NEW YORK (PIX11) — Rapper Bobby Shmurda and 12 others have been arraigned on a slew of charges after being arrested Tuesday in a Brooklyn gang bust.
Twenty-year-old Shmurda, real name Ackquille Pollard, and members of the G-Stone Crips (GS9) gang have been under surveillance by the Brooklyn South Violence Reduction Task Force, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a press conference Thursday.
“Just before we arrested him, he tweeted that he’d be holding a concert at a secret location,” Bratton said. “I don’t think that he was aware that location was now going to be the New York State Supreme Court.”
Authorities say the violent street gang has terrorized Flatbush and Canarsie, and are responsible for 24 shootings in Brooklyn.
21 guns, crack cocaine and marijuana were seized during the raid at a Midtown recording studio.
Chad Marshal, another aspiring rapper known as Rowdy Rebel, was arrested inside the recording studio where police also recovered handguns, authorities said.
Pollard is best known for his viral hit “Hot N****,” in which he raps of “selling crack since like the 5th grade,” and shootings.
“My music is straight facts,” Pollard recently told New York Magazine. “There are a lot of gangsters in my ‘hood.”
Pollard has pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking, gun possession, conspiracy and reckless endangerment.
“I’m not gonna let the government crucify my guys, despite the fact the government hates rappers,” an attorney for Pollard said.
Pollard’s record label is expected to post his $2 million bail.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.