Former University of Southern California football and volleyball player Owen Hanson has been accused of operating a sophisticated drug smuggling operation.
A federal indictment unsealed on Thursday shows that Hanson was one of 22 people charged in the drug operation. Former NFL player Derek Loville has also been named as a participant in the drug operation, according to Deadspin. (VIDEO: Alcoholic USC Football Coach Sent Packing After Showing Up To Practice Trashed)
Hanson allegedly set up an illegal gambling operation and shipped many drugs including cocaine through an organization he ran called ODog Enterprise. The operation, which reached as far as Australia, used shell corporations to launder money, and violence to coerce people to pay their debts.
ODog Enterprise allegedly even sent a threat that involved potentially beheading people who didn’t pay up, using pictures of masked men with chainsaws, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“The specific allegations against Mr. Hanson are both surprising and spurious,” Hanson’s lawyers Russell S. Babcock and Ryan T. Mardock told the LA Times in an email in September. “Mr. Hanson, a former USC football player, has never engaged in violent or intimidating conduct beyond the football field. Time will show that the many of the individuals who have made these allegations are criminals and their word not credible.”