a popular rap artist is behind bars after a shocking arrest as authorities accuse him of being connected to an alleged murder for higher plot Chicago Rapper Dirk Banks better known by his stage name Lil Dirk was arrested yesterday after allegedly attempting to flee the country and at this time he's being held in a Broward County Jail in Florida awaiting transfer to the US Marshals according to the FBI affid David the Grammy award-winning rapper is charged with conspiracy to commit murder For Hire his arrest comes on the same day as Federal prosecutors announc in California the
charges of five other men for the attempted murder of Georgia rapper quando Rondo whose real name is taquan Bowman prosecutors say those five men all have ties to Chicago gangs and all targeted the Georgia rapper in retaliation for the murder of Chicago Rapper King vau according to prosecutors all five men who include cavon London Grant AKA Vonnie ASA Houston AKA Boogie David Brian Lindsay AKA Brown Eyes Keith Jones AKA CLA and DeAndre dantrell Wilson AKA Dei they all face charges including conspiracy to commit murder For Hire committing murder For Hire involving death and use of
a machine gun in a violent crime resulting in death and the most serious charge carries up to the death penalty if convicted according to prosecutors all five men have ties to Lil Dirk's hipop group only the family also known as OTF OTF was founded by Lil Durk more than a decade ago and according to the FBI OTF members engage in violence and including murder and assault at the direction of Lil Durk and to maintain their status in OTF King vaugh whose real name was Devon Bennett was also a part of OTF and frequently collaborated with
and was a longtime friend of Lil Durk King vaugh was shot and killed in November of 2020 outside a nightclub in Atlanta he was killed in the early morning hours of November 6th during an argument between two groups that escalated into gunfire and he was fatally shot by qu's associate Lil Tim after the argument the indictment was named Devon Bennett AKA King Von instead the charging document state a high ranking OTF member described by the initials DB got into a physical altercation with someone referred to as TB and the circumstances surrounding that incident mirror King
Von's murder the indictment says after DB's death co-conspirator 1 made clear in coded language that they would pay a bounty or monetary reward to anyone who took part in killing TB for his role in DB's murder that co-conspirator is allegedly l Durk who authorities say made it known he would pay a bounty to anyone who killed quando Rondo according to the court documents the men used an OTF associated credit card to buy plane tickets to LA in August of 2022 to search for TB who is allegedly quondo Rondo and using funds provided by Lil Durk
Durk allegedly texted an associate arranging the flight don't book no flights under no names involved with me and prosecutors claim when there cavon Grant booked a hotel room for the m to stay at and provided the others with Firearms Grant allegedly procured cars ski masks and firearms that were used to find track and kill TB according to the FBI there is video evidence that Durk was staying at the house in the San Fernando Valley that day a lot of the stories that we cover here at law crime are very tough to tell but part of
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cousin but when Rondo and his cousin stopped for gas according to prosecutors ASA Houston allegedly drove to a nearby alley before Keith Jones David Brian Lindsay and a third unidentified Man known in the indictment as co-conspirator 2 carried out the shooting which was captured on surveillance video Rondo wasn't injured however his cousin passed away after being fatally wounded according to court documents the five men and co-conspirators used facilities of Interstate and foreign Commerce such as planes cars cell phones and the internet with intent that the murder of TB be committed after the shooting according to
the indictment the men went to a nearby burger spot to discuss payment then on the same day the credit card was used to purchase tickets for Keith Jones David Brian Lindsay ASA Houston DeAndre Wilson and co-conspirator 2 to travel back to Chicago l Durk wasn't named in the charging documents Grant Wilson Jones Lindsay and Houston but according to the indictment the defendants were offered money and lucrative music opportunities with OTF for the murder of quando Rondo prior to Lil durk's arrest the Chicago rapper was being sued by the mother of Chicago drill rapper FBG Duck
FBG Duck was murdered in 2020 and his death led to several convictions in a federal conspiracy trial last January but his mother sued Lil Durk OTF and King Von's estate alleging they were all involved in the shooting as well well according to the suit TF operates as a criminal Enterprise after Grant Jones Lindsay Wilson and Houston were arrested Thursday the FBI says Dirk booked two flights from South Florida airports one to Dubai and one to Switzerland he then reportedly booked a flight to Italy but was arrested in Miami before he could board that flight l
Durk and the other defendants are being held pinning their transfer back to LA I want to bring on now detective Eric Barnes to break down this case even further Eric thank you so much for joining me today you know Lil Durk is a really popular rapper but what's your reaction to his arrest and his alleged connection to this murder for high plot of Georgia rapper quando Rondo well you know it's a it's a very interesting case I've been following it for some some time now um but it's very uh representative of things that are going
