Federal Crime and Justice

The Justice Department says nine people, including rappers Pooh Shiesty and Big30, have been federally charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping over an alleged armed ambush of Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane and other music-industry figures at a Dallas recording studio on January 10. According to a federal criminal complaint, Gucci Mane (Radric Davis) flew to Dallas believing he was attending a meeting to resolve a contract dispute involving Pooh Shiesty (Lontrell Williams Jr.), but was instead forced at gunpoint in a studio room to sign paperwork releasing Pooh Shiesty from his recording deal while accomplices robbed others in a control room. Prosecutors allege one victim was choked nearly unconscious and stripped of a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton bag and other valuables, while another was pushed onto a couch and relieved of his wallet and jewelry, as Big30 (Rodney Wright Jr.) allegedly helped block an exit door. Investigators say the plot was preplanned, citing travel records from Memphis, contract documents printed at a Staples store hours before the attack, electronic monitoring data placing Pooh Shiesty at the scene despite home confinement, surveillance footage, fingerprint evidence from items like red plastic cups, and social media posts displaying suspected stolen cash and jewelry. Eight of the nine defendants were arrested this week in Dallas and Memphis, and each faces up to life in federal prison if convicted, in a case that underscores how business disputes in a lucrative corner of the music industry can spill into orchestrated violence that becomes a federal kidnapping case.