On May 24, 2023, Fetty Wap was sentenced to six years in federal prison for his role in a New York-based drug trafficking scheme.
Wap, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. The charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
He was arrested in October 2021 on charges of participating in a conspiracy to smuggle large amounts of drugs, including heroin and fentanyl. Wap and five others were accused of conspiring to possess and distribute more than 100 kilograms of heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine between June 2019 and June 2020.
The scheme consisted of using the U.S. Postal Service and cars with hidden compartments to move drugs from the West Coast to Long Island, New York.
Wap’s lawyers said that the rapper turned to selling drugs because of the financial hardship that the COVID-19 pandemic brought.
Wap pleaded guilty to the top charge in the indictment against him, which only pertained to him smuggling cocaine, and it spared him from a life sentence if he had been convicted on all the charges he faced.
