Tekashi 6ix9ine is facing life in jail for racketeering and firearms charges
20 November 2018, 12:20
The rapper was arrested on Sunday night.
Tekashi 6ix9ine – born Daniel Hernandez – is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 32 years in prison, according to the prosecuting US attorney at his arraignment. The FEFE rapper was arrested and faces some major charges including racketeering allegations stemming from his involvement with the Nine Trey Bloods, as well as a previously unreported armed robbery.
A racket is a planned or organised criminal act, usually in business, to extort money illegally and regularly. Tekashi69, who has an album dropping this Friday, and his "team" – ex-manager Kifano "Shottie" Jordan, Faheem "Crippy" Walter, Jensel "Ish" Butler and Jamel "Mel Murda" Jones – are accused of conspiring to commit various crimes including drug deals stemming from the sale of heroin, fentanyl, MDMA and marijuana, and ordered shootings. According to the prosecution, the charges are the result of a five-year federal investigation.
TMZ reported that 6ix9ine's most serious charge, discharging a firearm while committing a crime, means he could serve a lengthy life sentence and a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison.
6ix9ine's attorney, Lance Lazzaro, tried to get bail for his client under the condition that he would hand over his passport, pay over $1 million for bail and be placed under house arrest. However, the judge denied bail, opting to keep 6ix9ine locked up in custody and citing that he may still be a danger to the community. In fact, 6ix9ine is now chilling with the general population at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, which is known to house some "extremely dangerous and violent" inmates. No celeb treatment here...
Lazzaro argued that 6ix9ine has only been associated with the other four men arrested for a little over one year, when he met them at a concert and subsequently hired them as his manager and security. Tekashi publicly fired his management team and cancelled his US tour last week on Instagram, alleging that they had been stealing from him and his fans.
6ix9ine was already skating on extremely thin ice with the law already, after being put on a four-year probation last month following his ongoing case for using a 13-year-old in a sexual performance. Two conditions of his probation were that he 6ix9ine was not to get arrested within that four-year period and he could not be associated with any known gang members.
The prosecution claimed that hours after his sentencing was concluded Tekashi was back with his gang-affiliated team, leading to a shooting outside New York restaurant Philipe Chow between his crew and a member of the security team of his label head. The violation of his probation could also lead to another four years in prison. Whew, what a mess...
