Rapper Tekashi69 jailed after allegedly violating supervised release

Rapper Tekashi69 was jailed Tuesday after allegedly violating the terms of his supervised release.
Upon returning to Manhattan federal court — where he infamously sang like a canary against members of the Nine Trey Bloods gang five years ago — he pleaded not to be thrown back behind bars, telling a judge his punishment thus far has “been bad, bro.”
The Bushwick rapper, 28, real name Daniel Hernandez, pleaded not guilty to violating the terms of his five-year supervised release at least three times between Sept. 7 and Oct. 8.
He’s accused of leaving the Southern District of Florida without court permission to travel to Las Vegas, Nev., failing to comply with mandatory weekly drug testing, and testing positive for methamphetamine.
Now sporting a bleached blond hair-do, the heavily tattooed Hernandez addressed the court after his attorney and Manhattan Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer urged him not to.
“You’re my judge. I don’t wanna be in front of you. I know how strict you are,” the “GUMMO” rapper said. “I know you’re very — a smart person — so I can’t stay here and lie to you.”
Hernandez was arrested in 2018 on murder conspiracy and racketeering charges carrying up to 30 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to nine gang, gun and drug charges carrying a minimum of 37 years but ultimately got two years after striking a plea deal with the feds and cooperating extensively against the Nine Trey Bloods.
Engelmayer, who at the time of sentencing said Hernandez had used Nine Trey as his own “personal hit squad,” released him from a two-year sentence in 2020 on compassionate grounds due to medical vulnerabilities the rapper faced from COVID-19.
Telling Engelmayer his circumstances in the years since his arrest had “been bad, bro,” Hernandez said, “You already gave me a long life of punishment.”
Hernandez said he’d been “squeaky clean” ever since his release and that he was in good standing with various federal prosecutors, his probation officers and other members of law enforcement, saying, “I’m not a piece of, uh, I’m not a bad person.”
“I’ve been on probation for four and a half years. I’m coming down to my last six months,” Hernandez said. “What I wanna tell you, Judge Engelmayer… In the last six months, why would I mess up now?”
Earlier in the hearing, Engelmayer said he was troubled by the allegations and several other incidents, including Hernandez’s multiple arrests in the Dominican Republic for an alleged physical altercation, allegedly skipping court dates and accusations of domestic violence and battery.
Within the U.S., he noted Hernandez had gotten a speeding ticket for going 198 mph in a 50-mph zone in an unregistered vehicle, plus had attempted in vain to travel to Germany and Russia, “the latter of which sounds like a particularly ill-advised idea,” he said.
Hernandez’s attorney, Lance Lazzaro, argued that the positive drug tests were false and stemmed from a prescription his client had for Adderall.
Lazzaro told the judge the rapper had not traveled to Las Vegas for criminal intent, arguing he went “to try and survive.”
“To try and survive?” Judge Engelmayer responded, sounding incredulous
“To make money,” Lazzaro clarified.
Engelmayer remanded Hernandez to custody for at least two weeks until his next court hearing.
This story will be updated.