on within the hip-hop community's days of the you know one foot in the studio one foot in the streets and talk to me a little bit about retaliation Within gang culture maybe even hip-hop culture as well too that we can even Trace back these events in particular kind of in a way starting from King Von's death in Georgia in 2020 and two years later quando Rondo's attempted murder where his cousin was actually killed during this Ambush what is your kind of reaction to just this whole web and trail that has been going on essentially since
2020 even probably prior to that too well you know um one of the things that's been popular with hipop artists is to uh maintain the same group of friends that they had since they were kids maintaining that loyalty not changing up and uh becoming a new person because you have Fame and so in keeping these uh these alliances you know sometimes there's beef that follows from the streets into rap and you know like I said these guys live you know daytoday and their alliances uh also live that same lifestyle and you know reading through this
indictment there appears to be this really heavy level of planning to allegedly carry out this murder plane tickets were bought cars were rented ski mkks and Firearms were bought talk to me a little bit about the sophistication you may have notice within the planning and these allegations well you know one of the things that uh that you have to the hurdles uh so to say that you have to get over in this case is just the geographic uh difficulties going from Chicago to California to commit this offense and so there's only a couple ways you
can get there either you can drive or you can fly and you know obviously advantage of flying gives you a more of a Time Advantage you can get there faster but you also leave an electronic footprint and that's what it seems like law enforcement was able to pick up on was the electronic footprints that were left from purchasing the tickets now when you fly you also have to have transportation on the ground so you have rental cars and if you're there for an extended period of time that also leads to maybe a hotel stay you
know as we talk about this level of planning it also appears there is also this element of not so great planning if you didn't want to be caught and some of the five defendants actually used their real names their birth dates and photo IDs to book this travel and then one of the co-conspirators actually texted another co-conspirator saying don't book don't book no flights under no names involved with me what are your what's your reaction to kind of just doing this allegedly and using your real name your real ID but also kind of wanting to
keep this on the down low as well too of not wanting to get caught well I think that that you know when I read over that I was I was kind of uh surprised by that with how uh you know unhidden that was but I think also it plays through the element of what their motivation was and it seemed that uh you know there was some discussion of payment and so sometimes individuals are so intrigued by being able to get their hands on whatever this payment is that they Overlook small details and and leaving your
name on a receipt or on a reservation is one of those things that they missed when we see kind of these types of cases a lot of times I think some times the defendants are allegedly always kind of wanting one specific Target but then there are some cases where someone else is hurt or killed kind of in this focus of retaliation what are your thoughts given that juando Rondo's cousin was actually killed when the murder was allegedly plotted for him you know I think it's always unfortunate that uh innocent people get caught in the line
of fire um it's something that we deal with often um within Street violence but I also think within the streets there there's also a mentality when there's a retaliation and gang culture that if you get caught riding with someone that I have beef with then it just kind of it's the rules of the streets like you put yourself in that situation and now you have to uh unfortunately reap the the circumstances of it and there's also been rumors circulating online that there might have been an informant or even a snitch within OTF that may have
revealed more to the FED do you think that's at all possible in this case that they needed an informant on the inside to kind of give a scoop into kind of how everything was planned out and kind of how everything kind of came to fruition well I know that there was uh very detailed information and it definitely indicates that the investigators did a great job digging up surveillance footage and being able to uncover some of the the intimate details um I don't know if there was an informant necessarily but it seems that they do have
some very personal details in this in their indictment and given if there was possibly an enfor kind of how do they all play a role into this case because again within the culture a lot of times there is a no snitching policy but what are your thoughts on whether or not there might have been an informant and kind of how that may have all um came into this as well too well you know the the no snitching thing is very huge in the street and within the hip-hop culture um but one thing that within the
law enforcement Community when someone is looking at a significant sentence which I think murder For Hire either carries uh in some s situation death penalty and also life in prison you know it's every man for himself at that moment and so the the old cliche of the first one to talk ISS the best deal normally that weighs very heavily in these cases some of the defendants in addition to being offered money were also promised lucrative music opportunities If They carried out this murder and I know we've kind of been having a discussion about you know
