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Sunday, September 13, 2015

Part 1: Prominent businessmen's arrest unveils Mexico/Australia cocaine trafficking ring

Prominent Businessmen's arrest reveals Australian trafficking conspiracy 

Owen Michael Hanson, a former USC tight end, turned entrepreneur, who runs 310 Development, a Los Angeles real estate design and architecture firm, finished his round of golf at a Carlsbad course last Thursday.  In the sweltering San Diego heat of the late afternoon, he walked through the parking lot of the San Diego area country club, where he was arrested by agents with the FBI, and federal officers from Sydney, Australia.  He is charged with a single count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, in a indictment unsealed Friday.  Australian authorities are seeking his extradition to file more charges. 

Andrew Mcmanus
At Melbourne Airport, Australia, hours earlier, a 54 year old man, with an air of entitlement, and privilege and multiple cell phones attempted to board his flight.  He is overweight,  perhaps from the indulgences of the good life, including alcohol and morphine.  His hair is thinning, white, his clothes stylish. Andrew Mcmanus, of his own One World Productions, and Australian native is also arrested by federal authorities.  One World is featuring a KISS reunion tour this fall in Australia. 

He has been charged with perverting the course of justice, two counts of intention to defraud by false or misleading statements, and knowingly participating in a criminal group. 

Others named in the conspiracy include Craig Haeusler, 55, Michael Croke, 65(attorney of Mcmanus, and partner in a nightclub) and Zeti Atilgan, 32 a pastry shop owner.  The men had been under investigation in a convoluted conspiracy case that goes back to the summer of 2011.  


The case involves 300 kilograms of cocaine, steroids, money laundering, casinos, MMA fighting, the backdrop being the charmed life successful businessmen, concert promoters with designer homes, and celebrity clients and friends.  All three are free on bail, Mcmanus is due in court on October 14th.
McManus arrested last week

In August 2011, Sean Caroloan, a sort of amalgam of sleazy by reputation occupations,  who was allegedly, at this point calling himself a personal trainer, after being a cage fighter and racehorse trainer was detained in possession of a black suitcase with 700,000 in cash, in 10,000 bundles.  Police acting on an anonymous tip, detained Carolan at the Hilton, in Sydney.  He claimed the cash belonged to his business partner, Owen Michael Hanson.

 Hanson apparently had invested in Carolan's weight loss business, Advanced Peptide Solutions.  Carolan, has a history of sordid business dealings, including his NUBODI weight loss, featured on the Rip Off report.  Also, Carolan was accused of administering HGH to the Roosters, a Sydney Rugby team.  
One of McManus' former luxury homes

The men, Carolan at the forefront began a series of legal maneuvers to reclaim the 700k.  They would be unsuccessful after a trial last year, to receive back the money.

'Do you want me to tell you the, the full story on basically how this money was laundered"? -Owen Michael Hanson, police interview. 

Hanson, who apparently spent a lot of time in Sydney's casinos and hotels, claimed the money was for silent investors, who were anxious to be paid back for Hanson's business ventures.  "I have silent investors that are basically at their wits end over here...I deal with a lot of professional athletes, a lot of people are upset...".

Sean Carolan.

Enter Andrew Mcmanus, interviewed in 2012, who told a different story, in a candid and incriminating series of interviews with the police.  "I gave someone 700 large.  You found someone with 700 large. It's my 700 large".  He told investigators he had 600 large in a safe at his house at the moment. 

He claimed the money was to repay Hanson, who had fronted the money for a ZZ Top concert in Australia, that Mcmanus company One World Productions had promoted.  Mcmanus claimed he used couriers to smuggle the money in from America, the proceeds from a Lenny Kravitz Concert, to avoid the Australian Tax Organization, who were already circling, seeking millions in back taxes.

McManus claimed friends of his, including Craig Haeusler, who was "like my brother", and Owen Michael Hanson would front him money to support his struggling business, due to financial difficulties and tax troubles.  Hasusler, served 5 years for managing a methamphetamine distribution network in Sydney, and was released from prison in 2003, after a 5 year sentence.  He is a "known organized crime figure", according to Australian authorities.

 McManus in a later press interview, said he was using alcohol and morphine at the time, and "not in a good place", and "not a lucid man".  After several bad deals and failed, financially devastating tours, he was 4.2 million in debt in 2011.  He started abusing alcohol, a bottle of vodka a day, and eventually pain killers.  He claims, "I lost my character and all my credibility".  To pay off his debt, and continue his lifestyle, McManus sold six properties, homes and liquidated his business, Andrew McManus Presents International PTY LTD.

Hilton Hotel, Sydney, Australia

He also sold luxury cars, including a Bentley, Range Rover, and Mercedes.  After suicide attempts, a broken back, and depression, among other woes, he went to rehab for six weeks.  He claimed he was a changed man.  He now lives in a modest home, and drives a 30 year old Rolls Royce, given to him by friend, Jerry Lewis.   The 702,000 and the scandal have followed him in the press in Australia since 2011. 

Authorities allege the money was proceeds from cocaine trafficking, and was to be laundered in Sydney and Las Vegas casinos.  Hanson, allegedly introduced through Haeusler to an unnamed professional gambler, who would take checks from the Sydney Star casino and cash them in Vegas.  Camera footage from the casino, the night in August shows McManus stuffing bundles of cash into a black bag.  Carolan is the alleged bag man.

