Lil Durk has been arrested in Florida on charges connected to a suspected murder-for-hire plot.
The Chicago-born rapper, real name Durk Devontay Banks, was apprehended on Thursday (October 24) and is being held in a Broward County, Florida jail, as reported by USA Today.
The arrest came hours after five other people were indicted in Los Angeles with federal murder-for-hire charges for the alleged targeting of rapper Quando Rondo (Tyquian Bowman), which authorities believe may have been in retaliation for the killing of Chicago rapper King Von in 2020.
The five people – Kavon London ‘Vonnie’ Grant, DeAndre Dontrell ‘DeDe’ Wilson, Keith ‘Flacka’ Jones, David Brian ‘Browneyez’ Lindsey and Asa ‘Boogie’ Houston – are all allegedly associated with Lil Durk’s Only The Family (OTF) rap collective.
Federal prosecutors have now unsealed the charges against Lil Durk, which claim that he ordered the murder of Quando Rondo in a failed 2022 shooting (via Billboard). They label OTF as a “hybrid organisation” that functions as a criminal gang as well as a musical collective, with the group operating “at the direction” of Durk.
Neither Lil Durk’s representatives nor those of the five others arrested have responded to requests for comment.
King Von was also an associate of the group, and he and Lil Durk collaborated frequently, with the latter featuring on two tracks on Von’s 2020 debut album ‘Welcome To O’Block’. That album was released just days before his death.
The charges state that “Banks put a monetary bounty out for an individual with whom Banks was feuding named T.B.,” referring to Quando Rondo. “Banks ordered T.B.’s murder and that the hitmen used Banks and OTF-related finances to carry out the murder.”
The new filings also allege that Durk was planning to leave the US for Italy on a private jet at the time of his arrest.
In the aftermath of King Von’s death, Timothy ‘Lul Timm’ Leeks was charged with his murder, with prosecutors alleging that he was an “associate” of Quando Rondo. Charges against Leeks were dropped in 2023.
Prosecutors now believe the five new co-defendants travelled to Los Angeles to try to kill Quando Rondo in 2022, but a shooting resulted in the death of his cousin Saviay’a ‘Lul Pab’ Robinson instead.