Lil Wayne admitted owning gold pistol on jet, records show. He said it was a Father’s Day gift.
As a convicted felon, Lil Wayne isn’t supposed to have a firearm — but investigators said the South Florida rapper, appearing high, admitted to owning a gold-plated pistol found in luggage during a search of a private jet just before Christmas, newly obtained court records show.
He told Miami-Dade police and FBI agents that the gun had been given to him as a Father’s Day gift, according to a search warrant obtained Friday by the Miami Herald.
The record reveals more precise details surrounding last month’s search of a a private jet with Lil Wayne and his entourage on the afternoon of Dec. 23. Inside the rapper’s bag, the warrant shows, law enforcement agents reported finding the gun, along with bullets, suspected cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, heroin, pain killers and prescription-strength cough syrup often used to make a concoction called Purple Drank. Cops also found $25,938 in cash.
The 37-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., has yet to be charged in the case. Federal authorities allowed Lil Wayne to leave, but are expected to take the case to a federal grand jury for a possible indictment. The rapper was convicted in a weapons case over a decade ago in New York.
His attorney, Howard Srebnick, on Friday said he could not immediately comment until he had reviewed a copy of the search warrant.
The Miami Herald first broke the story about the search of the luxury jet on Dec. 23. A week later, his attorney sent a “cease and desist” letter to the newspaper, saying descriptions of the bag’s contents were “false” and “defamatory.”
An anonymous tip led Miami-Dade police and FBI agents to board the Gulfstream V aircraft at Opa-locka Airport, which had just arrived from California. The plane’s pilot allowed officers to search the aircraft.
When they boarded, “it was readily apparent” that Lil Wayne “was under the influence of illicit narcotics based on his delayed speech and partially closed eyes,” according to the search warrant approved by a Miami-Dade state court judge. The warrant found probable cause for allegations of marijuana trafficking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Two police dogs searched the aircraft, which smelled of marijuana, according to investigators. When FBI agent Justin Carsten asked Lil Wayne about any weapons on board, the rapper replied “there is a gold-plated Glock firearm inside his book bag ... which was given to him as a Father’s Day gift,” the warrant said.
The warrant lists the actual weapon as a gold Remington 1911.
The rapper, who owns a 10,000-square-foot home in Miami Beach, made headlines in May when he refused to play the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Miami Gardens because of a mandatory police check. Before he was set to take the stage, he tweeted: “I’m sorry but I won’t be performing.”
The New Orleans-born rapper pled guilty in 2010 to attempted criminal possession of a weapon after a semi-automatic firearm was found on his tour bus three years prior. He would later serve eight months of a one-year sentence on Rikers Island before being released in November 2010.
Miami Herald staff writer C. Isaiah Smalls II contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 4:13 PM.
