Lil Wayne could face up to 10 years in prison.
Lil Wayne
The rapper has been charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, which, if he is convicted, could see him jailed for up to a decade.
Court documents obtained by E! News shows that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida charged the rapper under his real name of Dwayne Michael Carter.
His attorney, Howard Srebnick, said in a statement: "Carter is charged with possessing a gold-plated handgun in his luggage on a private plane. 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 charges come from an incident in December 2019, where Lil Wayne was a passenger on a plane searched by federal agents in Miami. Authorities have claimed that the defendant "knowingly possessed a firearm and ammunition in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, knowing that he had previously been convicted of a crime".
Lil Wayne is now expected to appear in court in December 2020 on the charge.
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