BELOW SUPERNAV drop zone ⇩

Rapper Young Thug makes court appearance on gang charges

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

ovp test

mLife Diagnostics LLC: Oral Fluid Drug Testing

Male shot by female at Shreveport apartment

Class to create biodiverse backyard

Rules for outbursts at Caddo School Board Meeting

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241114185800

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241115200405

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241118165728

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241118184948

(NewsNation) — Rapper Young Thug, part of a long list of defendants in Georgia accused of illegal gang activity, racketeering and conspiracy, made his first court appearance Tuesday.

The 30-year-old musical artist, whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, was among 28 people arrested in a major crackdown on gang activity in Fulton County, Georgia.

Williams’ attorney, Brian Steel, maintains that his client “committed no crime whatsoever.”

“We will fight to my last drop of blood to clear him,” Steel said.

According to prosecutors, Williams in 2012 co-founded a violent street gang known as YSL, for young slime life, which he promoted in his songs and on social media. He was arrested Monday at his home in Atlanta, and held at the Fulton County Jail on charges of conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO Act and participation in a criminal street gang.

Prosecutors are expected to use Williams’ social media posts and his own song lyrics against him during the trial.

Also named in the case is Sergio Kitchens, a rapper and YSL associate known as “Gunna.” Gunna is signed to Williams’ record label. In April 2021, the two posted bail for 30 low-level inmates who were unable to afford the costs themselves. 

Fani Willis, Fulton County’s district attorney, said Tuesday that her number one focus is targeting gangs.

“It does not matter what your notoriety is, what your fame is,” Willis said. “If you come to Fulton County, Georgia, and you commit crime, and certainly, if those crimes are in furtherance of a street gang, you will become a target and focus of this district attorney’s office,”

YSL is said to be affiliated with the national Bloods gang. It is mainly active in southeast Atlanta, but is expanding to the surrounding metro area, prosecutors said. Members of the gang are identifiable by their green or red bandanas and clothes with YSL or Slime on them.

In Williams’ case, the indictment links the YSL gang to a wide range of illegal activities from drug dealing to murder.

Entertainment

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Site Settings Survey

 

MAIN AREA MIDDLE drop zone ⇩

Trending on NewsNation

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241119133138

MAIN AREA BOTTOM drop zone ⇩

tt

KC Chiefs parade shooting: 1 dead, 21 shot including 9 kids | Morning in America

Witness of Chiefs parade shooting describes suspect | Banfield

Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting: Mom of 2 dead, over 20 shot | Banfield

WWE star Ashley Massaro 'threatened' by board to keep quiet about alleged rape: Friend | Banfield

Friend of WWE star: Ashley Massaro 'spent hours' sobbing after alleged rape | Banfield

Clear

la

55°F Clear Feels like 55°
Wind
2 mph NE
Humidity
56%
Sunrise
Sunset

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.
48°F Clear to partly cloudy. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.
Wind
3 mph N
Precip
1%
Sunset
Moon Phase
Waning Gibbous