how rap culture kind of bleeds into gang culture but what's your reaction to kind of this um lucrative opportunity given they carry out this bounty well you know um it's the the American dream of wanting to be able to create a better opportunity for yourself and your family and unfortunately um a lot of individuals have you know the the dream of making it in the rap business and they just not giving the opportunity so that is something that is going to be very alluring to a lot of individuals because they not only want the be
able to have the rap contract but also the rap lifestyle you know um and some people are willing to do whatever it takes to get that and sometimes when we see these cases especially gang cases that are also kind of double as like hip-hop cases you know Y and W Melly this case with a Little Durk even YSL you I can't help but notice just how young some of the defendants are and some of the alleged activities that they're being accused of doing they're so young you know in their 20s probably started maybe when they
were teenagers but what are your thoughts on just how young some of these defendants are when they're kind of coming up like you had just mentioned wanting this American Dream but then at the same time time having this kind of tie to the street culture where maybe they don't see the actual consequences of what could happen either they go to jail or they may end up dead on the street what are your thoughts on just that whole layer and aspect of it well you know I think one of the things that weighs heavily on this
the influence is the fact that you know a guy that you may have grown up with seen around the neighborhood now he has his lucrative uh rap contract and is driving uh you know foreign cars and living in expensive houses and traveling you know all across the country they almost become Larger than Life and so when you have a young individual that maybe hasn't had the best role models in life you know what they're able to see this individual achieve is going to be larger than any kind of uh verbal warning that someone can tell
them they're going to take their word as being you know good you know if I can carry out what is being asked to me then maybe I can live this lifestyle as well and I think that that reality weighs heavier than any consequence that you can think of and as someone who is a detective who works with street gangs kind of what are you hearing from the inside that you'd be willing to talk about on camera as far as you know maybe just what the motivation is to kind of continue to be a part of
this lifestyle well you know obviously the uh what everyone is doing right now across social media as well as the streets and within the street culture they're kind of unpacking this indictment they're trying to breaking it down line by line trying to piece things together figure out if there is an informant um also figuring out if this was uh something that was carried out on behalf of King vau just connecting the dots on you know their uh from their levels but I think that uh what what factors into that is the the theory that you
know uh nobody plans to get caught you know the plan is we're going to do it we're going to get away with it and we're looking 100 100 yards down the field instead of seeing what's going on right now and the factor of of getting caught now being um named in a Federal indictment that part is not really thought of too heavily because again nobody factors in that I am going to get confidence and kind of going back to the Little Durk aspect of it as well too you know he was again a very popular
rap artist he had a lot of popular songs and a lot of fans did look up to him but it seems though as we don't know at this particular point but it seems though a lot of people may be alleging he's kind of the Kingpin in a way of OTF and that he is a um someone who carries out these plots essentially kind of running a criminal Enterprise what are your thoughts on just kind of how people allege these popular rap artists are these kingpens in a way of criminal street gangs well I think we're
going to with this case it's going to be very interesting and how it plays out but we're going to really get into the basics of uh rap being entertainment or rappers really living what they rap about and I think there's definitely something that that's a hurdle to investigators are going to have to get over with just proving that this Little Dirk's role in OTF wasn't merely entertainment that he actually had a role within the street culture of OTF and do you see any other hurdles that investigators may come to find when they're um kind of
going through this case well you know anytime that uh you're dealing with multiple people with inside you know an indictment co-conspirators um what's people's roles kind of change you know um and then there's there's money as well involved with some of the people that were discussed in this case so it's also heavily influenced by uh the street life and culture gang life and culture and so you just what they have today may change and and hopefully on the investigators end um what you see in that indictment would only kind of snowball and grow larger maybe
they're able to develop more evidence and convert some of these co-conspirators into uh Witnesses for the government all right detective Eric Barnes I appreciate so much your insight into this case before we sign you off is there anything else you like to add about just where the case goes from here no I think uh from what we see in this indictment that the investigators did a very uh very solid job investigating this case and kudos to them all right detective Eric Barnes again thank you so much for your time today I really appreciate it thank
you according to reports Jones and Houston have a scheduled Hearing in Chicago on Monday however Grant Wilson and Lindsay have reportedly waved their right to a hearing and will instead be sent to Los Angeles reporting for law on crime I'm Elizabeth Milner
