(NewsNation) — Owen Hanson, a former USC football player and drug kingpin for the Sinaloa cartel, praised President Trump’s efforts to combat drug trafficking into the United States.
Hanson, the star of Prime Video docuseries “Cocaine Quarterback,” joined NewsNation to discuss his criminal history and ensuing redemption, as well as President Trump striking alleged cartel boats believed to be trafficking drugs.
“I tip my hat to Trump for his efforts are noble, but at the end of the day, the cartels are going to somehow get it into the country,” Hanson told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
“We’re expendable … there’s someone right after you that’s going to take this thing over and figure out a way to get it into the country,” he added.
Hanson was a member of the University of Southern California Trojans football team, which won the 2005 National Championship. After college, he began a sports betting operation before being recruited by the Sinaloa cartel.
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He told NewsNation that while working for the cartel in Australia, he was making upwards of $1 million a day at times.
“I was making that million dollars a day after I paid back the cartel, and I’m not proud of what I did,” Hanson said.
Hanson was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to more than 21 years in prison in 2017, as well as a lifetime of supervised release, but was released from federal prison in 2024 after assisting the Australian government in a related case.
“That 10 years I did in federal prison was a time to rehabilitate and change my life and come out a new, changed man and hopefully use my past mistakes to help younger kids and athletes that have maybe had that desire to go down the path I once went down,” he said.
