Rapper Lil Durk has been arrested in South Florida in connection with a botched ambush on rap rival Quando Rondo two years ago in Los Angeles.
U.S. Marshals picked up Lil Durk near Miami International Airport on Thursday night, Oct. 24, according local news station WSVN-TV.
Durk, 32, was arrested just before boarding a plane. WSVN reported the Chicago rapper, born Durk Devontay Banks, was on his way out of the country when he was taken into custody.
“Durk booked two flights from South Florida airports — one to Dubai and one to Switzerland. He then booked a private flight to Italy,” the station said on its website.
Related: Rapper Quando Rondo Witnesses Fatal ‘Execution-Style’ Shooting Near LA Mall
The rapper is charged with conspiracy to use interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Friday in a news release.
Durk made his initial appearance Friday in federal court in Miami and is being held without bond. He’ll be arraigned “in the coming weeks” after he’s transferred to Los Angeles, the U.S. Attorneys office said.
Federal prosecutors allege the Grammy-winning rapper “conspired” to kill Georgia hip-hop artist Quando Rondo during a carefully planned ambush in Los Angeles.
Gunmen targeted a Cadillac Escalade that Quando was riding in on Aug. 19, 2022.
As previously reported, the SUV had just pulled into a gas station near the Beverly Center shopping mall when gunmen opened fire in broad daylight.
Quando’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, was standing outside the vehicle and suffered a fatal gunshot wound. An online obituary said Robinson was 24 years old when he died.
“[Lil Durk] is charged with orchestrating a cold-blooded murder that resulted in the death of a rival’s family member,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada in a statement on Friday. “Not only that, the shooting occurred in the open, at a gas station at a busy intersection, endangering many others in the area.”
Acting LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said the department’s homicide detectives worked side-by-side with the FBI to track down those involved.
“The hundreds of hours spent on the investigation included surveillance, authoring numerous search warrants, using forensic technology, and tireless investigative travel,” Choi stated.
On the day of the attack, reporters on the scene described the shooting as “execution-style.”
Moments after the shooting, local news stations aired video of a distraught Quando standing outside the SUV and screaming out in distress when he realized his cousin had been shot.
It later emerged that Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Terrel Bowman, was the intended target but the gunmen missed.
In addition to Lil Durk, five members of his Chicago-based Only The Family (OTF) music collective were arrested Thursday in Chicago, for their alleged roles with the L.A. shooting. Prosecutors describe OTF as a “hybrid” music crew and street gang.
The five alleged co-conspirators are Kavon London Grant, 28; Deandre Dontrell Wilson, 33; Keith Jones, 33; David Brian Lindsey, 33; and Asa Houston, 36.
All five are charged with one count of conspiracy; one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death; and one count of using, carrying and discharging firearms and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death. Jones faces an additional charge of possession of a machine gun.
The FBI alleges Durk paid the others to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles on the day before the gas station shooting.
The violence unfolded after Durk allegedly put a “bounty” on Rondo’s head in retaliation for the 2020 murder of Chicago drill rapper King Von, born Dayvon Bennett. King Von was fatally shot during a fistfight with Quando in Atlanta.
Lil Durk won a Grammy Award earlier this year for best melodic rap performance.
Watch a news report on his arrest below.
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