Popular Florida-born rapper Kodak Black is accused of trafficking drugs in Orlando after police used his Instagram posts to link him to MDMA found in a Lamborghini \u2014 the latest in the artist\u2019s many legal troubles.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident, whose real name is Bill Kapri, was arrested Wednesday in Orange County after flying to Orlando from California and turning himself in, according to his attorney. The investigation into him began Nov. 24, when Orlando police responded to reports of gunshots at the Children\u2019s Safety Village nonprofit near Mercy Drive in west Orlando, court records show.<\/p>\n
Police arrived around 1 a.m. and found several people gathered around two running cars. Officers searched the first car and found 56 grams of marijuana, a pill that tested positive for MDMA, better known as molly or ecstasy, and $60 in cash. Kapri walked up and began observing the search, according to his arrest warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n
Officers then searched the second car, a green Lamborghini SUV, and found a pink bag in the back seat containing 25 grams of MDMA and $37,000. The bag also contained documents with Kapri\u2019s name on them, including a prison card and a distinctive lighter shaped like a handgun, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the bag\u2019s contents as MDMA on April 17, just a few weeks before Kapri\u2019s arrest. Orlando police then secured an arrest warrant, the agency said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Previous Instagram posts Kapri had made appeared to show him with the same pink bag and lighter. He denied the bag or its contents were his, but tried to have officers turn over the money to him, saying it belonging to his business, according to the affidavit. Also found in the car were two rings and a pair of pink scissors that also appear to be seen in Kapri\u2019s Instagram posts.<\/p>\n
Kapri entered a plea of not guilty Thursday, court records show.<\/p>\n
He appeared before a judge who granted him a $75,000 bond after declining his attorneys\u2019 requests for a $10,000 bond, with the judge noting his 12 previous felony convictions. But the judge also denied prosecutors request to have Kapri surrender his passport.<\/p>\n
Kapri is still currently in custody at the Orange County Jail. Once released on bond he cannot possess or use drugs without a valid prescription and cannot possess a gun. The judge noted he already was prohibited from having a gun due to his prior convictions.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors had asked the judge to increase Kapri\u2019s bond because of his occupation as a professional rapper, but the judge said that was not a valid reason. Prosecutors also appeared concerned that Kapri, who they emphasized is of Haitian descent, would flee the country.<\/p>\n
Kapri\u2019s attorney, Bradford Cohen, who has represented the rapper in previous criminal cases, pushed back on those concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a proud Haitian-American but he is American. He has a U.S. passport, he doesn\u2019t have any plans on leaving the country,\u201d Bradford said.<\/p>\n
Cohen also said neither vehicle at the scene was personally registered to his client. The Orlando Police Department on Thursday declined to confirm whether the Lamborghini belonged to Kapri. He added that\u00a0latent fingerprints pulled from items in the pink bag didn\u2019t trace back to Kapri.<\/p>\n
Other people present at the scene that night include Kapri\u2019s brother and his security, Cohen said.<\/p>\n
Another man, James Twitty, was found asleep in the Lamborghini\u2019s back seat next to a bag containing 28 grams of marijuana. The lone occupant of the vehicle, Twitty had a gun on him, but records show he had a concealed gun license. He was later arrested.<\/p>\n
The pink bag containing the MDMA linked to Kapri was found on the seat near Twitty, something Cohen emphasized at Thursday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors charged Twitty on April 24 in with possession of over 20 grams of marijuana and possession of a concealed firearm in commission of a felony. But those charges were dropped Wednesday, court records show, the same day as Kapri\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Popular Florida-born rapper Kodak Black is accused of trafficking drugs in Orlando after police used his Instagram posts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[112,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,109],"class_list":["post-263040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}