Controversial and embattled rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, real name Daniel Hernandez, 29, has begun his latest prison term at a notorious federal lockup in New York City.
He reported to the Metropolitan Detention Center in his native Brooklyn on Tuesday, joining inmates including Venezuela’s president and the man accused of killing United Healthcare’s CEO. His arrival was a public spectacle, pulling up in a luxury van with internet personality Adin Ross and a camera crew, streaming live as he surrendered.
The MDC, New York City’s sole federal jail, is infamous for its poor conditions and constant violence, with some judges refusing to send people there and others branding it ‘hell on earth’.
It currently houses Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, as well as Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing Brian Thompson, the leader of the country’s biggest health insurer.
Over the years, MDC Brooklyn has housed a constellation of other infamous inmates, including music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs and longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Hernandez’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Tuesday, but have said previously that the rapper looked forward to serving out his sentence so he could resume his music career.
Hernandez admitted last year to assaulting a man and possessing drugs, in violation of the terms of his supervised release in a gang-related case.
He was sentenced in December to serve three more months in federal custody. He was previously slapped with a 45-day sentence in 2024 for breaking the terms of his supervised release.
Hernandez shot to fame with the 2017 release of his song “Gummo,” but the following year he pleaded guilty to his involvement with a violent New York-based gang, the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2019, followed by five years of supervised release for his cooperation in the racketeering case against other gang members.
He was released from federal prison several months early during the height of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Hernandez’s latest sentence is related to small amounts of cocaine and ecstasy found at his Miami home during a police raid. Prosecutors say he also punched a man who taunted him at a Florida mall over his cooperation against gang members.
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