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Lil Wayne has been charged with one count of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, stemming from a 2019 incident in Miami. The 38-year-old rapper faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Per the court documents, federal authorities searched his private jet in December after Miami-Dade Police received a tip that the plane was transporting weapons and marijuana. When the FBI agents boarded the plane, they found bullets, cocaine, marijuana and nearly $26,000 of cash. Wayne also told them that he had a gold-plated gun in his luggage and said it was a Father’s Day gift.
He has not been charged with any drug-related offenses and his attorney Howard Srebnick said there are legal questions about whether mere possession of a weapon by a felon who is not judged to be dangerous constitutes a crime.
“Carter is charged with possessing a gold-plated handgun in his luggage on a private plane,” he said. “There is no allegation that he ever fired it, brandished it, used it or threatened to use it. There is no allegation that he is a dangerous person. The charge is that because he was convicted of a felony in the past, he is prohibited from possessing a firearm. Although the Supreme Court has not yet decided the constitutional question, Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently wrote an appellate dissenting opinion in which she stated that ‘Absent evidence that he either belongs to a dangerous category or bears individual markers of risk, permanently disqualifying [a convicted felon] from possessing a gun violates the Second Amendment’.’
The “felon” title comes from a weapons conviction he received 11 years ago in New York, for which he was sentenced to eight months in prison. Wayne, who has a home in Miami Beach, will face court on December 11 for the most recent charges.