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Passaic County Rapper Juelz Santana Gets 2+ Years In Fed Pen For Bringing Gun To Newark Airport

Passaic County rapper Juelz Santana was sentenced Wednesday to 27 months in federal prison for bringing a gun into Newark Airport earlier this year.

Juelz Santana

Juelz Santana

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Santana, 36, of Totowa -- whose real name is Laron L. James -- must serve just about all of the sentence: There's no parole in the federal prison system.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler also sentenced him to one year of supervised release.

Santana, who took a plea deal from the government earlier this year, had a prior felony conviction out of Bergen County that prohibited him from carrying a firearm.

SEE: Passaic County Rapper Juelz Santana Admits Bringing Gun To Newark Airport

Santana left two bags and his ID behind when he left the Terminal C security checkpoint at Newark Airport and ducked out an exit on March 9 before boarding a flight to San Francisco, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

Inside one of the bags TSA agents found a two-shot .38-caliber Derringer pistol, he said.

As the agents began going through his bag, Santana ran from the airport and jumped into a cab.

Authorities went to his Totowa home looking for Santana, but he wasn't there, a law enforcement source told Daily Voice.

A federal indictment returned in May charged Santana with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of carrying a weapon on an aircraft. 

A judge in Hackensack gave Santana two years probation in 2013 after he pleaded guilty to lesser charges for what prosecutors said were assaults on both his then-girlfriend, Kim ‘Bella’ Vanderhee, and a good Samaritan who came to her aid at an Englewood housing development in July 2011.

Santana and Vanderhee reportedly split last fall.

SEE: Rapper Juelz Santana Gets Probation In Assault On Englewood Good Samaritan

Six years ago, Santana was charged in connection with the discovery of two fully-loaded 9mm handguns, several boxes of ammunition and 17 dime bags of pot during a SWAT team raid of what was then his “Santana’s World” studios on South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield.

Santana -- who once lived in Teaneck -- wasn’t there at the time, but investigators arrested freestyle rapper Toby M. “Hynief” Raynor, who co-founded both The Diplomats (aka: The Dipsets) and The Skull Gang with him. Santana later turned himself in.

He was free on bail when police in Teaneck arrested him four months later for driving while on the suspended list.

Then came the assault charges.

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