DOJ: Rapper Gucci Mane robbed, kidnapped in Dallas by rappers, including Pooh Shiesty and Big30

I'm Ryan Rable, I'm the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Thank you for coming. This week, nine individuals, including well-known musical artists, kidnapped and robbed at gunpoint numerous victims at a music studio in Dallas, Texas. Eight of the nine were arrested yesterday in Dallas, Memphis, and Nashville. These individuals who were charged and arrested include Lontrell Williams Jr., also known as Pooh Shiesty,

Lontrell Williams Sr., Rodney Wright Jr., also known as Big 30, Kadarius Waters, Damarian Gibson, Demarcus Glover, Cordae Johnson, Darian McDaniel, and Terrence Rogers has not been arrested yet, but will be soon. The complaint alleges that on January 10th of this year, three music industry professionals traveled to Dallas for a scheduled business meeting.

Lontrell Williams Jr. arranged this meeting purportedly to discuss the terms of his recording contract with one of the victims. As alleged, once these three men were inside the recording studio, Williams Jr. and eight co-conspirators, several of whom traveled from Memphis, Tennessee, executed a coordinated armed takeover. As alleged, Williams Jr. produced an AK-style

pistol and forced one of the victims to sign a release from the recording contract at gunpoint. The remaining conspirators displayed firearms and robbed the other victims of Rolex watches, jewelry, cash, and other high-value items. One of the victims was actually choked by one of the defendants to the point of near unconsciousness. Defendant Wright barricaded the studio door with his body to prevent the victims from escaping.

The ringleader of the conspiracy, Lontrel Williams Jr., was on home confinement at the time of the offense as alleged for a prior firearms conspiracy charge in conviction out of the Southern District of Florida. Towards the end of his prison sentence he had been granted home detention. Part of the terms of his home detention were that he would not commit another federal offense or possess a firearm. His father, Lontrell Williams Sr., is alleged to have helped plan and execute the federal

kidnapping as charged in the complaint. And as described further in the complaint, within hours of leaving the Dallas studio, a number of the defendants were on social media displaying some of the items that appeared to be the jewelry that had been robbed from the victims. The charging document outlined some of the evidence, just some establishing the defendant's roles in the federal offense. This is as follows. Electronic monitoring data placing Williams Jr.

At the offense location, which would put him in violation of his home detention conditions, cell phone records and license plate reader data corroborating the coordinated travel of multiple defendants from Memphis, Tennessee to Dallas rental car records, confirming Williams senior rented a vehicle that was used by the group surveillance footage from the

offense location, a nearby office supply store and a hotel where several the defendants stayed following the offense. Uh fingerprint evidence as well that was recovered from the crime scene matching at least two of the defendants Social media posts by defendants displaying what appears to be stolen property just in the days following the offense Greyhound bus records confirming the travel of multiple defendants from Dallas to Memphis the day after the offense, in this case, came to Dallas to conduct legitimate business, and they were met with firearms and violence, as alleged in the charging document.

This case should serve as a warning to others who believe that using violence and intimidation tactics to rob others in our community is a viable way of to conduct business. I'm here to say that it is not and that if you choose to do this we will together with our law enforcement partners here and the other ones in the Northern District of Texas will bring you swiftly to justice. I want to thank the FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force, the FBI's Memphis Resident Agency and Nashville Field Office, the Memphis Safe Task Force, the Dallas Police Department, the United States

Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Michael Donovitt, and AUSA Greg Wagner, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas, my dear friend and colleague Jay Combs, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, including my colleague brayden Busek for their outstanding contributions in this multi jurisdictional investigation and prosecution. I'd also like to highlight the extraordinary work. None of this

happens without the extraordinary work of our A. U. S. A. S. In this office and I'm here to say we have the best day USA is the entire country that includes a USA is Robert Withers, Claire Demers, and my violent crime chief, Jeremy Fugate. This case really underscores the importance of standing up for crime victims, no matter who they are or where they come from, and the incredible, incredible collaborative investigative

partnerships that we have, not only in the Northern District of Texas, but across the country. And we are all working together to make our country safer. So thank you for being here today. And I'll answer some questions after my colleague here speaks. But now I'm going to turn it over to him. And this is Jeremy Wright, who's the Dallas FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge. Thank you, Ryan. Good morning, everybody. As Ryan said, my name is Jeremy Wright, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for FBI Dallas.

As United States Attorney Ray Bold said, we're here today to announce the arrest of several individuals in the Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee areas, as long as one here in Frisco,

Texas.

These arrests are the result of a violent kidnapping of three individuals here in the Dallas area. The majority of those arrested did travel from Memphis to Dallas to commit that offense. Our office collaborated with multiple law enforcement agencies and other FBI offices to carry out this investigation that ultimately led to these arrests. So I'd like to think the Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force, Dallas Police Department, the Memphis Safe Task Force, Memphis

Tennessee Police Department and the Shelby County Tennessee Sheriff's Department for helping with this investigation. Uh, violent crime does remain a top priority for the FBI and we dedicated significant resources from here in Dallas FBI, Nashville, Little Rock, Birmingham and Atlanta FBI offices to investigate and successfully arrest these individuals. We remain committed to investigating

violent crimes like these. No matter who you are, we will fight every day alongside our

partners to make our communities safer. Thank you.

