Rapper 6ix9ine has been arrested in Miami, Florida, after authorities said they spotted him making a traffic violation.
The New York-born rapper, 27, whose given name is Daniel Hernandez, was arrested by West Palm Beach Police on Wednesday evening and released on a $2,000 bond shortly after midnight, a force spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek. The arrest comes just months after 6ix9ine was assaulted at a nearby Florida gym.
"Deputies were conducting traffic enforcement in the Homeland Development when they observed a vehicle commit a moving traffic infraction," the spokesperson said via email.
"They also observed that the vehicle did not have a license tag. The driver was stopped and identified as Daniel Hernandez who had a suspended driver's license and active traffic warrant in PALMS (law enforcement system) for FTA (failure to appear on an unregistered vehicle—$2000 bond).
"He was subsequently arrested and transported to the PBC jail with no additional charges. Traffic citations were issued for today's violations."
In the March assault, 6ix9ine suffered fractured ribs and a blood clot in his eye after being attacked at a branch of the LA Fitness gym chain.
"He was attacked in a sauna at a gym by several thugs who beat him up," his lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, told Newsweek at the time and added the rapper "tried fighting back."
The rapper himself said he was not angry with his attackers, even though he described the incident as "cowardly" in an interview with NBC affiliate WTVJ.
"I'm not mad, because I know in the streets there are no rules," he said.
6ix9ine rose to fame in 2017 by uploading songs to Soundcloud, including his debut single "Gummo," which would go on to become a huge hit for him.
Newsweek also reached out to Lazzaro via email for confirmation of the rapper's arrest.
The current situation is not the rapper's first brush with the law, as he was arrested in 2018 and jailed for 24 months in 2019 after being convicted on nine charges. They included racketeering, firearms and drug trafficking offenses committed while a member of the New York gang, Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
As part of the charges, the rapper admitted his involvement in a June 2018 shooting incident in Times Square in which rapper Chief Keef was shot but not injured.
In February 2019, 6ix9ine pleaded guilty to paying his fellow gang member, Kintea McKenzie, aka Kooda B, $20,000 to organize the hit on Keef and was convicted.
He was released from prison in 2020 to serve out his sentence in home confinement.
The rapper was also involved in another shooting in another 2018 shooting at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, which injured two people in May of that year. The gunman in that incident, Fuguan "Fubanger" Lovick, was sentenced to 85 months in prison for the crime. In this case, 6ix9ine was involved but not arrested.
His first arrest occurred in 2015 at age 18, when a video surfaced of him appearing to engage in sexual activities with a girl who was 13 years old, but he said he was 17 when the video was filmed and there was "no sexual contact" between them.
He took a plea deal which included getting his GED, writing an apology letter to the girl and her family, and committing to not posting sexually explicit images of girls or minors to his social media. Another part of his deal was to not commit another crime for two years.
In 2018, he was involved in two separate altercations, one at Los Angeles International Airport and the other with a teenage fan in Houston.
In the Los Angeles incident, he was assaulted by a group of men outside the airport, but no charges were brought against anyone.
The rapper faced misdemeanor assault charges over the Houston incident, but they were dropped after the teenager decided not to pursue legal action.
His daughter's mother, Sara Molina, has also accused 6ix9ine of domestic abuse and the rapper admitted to having "physical fights" with her in a New York Times interview in 2020.
UPDATE: 08/10/2023, 04:57 a.m. ET. This story was updated to include additional information.
UPDATE: 08/10/2023, 08:09 a.m. ET. This story was updated to include confirmation of 6ix9ine's arrest and the reason for it.
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