Earlier this week, 42 Dugg was arrested by federal agents at a Detroit airport after he failed to turn himself in for a sixth-month sentence for firearm possession. The charge comes after Dugg, who is a convicted felon, was seen firing a weapon at an Atlanta gun range back in 2019. As a result, he was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $90,000 fine. However, Dugg repeatedly violated the terms of his probation after he allegedly tested positive for drugs on multiple occasions and was arrested in Las Vegas. As a result, a judge sentenced him to six months at a federal prison camp in West Virginia.
According to Detroit News, prosecutors shared that they had been looking for Dugg since April when he was scheduled to turn himself in to the prison camp. Eventually, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives secured a search warrant to track the location of the rapper’s phone, which led to them finding him at the Detroit airport around 4:45 a.m. Wednesday. The next day, prosecutors explained why they believe Dugg is a flight risk during a court hearing about the arrest.
“When he was arrested he had $25,000 in cash and more than $100,000 in jewelry,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Lanning said during the hearing. “He’s claimed more than $11 million worth of assets. He has access to a private plane with a pilot willing to fly an unnumbered flight where Mr. Hayes is not included on the flight’s manifest.” Lanning concluded, “That’s not an accident. That’s not a happenstance.”
In response to the charges, Dugg’s lawyer told the Detroit News that his client did not turn himself in because they were appealing the six-month sentence. He adds that they mistakenly believed that Dugg did not need to surrender as the appeal was pending. Despite this, prosecutors said Dugg and his teamed filed paperwork in late April that claimed the rapper was a sovereign citizen that was exempt from federal laws. On Thursday, Dugg’s court-appointed lawyer, Casey Swanson, said Dugg did not file the paperwork. “Mr. Hayes did not flee,” she said. “He did not intentionally avoid a sentence in this case.”
42 Dugg is a Warner Music artist. .