In 2014 after years of maneuvering, Carolan lost at trial.  Afterwards a series of raids in Sydney, and Victoria turned up steroids, marijuana, 68,000, and electronic devices and equipment.  The raids were focused on properties belonging to Mcmanus and others allegedly involved in the conspiracy. Authorities became aware of plans to import up to 300 kilos of cocaine into Australia, where the price is over 100,000 per kilo.  

Enter Owen Michael Hanson, known to his Australian circles as 'dispose', the 33 year old business prodigy, with a silver AK-47 with the Louis Vuitton logo adorning his designer Redondo Beach home's living room, and a taste for Las Vegas.

Sources:  The Sydney Herland, The Daily Telegraph, ABC News, The Herald Sun, The San Diego Union Tribune, La Times. 






30 comments:

  1. Like always these people are caught not by the crime itself but for the money the government wants. Its always about the money and the law could care less about the law itself if the pie gets cut evenly for everyone.

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  2. Grand master flash said it best in the song white lines "A business man is caught with 24 kilos he's out on bail and out of jail n that's the way it goes ..so don't do it"

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  3. This guy lived like a king imagine chapo guzman he proabaly and im sure he lives like a pharaoh dammmmmmmm...

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  4. They should make an example out of him. You can't run drugs in the us like you can in mexico. If they catch you, you will literally rot in jail for years.

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    1. either you are very naïve or very ignorant. in the USA this is common practice. Who do you thing REALLY run the dope game... Mexicans, no they are the suppliers. The 1 % run the anything they can make money in and no one questions them

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    2. But they do don't they.

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  5. 11:34 Australia is not in "mexico"...
    I think the land of the kangaroos and Rupert Murdock of famed fawx news manipulator is north of antartica, south of the Philippines west of chile, an island over there...
    --i used to envy body builders and MMA fighters and feel every blow they receive, and wonder how they could take it...

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  6. Won't be losing a second's sleep over this fat cat, or any other. KISS associated w/ money launders is an interesting detail, tho.

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  7. Damn that guy looks way older than 54.

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  8. To me, it sounds like the bigger crimes committed here are tackyness and a complete lack of 'class'. The jokers had enough money to engage in any number of legitimate businesses that could have made money without the risk of prison. Having an LV emblazoned on the wall of your house shows that you worship the wrong god. Slinging poison to society will keep them out of heaven but being 'pinche tacaños' will get them 'bitch slapped' before being turned away.

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  9. Sssh, that is the clavo, that white rug has all the stash he taking to detention hall,
    like canadians, australopithecos do not do prison, in the prison colony of the brittish empire

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  10. $100,000 per kilo? Betcha there are plenty more upper crust traffickers flying under the radar doing the same for that type of money.

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    1. It's $300 - $450 per gram on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, suggesting a retail value of $300,000 - $450,000 a kilo.
      $100,000 a kilo would be wholesale but sounds cheap. You'd have to buy a couple of kilos to get it for that price.
      People typically pay between $180,000 - $220,000 a kilo, wholesale in Melbourne.

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    2. @6:16 are you kidding? I just realized how dirt cheap this shit is here. In Germany it's €100 a gram, some rich kids may pay €200 but that's it. A kilo goes for €60,000 the most.

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  11. Okay but how is this linked to Mexico..no mention of any cartel supplying them..so wtf???

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  12. Cocaine is everywhere folks and so is the Money while the bosses are in la sierra madre pretty damn interesting stuff.

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  13. So, do we know which cartel was involved with these gringos? I'm assuming the Sinaloa, but can someone confirm?

    They don't appear to be very smart. Story after story.

    "I wanna Rock-N-Roll all night! And party every day!"

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    1. Sinaloa is definitely the main supplier of coke into Aus. And have been for years.. they had some connections with the bikers over there. Must be the CDS

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  14. Australia is very tough on drug conspiracy. He's looking at 20 yrs. they don't need a speck of the drug to convict, they only need proof of conspiracy to traffic. Their legal system is quite different than US, and unlike MX, really hard to bribe a judge.
    Bunch of real tightasses in Oz.

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  15. Exactly WHICH FUKKING CARTEL was the plug for these guys??

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  16. 100 k por kilo uy vey

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  17. Part 2 coming with more info on the trafficking side.

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  18. that's what im waiting on PART 2......should be real interesting....and I agree I truly think it's a SINOLOA plug ....their presence has been acknowledged in the press...

    but I doubt VERY SERIOUSLY that these guys will do any serious time, due to the fact they are not only residents of Austrailia but prominent wealthy businessmen as well........im pretty sure they are politically connected as well

    and to the poster whom said it's really hard to bribe a judge as Jose' Gacha of the Medallin Cartel once remarked...

    "Everything and Everybody has a PRICE"........



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  19. Isn't it ridiculous to think that cocaine will travel north to mexico and back south to Australia?
    --Sinaloas can hardly get their share to mexico and to the US, others may be soo happy that sinaloa gets blamed...

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  20. WE NEED THAT PART 2!!!

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  21. what are all these guys doing?
    In day and age of research chemicals this is the way of the dinosaur. In a few years nobody wont give a damn about coke. Who cares about coke and meth when there are legal things like a-PHP ? The world is changing Chapos, face it. The war is obsolete. Ban a-PHP? Here, take PV10, PV11, PV facking 1000! Coke will be an old fart in the blink of an eye, oops, it's gone

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  22. Where the fukk is PART TWO???

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