Rapper Fetty Wap arrested by FBI on federal drug charges months after daughter's death
Rapper Fetty Wap was arrested Thursday night by the FBI on federal drug charges, a senior law enforcement official said.
Fetty Wap, whose legal name is Willie Junior Maxwell II, is expected to be arraigned Friday.
According to the official, the artist was arrested at Citi Field in Queens, where the Rolling Loud music festival was held on Thursday.
The rapper, of Paterson, New Jersey, is among about half a dozen people charged in the case. The other defendants were identified Friday as New Jersey correction officer Anthony Cyntje, 23, of Passaic; Brian Sullivan, 26, of Lake Grove, New York; Kavaughn Wiggins, 26, of Coram, New York; Robert Leonardi, 26, of Levittown, Pennsylvania; and his brother Anthony Leonardi, 47, also of Coram.
They are all accused of running what prosecutors described as a "multimillion-dollar bicoastal drug distribution organization" with Suffolk County as their home base, county District Attorney Timothy Sini said in a statement.
According to an indictment, the organization ran from about June 2019 to June 2020. The defendants obtained narcotics on the West Coast and used the postal service and "drivers with hidden vehicle compartments" to transport the drugs to Suffolk County where they were stored, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The drugs were then allegedly distributed to dealers who sold them on Long Island and New Jersey. Five of the defendants are also accused of using firearms to protect their drug organization and distribution chain, prosecutors said.
"As alleged, the defendants transported, distributed and sold more than 100 kilograms of deadly and addictive drugs, including heroin and fentanyl, on Long Island, deliberately contributing to the opioid epidemic that has devastated our communities and taken too many lives," said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.
"We will continue to work nonstop with our law enforcement partners to keep our neighborhoods safe from the scourge of dangerous drugs and gun violence."
Search warrants executed during the investigation recovered about $1.5 million in cash, 16 kilograms of cocaine, two kilograms of heroin, numerous fentanyl pills, two handguns, a rifle, a pistol, and ammunition.
Sullivan was arrested on Sept. 30 while the other defendants were taken into custody in October. They have all been charged with conspiring to distribute and possess controlled substances. If charged, the defendants face a maximum of life in prison.
Navarro Gray, a lawyer for Fetty Wap, said: "We pray that this is all a big misunderstanding. He sees the judge today. Hoping he gets released so we can clear things up expeditiously."
It's not clear if the other defendants have obtained attorneys.
Fetty Wap was previously arrested in 2019 on three counts of battery, and in 2017 on a DUI charge after police say he was caught drag racing another car on a New York City highway. The status of those cases was not immediately clear Friday.
His 4-year-old daughter Lauren Maxwell died over the summer.
The rapper is best known for his 2014 sleeper hit, "Trap Queen," which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
