got to see Matt Castle, Sean Cody, the old equipment manager.

It was cool to see those guys.

They're very supportive for the comeback, and they want to see me do well.

I didn't know Matt Castle was coaching out there.

there no he's not they actually uh the equipment manager tito he uh he put him on face time he's like look who i have here and he it was matt castle he's like oh no

yeah my dad was a huge nortre dame fan so yeah we got a rivalry going that's great yeah those games were like remember the bush push bush bush that might have been before i started watching so the matt matt liner got pushed in by by by Reggie Bush to score this touchdown.

It was the biggest controversy in college football.

And after that rule, after that push, they have a new rule that you can't push a guy into the end zone.

Really?

Yeah.

Because of that?

The Bush push is famous.

Yeah, USC was man back in the day.

They're still good now.

Yeah, but not like before.

The Pete Carroll is where we were at the top of our game.

Yeah, he was a beast, man.

What's your favorite sport to watch right now?

Right now, I like watching basketball.

Yes.

You know, I want to go watch LeBron play.

I haven't got to see LeBron play.

The whole time I was in prison, I was like, I got to get to the Staples Center.

Now it's the crypto, right?

It's the crypto arena.

I'm like, I got to see him play.

that's, yeah, he's only got another year, maybe.

That's what I'm saying.

So I got to try to get there one of these playoff games.

Yeah.

See if the halfway house will allow it.

Yeah.

As long as you're back by nine, right?

Back by nine.

But I think these games start at like 5:30, right?

Yeah.

So I think you might be able to catch one, but they're pricey.

I got to have a sponsor, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got to start a pod one day.

Yeah, one day I think so.

I think with your connections, I mean, I cater to so many celebrities.

You know, I want to call it the ice cream shop.

The reason being is because my new thing is I make protein ice cream.

And I started this company called California Ice Protein.

Oh, you're still doing it?

Yeah, I'm still doing it.

So when I got out, all my friends are like, man, what do you want to do?

I said, I want to, I want to tell the story about how I made this in prison.

And this is my comeback story.

I want to from putting bad things on the streets to now healthy treats, right?

Like, that's like my motto.

It's a great name, especially since you did it in prison, too.

It's so fitting.

It's a good hustle.

And people are like looking at it like, wow, he went from selling.

cocaine and making a million dollars a day and now to selling ice cream and making like a dollar off each ice cream like who cares right it's just the mentality i'm a hustler i'm gonna figure out a way to get to that billion dollar valuation you can do it man i'm gonna i just saw a video yesterday this guy made sour strip gummy yeah he sold yeah he sold it to ushey i think yeah 100 million 100 million in like three years or three years i want four years i want a half a billion exactly i'm going big yeah as long as you got the eyeballs you can figure out ways to monetize yeah i'm creative yeah figure it out and there's an audience for your your crowd with prison stories and uh Dave's killer bread, right?

That's a prime example.

Yeah, I eat that shit.

I love it.

I didn't know his story, though.

Oh, prison, 15 years really yeah that's you got to support it yeah it's a healthy brand right it's awesome they sold i think they sold for 200 million but they they make a million dollars in bread every day holy it's valuated at two billion dollars damn yeah i do see them everywhere they're at whole foods it's a brilliant idea because the bread here sucks yeah i thought my idea was great because there's not much protein ice cream out there and i've i haven't seen any i put it on a stick so it's like it's like you're eating an ice cream bar and it's my idea is to put it in every gym and nutrition store.

So you just grab and go.

It's like a protein shake on the stick.

Dude, I mean, people love ice cream.

They love ice cream.

I think that would do well.

And you got our mutual friend, Bruce, to help you out.

Bruce is helping.

Bruce is a legend.

No pun intended.

That's a good team, man.

What else is next for you, man?

Where can people find you?

Dude, just the California kid getting the book out there.

You know, the rumor is they're doing a docuseries on me.

So I'm hoping that that goes well if that does happen.

And, you know, California ice protein, that's the comeback story.

So it's a story of resilience.

Awesome.

We'll link it all below.

We'll link the book below, guys.

Check it out.

And I'll see you next time.