The rapper Fetty Wap has been charged with participating in a conspiracy to smuggle large amounts of heroin, fentanyl and other drugs into the New York City region.
The rapper, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, was arrested at Citi Field during the three-day Rolling Loud hip-hop music festival. A charge named Maxwell and five other defendants, including a New Jersey corrections officer.
“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,” Michael J. Driscoll, a top official with the FBI’s New York office, said in a statement.
Maxwell and his co-defendants are charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 220 pounds of heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine between June 2019 and June 2020.
The scheme involved using the US Postal Service and cars with hidden compartments to move the narcotics from the West Coast to Long Island, where they were stored for distribution to dealers, authorities said.
Maxwell, 30, rose to prominence after his debut single Trap Queen reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in May 2015.
He has had other brushes with the law, including a 2019 arrest in Las Vegas for allegedly assaulting three employees at a hotel-casino. He was previously arrested in November 2017 and charged with driving under the influence after police said he was drag racing on a New York City highway.
Maxwell experienced personal tragedy in October 2020 when his younger brother, 26-year-old Twyshon Depew, was shot and killed in their hometown of Paterson, New Jersey.
Then in June 2021, Maxwell’s four-year-old daughter, Lauren, died.
