The rapper Lil Durk has been arrested and charged in a murder-for-hire plot.
Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, was arrested in Broward County, Florida, on Thursday night XXLMag first reported.
The website reported that the rapper is being held at Broward County Jail pending transfer of custody to US Marshals.
Reports of his arrest comes just hours after five alleged members of Lil Durk’s OTF collective were accused of taking part in a murder-for-hire plot targeting rapper Quando Rondo and shooting his cousin in August 2022.
The charges against the five men, which were unsealed yesterday by a US District Court in Los Angeles, include conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, committing murder-for-hire involving a death, and use of a machine gun in a violent crime resulting in death.
If they are found guilty they could face the death penalty. No further details have been given about Lil Durk’s arrest but is expected to be in connection with the same incident.
The indictment claims that the men charged – Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Keith Jones, David Brian Lindsey and Asa Houston – all have ties to the ‘Only the Family’ also known as OTF.
The five men were arrested yesterday in the Chicago area.
OTF is a hip-hop collective set up by Chicago South Side rapper Lil Durk who was a mentor of fellow rapper King Von.
The plot to shoot Quando Rando is allegedly due to his supposed involvement in the 2020 death of King Von.
King Von, real name Dayvon Bennett, was killed during a brawl outside a hookah lounge in Atlanta in November 2020.
Following his death, an unnamed co-conspirator who is part of OTF offered money and ‘lucrative music opportunities’ to anyone who would kill Quando Rondo.
In August 2022, a gunman opened fire on Quando Rondo, whose real name is Terrell Bowman, while he was at a gas station in West Hollywood with his sister and cousin.
Bowman and his sister were uninjured but his cousin, 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson, was shot multiple times and died.
The indictment claims that after tracking Bowman down in LA, Grant rented a hotel room on August 18 2022. He later met his co-conspirators and armed with several firearms they rented a car to track down Bowman’s black Cadillac – The Chicago Tribune reported.
The flights and rental cars were paid for with credit cards linked to OTF, according to prosecutors.
A surveillance image including the indictment showed Grant’s BMW rental following Bowman’s Cadillac.
Once he was at the gas station, Houston drove down an alley and let Jones and Lindsey and another unidentified person out.
A surveillance video allegedly captured the men aiming their firearms and shooting the car, killing Robinson.
After carrying out the attack the men went to a hamburger restaurant where they allegedly discussed payment.
The next day Wilson, Jones, Lindsey and Houston flew back to Chicago from San Diego.
Lil Durk has a lengthy arrest record for weapons and theft charges spanning back 15 years, records show.
His first brush with the law came in 2009, when he was arrested for criminal trespass to a vehicle in Illinois.
The Class A misdemeanor was dismissed by the courts, ‘with leave to reinstate’ which means the state could bring it back up again.
And just a month later, Lil Durk was back before the courts in connection with alleged trespassing and breach of bail conditions.
The rapper appeared to steer clear of trouble for a couple of years, before being convicted on weapons charges in 2011.
In October that year, he was pulled over for drinking in his car and police found a gun with a defaced serial number in his vehicle.
He was sentenced to three months in jail for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Just two years later, the ‘Broadway Girls’ hitmaker was arrested again and charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
Police said he threw a loaded 0.40 caliber gun into his vehicle when he was approached by police in Chicago on June 5, 2013.
He was sentenced to 18 months probation for the offense. During this time, he was charged with more weapons use violations after being accused of being in possession of two guns.
However, a judge ruled that the rapper was not ‘in possession and control’ of the weapons, leading to the charges being dismissed.
His legal woes escalated in 2019, when he and the late King Von were slapped with attempted murder charges over a non-lethal shooting in Atlanta.
He was released on a $250,000 bond before the charges were dropped in October 2022.
OTF was founded by Lil Durk more than a decade ago as Chicago’s drill rap scene began to gain traction.
Lil Durk is among the most successful drill rappers to come out of Chicago. The genre is famous for its hyper-violent lyrics and often focus on gang feuds.
In August 2020, another Chicago rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting. FBG Duck, born Carlton Weekly, was shot dead in broad daylight while shopping in boutiques in the Gold Coast area of Chicago.
Three weeks before the attack, Weekly released a music video for his song ‘Dead B***hes,’ in which he made what police have characterized as ‘derogatory statements’ about members of the rival Black Disciples gang who have died.