And we have time for some questions. If you would just identify who you were with and your name would be helpful. Yes, sir.

Hi Kevin.

I'll answer the last part first. Yes, it'll be in the complaint and we're happy to get you a copy of that. It's now unsealed. It was off Dallas Parkway in Dallas, Texas, a music studio. That's what's identified in the complaint. As far as victims go, we won't get into at this time who the victims are or not. So one of the victims and this is actually

in the complaint and we'll get you a copy as well. There's a photograph of of the injury. Looks like there's some abrasions on the neck and arm. You were still seeking one suspect. One of the individuals that's been charged has not had his initial appearance yet, but agents are actively working to locate and bring him to court.

Reporter- I wanted to touch on that actually. Eric Bushman with KRLD. Since there's one person you're still trying to get to come in, I guess it's not a request, but it's an initial appearance. You had said that you're trying to work out, because you're going public with this, are you afraid at all that that's going to hinder individually?

Um, agents are working to find him. The complaint has already been unsealed and a number of these defendants have had their public hearing already their initial appearance. And and so it's already out there that this individual is has been charged. And so that information is in the public record. But I trust that the agents will be able to identify this person and find them and bring them to justice

Of course that person can turn themselves in immediately timeline and the length of time, you know why we're talking about this now because it sounds like these arrests happened recently. And then the second part of that question, did all of the arrests happen yesterday or were they happening over the span of time that we're talking about?

Yeah, good questions. I'll start with the last part. Eight of the nine happened yesterday and then we're still working on one more. Um, and that was again, a lot of those happened in Memphis. One happened in Nashville and we're working now with our Georgia counterparts to get the last person brought to justice. Do you want to ask another question? Follow up to that?

Okay. And remind me of your first part, sir.

Yeah. Can you describe and kind of characterize why, you know, that amount of time passed

before the work? Well, some of that was one of the reasons I wanted to list off some of the evidence that has been uncovered to date. A lot of this was subpoena work, search warrant work, and things like that in order to develop the investigation. And so the agents here with me, the agents out in the field, it takes a little bit of time to identify who did this offense and build a case so that we feel comfortable bringing the charges. So actually that was,

that's pretty quickly for a federal case of that, of this gravity and this nature. And so I'm very proud of the investigative work and it will continue from this office as well as our FBI and our local police department

convicted of these

charges. The arrest.

How serious

they're facing a range. So there's no mandatory minimum in this case. It's a range of punishment and it will be in the province of the judge, whoever gets the case. But it could be from zero all the way to life imprisonment. And as you know, a lot of what will guide what's called the sentencing guidelines will be the individual's previous criminal history.

The fact that one of these individuals committed offense while on home confinement, so actually serving a federal offense, assuming that individual is convicted, that will be an aggravating factor for sure.

I know you're being quiet so far on the victims here, but can you at least tell us outside of them being local to Dallas, were they aspiring artists? Are they known locally or even nationally? Can you at least tell us that?

I'm not going to get into the victim stuff at this time. I think that more will be coming out there that will help clarify, but I'm not at liberty at this stage of the investigation to disclose that.

And then can you describe the operation to conduct all of those arrests? I imagine they

were in different places. You know, maybe they were in the city of Dallas, maybe they I'm going to hand that one off to my colleague here, Jeremy Wright. Thank you for the question. It requires a lot of partnerships across multiple jurisdictions to be able to conduct simultaneous arrests in a manner, you know, to not alert other folks and to do it safely. Um, so really it's just a coordinated effort. And fortunately we have great relationships here, here locally with Dallas P. D. And her other partners as

well as other FBI offices have the similar relationships. Memphis is unique. They have the Memphis safe task force there currently, uh, which, which was kind of a help in a lot of this. So it's really just coordination and pre planning

and follow up to that. So all of the arrests in Memphis or no, no, we the

Memphis, we had one in Frisco, Texas yesterday morning. The rest were in Memphis and as U. S. Attorney said, we're actively, um, actually pursuing the final arrest.

Yeah. Did you have another question, sir? actively pursuing the final arrest.

Did you have another question, sir?

I think that becomes public record, but I'm not sure if I could follow up with you right after, Catherine, if you would get to make sure that we get that information over there. Thank you for coming. If there are any further questions, I just want to underscore the importance here in Northern District of Texas of vigorously prosecuting violent crime. And a couple days ago, I did a press conference in Fort Worth, Texas, but it just highlights the collaboration. The state, local police are some of our best friends and best partners. Chief Como is a dear friend and

partner of this office and has been fantastic for us working with some of the best in the business, the FBI. And I'm just really honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with the men and women in my office.

So again, we look forward to prosecuting this case vigorously, and if you have any further questions, and if you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to