FBI whistleblower who brought down global drug cartel slams Mark Wahlberg for painting him as a ‘crook’ in upcoming doc

Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg has been admonished by the FBI whistleblower who helped bring down a worldwide drug organization to correct a new documentary about his incredible story.

RJ Cipriani, also known as “Jackpot,” was a high-stakes gambler who became involved in the murky underworld of Owen Hanson, a former walk-on football player for USC who turned drug kingpin and operated a huge illegal sports betting and money laundering business valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

In order to assist raise money for the “broke” former crimeboss, Cipriani told The U.S. Sun earlier this year that he was prepared to meet Hanson again after his release from prison, but this time in a boxing ring instead of a casino.

The California Kid, Hanson’s recently published book, chronicles his incredible ascent and decline.

Cipriani, however, is furious about the contents, claiming that they leave out important details of the story and associate his name with Hanson’s money laundering scheme.

Hanson’s work has been used by Wahlberg’s Unrealistic Ideas production firm to create a documentary that is scheduled to premiere early next year.

Cipriani, 63, emphasized that he would have no trouble taking Waldberg, his company, and Amazon “to the cleaners” and stated that he would use “every legal remedy at my disposal to clear my good name.”

“I wouldn’t buy the book no matter what, but friends have sent me excerpts that, once I read them, are defamatory and slanderous toward my involvement with Owen Hanson,” a furious Cipriani told The United States Sun.

“Unrealistic ideas from Waldberg have been placed on notice. Go to your own legal risk if the documentary series suggests that I was intentionally involved in Owen Hanson’s crimes.

The high-stakes gambler, who was born in Philadelphia, is furious with the Departed star and has made multiple attempts to reach him but has been ignored by the actor and his crew.

Cipriani went on, “I would bitch slap him if I were a violent person, which I’m not.”

“I want my name cleared now.”

In 2017, Hanson received a 21-year sentence and was mandated to relinquish $5 million worth of assets. These included stakes in multiple companies, holiday homes, a sailboat, expensive jewelry, luxury cars, and $100,000 in gold coins.

Six encrypted cell phones belonging to a Canadian business that is being investigated for allegedly supplying organized crime groups with secure technology were also seized by authorities.

In September 2015, Hanson was arrested at a golf course in San Diego, which marked the beginning of his collapse.

Hanson was federally indicted as the head of a criminal organization known as O-Dog Enterprises, months after the FBI had arrested him for coordinating the sale of cocaine and methamphetamine.

Authorities charged the former football star with leveraging his contacts in the sports industry to create a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise that included money laundering, drug trafficking, and sports betting.

Authorities have made more than 1,000 arrests related to the case by the time of Hanson’s sentence in 2017, including 800 in a single day.

Cipriani, a significant player in Hanson’s capture, referred to himself as “Robin Hood 702,” a reference to his practice of giving large sums of money he won from gambling to charitable causes (702 being the area code for Las Vegas).

Cipriani played a crucial role in Hanson’s exposure, leading to numerous international investigations and arrests.

According to Hanson, the two had a deal in place since their first encounter in Sydney, Australia, in 2011, whereby he would send Cipriani his drug money to gamble with in the hopes that he would win and return the money, keeping the remainder for his Robin Hood goal.

However, Cipriani strongly refuted the allegations.

Hanson instructed Cipriani to gamble the $2.5 million he had enlisted in a money-laundering scam in August 2015.

Instead, Cipriani played blackjack at Sydney’s Star Casino and purposefully lost the money.

Furious at the betrayal, Hanson escalated his threats, even going so far as to send photos of masked men vandalizing Cipriani s mother s grave in Philadelphia.

For Cipriani, the unsettling pictures were the last straw. He tipped off the FBI and Hanson’s downward spiral began.

OUT OF PRISON

After serving nearly seven years in federal prison in Colorado, Hanson was released early into California transitional housing in March.

Upon his release, Cipriani offered to pay for a one-bedroom apartment in Irvine, California, for Hanson while he got back on his feet.

“I said to him, ‘If you’ve reformed yourself and you’re going talk to kids about how harmful drugs are, and you’ve changed your life, then I’ll help you,'” Cipriani told The U.S. Sun earlier this year.

“I always hope for the good in people. And I’m hoping that he’s changed. But if he walks off the straight line, guess who will be there.”

Big-hearted Cipriani wanted to help Hanson – but this latest betrayal has reignited explosive tension between the pair.

FEUD REIGNITED

Wahlberg initially approached the now LA-based high-stakes gambler about appearing in the Amazon series but turned him down because they wouldn’t give him an EP credit or fee.

He is working on a Sony Pictures Television production instead. “Pray it up, Marky Mark!” snapped Cipriani, cheekily nodding to Wahlberg’s religious social media posts.

He continued, “Mark understand this, I go after bad guys no matter who they are, where they are, or how dangerous, rich or connected they are.

“I’m the real life super hero that you always pretend to be in your dumb, fake ass movies. Remember, I’m Jackpot, govern yourselves accordingly.”

The U.S. Sun contactedWahlbergand his production company but didn’t hear back.