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Rapper Fetty Wap has been arrested and is facing charges after allegedly being a part of a bicoastal opioid drug ring.
According to Deadline, Fetty Wap, real name William Junior Maxwell, was arrested last week at New York’s CitiField on a two-count federal indictment. The “Trap Queen” rapper was going to be a part of the three-day Rolling Loud music festival at the New York Mets’ home stadium but never made it to the stage. After the arrest, Maxwell stood before a Long Island judge on charges of being what the government is calling a “kilogram-level dealer” of opioids.
News of the arrest comes just a week after the release of The Butterfly Effect, the rapper’s second studio album—inspired largely by the death of his young daughter Lauren earlier this year.
Fetty Wap was reportedly one of several people who are charged with trafficking in relation to the case, which alleges that they worked to move heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and more from the West Coast for distribution in Long Island. FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll issued a statement after the arrest, noting that, “The fact that we arrested a chart-topping rap artist and a corrections officer as part of the conspiracy illustrates just how vile the drug trade has become.”
Search warrants in various locations tied to the ring yielded confiscations of roughly $1.5 million in cash, 16 kilograms of cocaine, 2 kilograms of heroin, numerous fentanyl pills, two 9mm handguns, a rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, a .40 caliber pistol and ammunition.
Originally, Maxwell’s name was blacked out on the indictment but became public after it was unsealed this weekend, listing him as one of five defendants in the case.
Fetty Wap has pled not guilty to all the charges.
