Fetty Wap arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center on in Newark. Photo / AP
Rapper Fetty Wap was charged on Friday 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 on Thursday at Citi Field, home of the Mets, where the three-day
Rolling Loud hip-hop music festival is taking place. An indictment that had previously blacked out Maxwell's name was unredacted on Friday to publicly add his name to a case involving 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.
The indictment charges Maxwell and his co-defendants with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 100kg 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 on Long Island and in New Jersey, authorities said.
Maxwell, 30, pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail at a virtual hearing on Friday. His lawyer, Elizabeth Macedonio, didn't argue for bail and a prosecutor told a magistrate judge that there was a potential plea deal in the works.
