Young Thug was arrested Monday afternoon in Georgia on gang-related charges, according to jail records online.
“Go Crazy” rapper, legal name Jeffery Lamar Williams, is charged with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and involvement in criminal street gang activity. According to Atlanta Journal-Constitutionthe RICO act charge stems from an alleged offense in January 2013, while the gang activity charge stems from an alleged incident in May 2018.
Young Thug’s arrest follows a 56-count grand jury indictment being considered by rolling stone filed in Fulton County Georgia which names 28 members or associates of ‘criminal street gang’ YSL – including fellow rapper Gunna, legal name Sergio Giavanni Kitchens, who is also charged with one count of conspiracy to rape RICO.
Officials say YSL – whose 30 year old rapper is identified as a founding member – “claims affiliation with the national Bloods gang”. (The YSL business operates as “Young Slime Life,” but also shares the same initials as Young Thug’s Young Stoner Life Records imprint.) Prosecutors say the named defendants “conspired to associate together and with others for the common purpose of illegally obtaining money and property through a pattern of racketeering activity.
Representatives for Young Thug and Gunna did not respond to requests for comment from rolling stone.
88-page indictment reveals Young Thug is both directly and indirectly associated with a multitude of criminal activities, ranging from armed robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon to murder.
In February of this year, two YSL associates asked Young Thug for “permission” to “Craft a second attempted murder,” Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci while incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail awaiting trial for murder. According to ComplexLucci was stabbed at the facility on February 9 – an attack prosecutors say was carried out by YSL associates.
The Grammy Award winner is also accused of leasing the 2014 Infiniti Q50 sedan used later in the commission of the murder” of rival gang member Donovan Thomas, Jr. on January 10, 2015. About two weeks after Thomas’ murder, prosecutors say Young Thug bragged about the incident in a video posted on the social media, stating “so a n—a lie for they mom, lie for they or they children, lie for they or they brothers and sisters then enter directly into the courtroom and to tell about the Gods honest truth, don’t to have this, you all n—-s need for to have fucking brother killed, from me and YSL.
Fulton County officials say Young Thug was in regular communication with Kyle Oree, a leader of the Blood-affiliated Sex Money Murder street gang, stating in one chat, “sacrifice must be done, the soldiers must fall in Ordered for the battle for be Won.” Young Thug’s social media posts were also entered into evidence, with prosecutors saying a photo of the Atlanta native “wearing red Clothes, and turn signal a YSL gang hand sign “is”a overt act in advancement of The Conspiracy.” The document also contains a screenshot of a March 9 photo of Young Thug and Gunna from the latter’s Instagram account captioned “slatt business, YSL4L” – “slime love all time” and “Young Slime Life for life” – the acronyms prosecutors state are generally used by the YSL union.
Atlanta’s WSB-TV reports that Young Thug will make his first court appearance Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel told the News Network that the rapper “has not committed any crime” and that he “would fight until my last drop of blood to clear him”.
Monday’s arrest marks yet another contact with law enforcement for the chart-topping rapper. In July 2015, Young Thug was arrested during a raid on his home and charged with weapons and drug offenses after making “terrorist threats” against a mall security guard. That same month, he was named in an indictment accusing his former tour manager of shooting at Lil Wayne’s tour buses during an incident in Atlanta in April of that year. Like Monday’s indictment, this case also centered on Young Thug’s high-level involvement in the YSL organization.
In September 2018, the rapper was convicted of a drug felony following a traffic stop in September 2017. He was later released on bail. Gunna, who was also in the vehicle at the time of the 2017 incident, was charged at the time with a misdemeanor of window tint violation and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Young Thug is currently in the midst of a lawsuit against the property management company of her luxury Atlanta apartment, claiming the company is responsible for the loss of a Louis Vuitton handbag containing $40,000 in cash, jewelry and a hard drive containing approximately 200 unreleased songs “worth at least an estimated $1,000,000.