Pooh Shiesty has been arrested for allegedly robbing and kidnapping Gucci Mane.
The Memphis rapper – real name Lontrell Williams Jr. – was arrested by federal authorities on Wednesday (April 1), alongside Big30 and six other men, and charged with robbery and kidnapping, per TMZ.
The Justice Department claim that Pooh Shiesty, Big30, and their associates invaded a Dallas recording studio on January 10 and robbed a number of people on the premises, including Gucci Mane.
Authorities allege that Shiesty’s father, Lontrell Williams Sr., was also involved in the incident.
Shiesty is accused of arranging a meeting with Gucci and other music business figures, supposedly to discuss the terms of his contract. He and the other defendants “executed a coordinated armed takeover,” per a DOJ spokesman.
Shiesty allegedly forced one of his victims to sign a contract release at gunpoint, and he and the others are also accused of robbing the victims of cash and jewellery.
One of the victims was also reportedly “choked during the robbery to the point of near unconsciousness,” per WFAA. Big30 is accused of blocking the door to prevent escape.
The FBI raided Shiesty’s Memphis home on Wednesday.
“The victims in this case came to Dallas to conduct legitimate business and they were met with firearms and violence,” Ryan Raybould, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, where the complaint was filed, said at a news conference Thursday, per AP News.
Neither Shiesty nor Gucci Mane have commented publicly on the arrests.
The rapper signed to Gucci Mane’s 1017 label in 2020, and quickly rose to fame with his 2021 mixtape ‘Shiesty Season’.
In 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a single firearms conspiracy charge over his involvement in an October 2020 shooting at a hotel in Bay Harbor Islands in Florida. He is said to have shot a 28-year-old man in the buttocks.
He served three years and was released last October, with his comeback single ‘FDO’ debuting at Number 12 on the Hot 100. At the time of the alleged robbery and kidnapping, he was under home detention.