Rapper Young Thug indicted on more gang-related charges in Georgia court
By Amy Simonson and Aya Elamroussi, CNN
Rapper Young Thug has been indicted on additional charges related to gang activity along with drug and firearms violations nearly three months after he was arrested in Atlanta, according to court documents.
The rapper was initially indicted in May on conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and participation in criminal street gang activity.
A re-indictment filed on August 5 in Fulton County Superior Court accuses the rapper of nine new charges, including additional charges of participating in criminal street gang activity and violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act.
He was also indicted on other charges of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and a new charge of possession of a machine gun.
Brian Steel, Young Thug’s attorney, told CNN in a written statement that his client “has committed no crime whatsoever.”
“I look forward to the commencement of the jury trial,” Steel added.
The indictments accuse Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, of being one of the founders of Young Slime Life, a criminal street gang started in late 2012 in Atlanta with ties to another “national” gang.
According to that initial indictment, Williams and others “conspired to associate together and with others for the common purposes of illegally obtaining money and property through a pattern of racketeering activity and conducting and participating in the enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.”
The new 95-page re-indictment names other associates of Young Slime Life and uses Instagram photos posted by the defendants as evidence and cites violations that allegedly happened as far back as 2013.
Other alleged members of the YSL enterprise are accused of violent offenses in both indictments, including murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery.
Young Thug won a Grammy in 2019 for his work with artists Childish Gambino and Ludwig Göransson on the hit song “This is America,” which won a total of four Grammy awards that year.
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CNN’s Jarrod Wardwell contributed to this report.
