Fetty Wap, the rapper best known for the 2015 single Trap Queen, about love entwined with drugs, was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday for operating a cross-country drug trafficking operation.
The 31-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Willie Junior Maxwell II, pleaded guilty in August to a conspiracy drug charge, admitting to participating in a large-scale scheme trafficking of at least 500g or more of cocaine. The charge carries a minimum five-year prison sentence.
Maxwell was initially arrested in October 2021 and charged, along with five co-defendants, with conspiring to smuggle more than 100kg (220lbs) of heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine from the west coast to Long Island from June 2019 through June 2020. The scheme allegedly involved using the US Postal Service and hidden car compartments to get drugs to the east coast, where, according to prosecutors, they would be stored for distribution on Long Island and in New Jersey. Two of Maxwell’s co-defendants have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
Maxwell, a native of Paterson, New Jersey, re-entered custody in August 2022 after a judge revoked his $500,000 bail, secured by property he owns in Georgia, after the rapper allegedly held up a firearm and threatened to kill a man in a 2021 FaceTime call, which violated the terms of his pre-trial release.
The rapper, whose debut single Trap Queen reached No 2 on the Billboard charts in May 2015, pleaded guilty to the top charge against him, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, pertaining only to cocaine. The plea deal protected him from a potential life sentence if convicted on all the charges he faced.
Prosecutors had argued for a longer term, claiming that Maxwell had used his fame to “glamorize the drug trade” while making millions from his music. “Young people who admire the defendant and are considering selling drugs need to be sent a message that selling drugs is not a glamorous lifestyle and, if they participate in that trade, they will receive lengthy prison sentences,” wrote Breon Peace, US attorney for the eastern district of New York, in a letter to the judge recommending a sentence of seven to nine years.
During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Maxwell expressed remorse for his actions. “I hurt my community, people who look up to me,” he said. “My family and myself. I am truly sorry for any pain I caused.”
Maxwell was also arrested in 2019 for allegedly assaulting three employees at a casino in Las Vegas. In 2017, he was charged with a DUI in New York after police say he was racing on a city highway.
