Famous Athletes Convicted of Drug Charges By SportsYeah  [95 more lists]

Professional skateboarder Christian Hosoi turned pro at the age of 14 and practiced under legend Tony Hawk during his career in the 1980s. Hosoi's story however ends much differently than Hawk's and included a bankruptcy and drug addiction. In 1995, Hosoi was arrested twice for minor offenses but failed to appear in court. He was on the lam until 2000 when he was arrested at the Honolulu airport with 1.5 pounds of crystal meth. This led to federal charges of trafficking with the intent to distribute and a 10-year prison sentence. He served four years and was released in 2004.

Darryl Henley, a former cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL during the 1990s, is only playing prison league football these days, if at all. Henley is currently serving a 41-year sentence after an arrest for trafficking cocaine. He could have seen much less time behind bars however after his initial trial, Henley hired contract killers to get rid of the judge on the case. Spoiler: He was caught and they threw the book at him.

Legendary baseball player Darryl Strawberry is remembered as one of of the best sluggers to play the game and unfortunately also for his personal issues with substance abuse. Strawberry, a four-time World Series champion, two-time Silver Slugger, eight-time MLB All-Star and many other honorable titles, had nearly as many personal problems as he hit home runs. His first drug bust came in 1999 when he was arrested for soliciting sex from a police officer and was carrying cocaine at the time. This snowballed as he dealt with cancer, was in and out of drug treatment centers and violated the terms of his court-ordered house arrest. Despite several stays in prison, Strawberry has regained much of his respect and went on to appear on the reality show "The Apprentice" in 2010.

Though the career of former MLB player Denny McClain includes winning 30 or more games during a season, a feat which only 13 players in the 20th century have done, his profile also includes accusations of gambling, connections with organized crime and drug problems. His arrests were plentiful both during and after his baseball career ended including for trafficking of cocaine, embezzlement and racketeering with the likes of Anthony Spilotro and later John Gotti Jr. This resulted in a sentence of 12 years in prison in the 1990s, among other minor offenses after his release.

Once nicknamed the "Secretary of Defense," Dexter Manley spent several seasons in the NFL with the Washington Redskins and even was named a member of the Redskins Ring of Fame but that career ended prematurely after Manley fell into drugs. In 1995, he was suspended from the NFL after an arrest in which he was caught carrying cocaine. Manley was sentenced to four years in prison but served only four and never returned to professional football.

Eugene "Mercury" Morris won two Super Bowls, was named to the NFL's Pro Bowl three times, played with the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins and pleaded no contest to felony drug trafficking charges during his career as a professional football running back. The drug charges came in 1982 when he was caught and sentenced to 20 years in the slammer. He later won an appeal, was granted a new trial and took a plea bargain that allowed him to leave prison in 1986. In the time since, Morris has worked as a motivational speaker.

Former WKA Kickboxing World champion Evangelos Goussis has a drug bust on his record, after he was caught trafficking heroin in 1989, but that is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the other crimes to which he was connected. Goussis was convicted of multiple murders as part of the Melbourne gangland killings. He currently mows lawns as he lives out his days at a maximum security facility in Australia.

Superboat racer and World Offshore Champion George Morales used his boats for a bit more than recreation and racing. The Columbian won the championships in 1983, 1984 and 1985 before his career was cut short after he was busted for smuggling cocaine in Miami. As a result, Morales was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Former University of Houston and National Basketball Association Gregory "Cadillac" Anderson had a long career in professional basketball during the 1980s and 1990s. Later in his career, Anderson was caught with a large amount of cocaine in Biloxi, Mississippi. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute and was given just five months in prison. After the incarceration, Anderson returned to pro ball but played just a handful of games in Argentina before retiring completely.

Jamal Lewis had a long and eventful career in the National Football League between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns which included a Super Bowl championship, a Pro Bowl selection, numerous personal awards and many personal records. Additionally, Lewis is remembered for a drug charge in 2004 in which he was caught attempting to possess five kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. He claimed his innocence and was sentenced to just four months.

Jay Adams was once on top of the professional skateboarding world but as quick as his rise to fame appeared, the fall from grace, due to drug addiction, assault, murder charges and even hate crimes, was just as swift. Adams spent much of his career in and out of prison for a variety of crimes, including one incident when he was caught in Los Angeles bashing a gay person. It was a wiretapping sting that finally brought Adams down though after he was caught attempting to set up a meth deal. Adams was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, part of which he served in a halfway house before his release.

Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Juan Garriga saw moderate success in the racing world in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also saw the inside of a prison cell after he was busted for his part in a drug smuggling ring. In 1998, he was charged with drug trafficking and possession of firearms after he was busted with over half a kilo of cocaine, a bunch of guns and a fat stack of cash. Garriga was able to plea down the charges, dropping his 11-year sentence to just two.

Soccer player Mark Ward bounced around to more than a dozen teams during his career in the 1980s and 1990s before retiring completely in 1999. Years later, he was caught with roughly nine pounds of cocaine in Liverpool, England. In October 2005, he was sentenced to eight years in prison but served only four years and was released in May 2009.

Professional football guard Nate Netwon played in three Super Bowls and six Pro Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers. Two years after his retirement from pro football he was busted in Louisiana with 213 pounds of marijuana. Five weeks later he was caught again, this time with 175 pounds of marijuana in Texas. Newton was sentenced to 30 months in prison for drug trafficking.

Puerto Rican Major League Baseball first baseman enjoyed 16 seasons playing professional baseball and was even inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. This all came years after he spent 10 months in prison for a 1975 arrest in which he was charged with smuggling marijuana. In 2007, a 69-year-old Cepeda was arrested on felony possession of a controlled substance (cocaine or meth), possession of marijuana and possession of a hypodermic needle or syringe. He pleaded no contest to marijuana possession and was let off the hook.

Former MLB pitcher Ricardo Jordan played in just nine games between 1995 and 1998 with four teams. Unfortunately for Jordan, his professional baseball career was much shorter than his stay in prison after he was busted in 2007. Jordan was caught, charged with drug trafficking and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Race car driver David "Salt" Walther was raised in a racing family and began racing boats as a teen. He later went on to enjoy a career racing CART, USAC, Indy and NASCAR cars during the 1970s. A tragic accident in 1973 led to his addiction to pain killers, which later also interrupted his career. Already behind for drugs, Walther was busted in 1998 for trying to smuggle painkillers into jail. He returned to the clink several times in the years since for violating his probating, failing to pay child support and failing to comply with the orders of a police officer. He currently sits in an Ohio prison on a 52-month sentence.

Nicknamed "Mental Case," Steve Durbano played various levels of professional hockey during the 1970s including in the National Hockey League where he tallied a ridiculous 1,411 penalty minutes. The craziness continued after his 1983 retirement when he was busted for attempting to smuggle nearly $500,000 worth of cocaine into Canada. Durbano went on to serve time for shoplifting and soliciting a prostitute, who was actually an undercover cop, before he died of liver cancer in 2002.

American athlete Tim Montgomery was once a world record holder for the 100-meter dish and a two-time Olympic medal winner with Team U.S.A. in the 4x100-meter relay. His life took an unfortunate turn however after he retired (following a two-year ban for doping violations) as he was caught in a check fraud scheme and dealing heroin. Montgomery was arrested for fraud in 2006 which earned him a 46-month prison sentence. He saw more charges in 2008 after he was caught with over 100 grams of heroin.

Former NHL player Tom McCarthy spent nine seasons between the Minnesota North Stars and the Boston Bruins in the late 1970s and 1980s. After his hockey career ended, McCarthy got involved with drug dealers and ended up being charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs in 1994. That came with a nearly six-year sentence, part of which he served in the states and part which he served in Canada. After his release, McCarthy returned to hockey as a junior coach.

Pro football running back Travis Henry enjoyed several seasons in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and the Denver Broncos from 2001 to 2007. More recently, Henry's name has been in the headlines for his massive child support payments, which he missed on his at least 11 children by 10 different women, and his 2008 arrest for cocaine trafficking. Henry took a plea deal that put him behind bars for just three years, a far cry from the 10-to-life sentence he could have faced. He was also ordered to pay $4 million in fines.

Former Major League Baseball player was once a top slugger in professional baseball who turned into a crack cocaine dealer. Aikens battled a cocaine addiction in the early 1990s which attracted the interest of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department. They went on to bust him for crack cocaine distribution in 1994 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison plus another five years for having a loaded gun in his possession. Aikens was released in 2008.