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The Dec. 11, 2021 video call violated conditions of the hip-hop artist’s release following a major drug bust late last year, they said, leading to his arrest in New Jersey on Monday, Aug. 8.
As a result, federal authorities on Long Island asked a judge Monday afternoon to revoke his $500,000 bond and order that Wap – whose real name is Willie Junior Maxwell II – remain in custody during the ongoing prosecution of him and several associates.
In a Facetime call to his unidentified target, Maxwell “possessed a gun, threatened to kill him, and called the individual a ‘rat’,” according to documents filed in the Eastern District of New York federal court in Central Islip, NY.
Federal authorities included the video, in which Maxwell twice tells the victim “Imma kill you and everybody you with.”
He's seen in the video holding a gun and pointing it at the person on the phone.
“I’m gonna kill you,” Maxwell says again.
He did this “despite the fact that this was a direct violation of both state law and the conditions of his release,” according to the federal complaint, which was unsealed with Maxwell’s arrest early Monday.
Maxwell had originally been taken into custody at Citifield last Oct. 29 on charges of conspiring to distribute heroin, fentanyl, coke and crack in New Jersey and on Long Island.
The terms of his Nov. 5 release on a half-million-dollar bond included not violating any federal, state or local law – and not in any way possessing “a firearm, destructive device, or other weapon” -- while he remained free pending trial, court papers show.
“The defendant is advised that violating any of the foregoing conditions of release may result in the immediate issuance of a warrant of arrest, a revocation of the order of release, an order of detention, a forfeiture of any bond, and a prosecution for contempt of court and could result in imprisonment, a fine, or both,” the release papers say.
Arrested with Maxwell last year were Anthony Cyntje, a corrections officer from Passaic, NJ, Anthony Leonardi and Kavaughn L. “KV” Wiggins, both of Coram, NY, Robert Leonardi of Levittown, PA, and Brian Sullivan of Lake Grove, NY.
Warranted searches during the investigation turned up 35 pounds of cocaine, nearly 4 ½ pounds of heroin, as well as fentanyl, $1.5 million in drug cash and several weapons, including two 9mm handguns, a rifle and two pistols, federal authorities said at the time.
Cyntje and Robert Leonardi both pleaded guilty earlier this year and are awaiting sentencing pending the outcome of the case against the others.
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