NEW YORK — The rapper Fetty Wap was charged 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 Thursday at Citi Field, where the three-day Rolling Loud hip-hop music festival is taking place. An indictment unsealed Friday 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.
The indictment charges Maxwell and his co-defendants 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 U.S. 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 in Long Island and New Jersey, authorities said.
Credit: Ethan Miller
Credit: Ethan Miller
Maxwell, 30, pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail at a virtual hearing 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.
There was no immediate response to a message left with Macedonio seeking comment.
Maxwell 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 DUI after police say 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, Maxwell’s 4-year-old daughter, Lauren, died.
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