Rapper Gunna Booked In Atlanta Jail On Gang-Related Racketeering Charges

Prominent rapper Gunna was booked on Wednesday at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta with accusations of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law.

The indictment included a list of wrongdoings such as “preserving, protecting and enhancing the reputation, power and territory of the enterprise through acts of racketeering activity including murder, assault and threats of violence.”

Gunna was just one of 28 people indicted. The group includes Grammy Award-winning rapper Young Thug, who authorities report was the founder of the Young Slime Life Atlanta criminal street gang. YSL is also the name of Young Thug’s label, to which Gunna is signed to.

Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Giavanni Kitchens, released his third album earlier this year. It was his second consecutive album to make it to number one.

“It does not matter what your notoriety is, what your fame is,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a press conference. “If you come to Fulton County, Georgia, and you commit crimes, and certainly if those crimes are in furtherance of street gangs, that you are going to become a target and a focus of this district attorney’s office and we are going to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,”

Some of the group’s violent rap lyrics have been associated with the indictment.

“I believe in the First Amendment. It’s one of our most precious rights,” Willis continued. “However, the First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using it as evidence. It is in this case — we put it as overt within the RICO count because we believe that’s exactly what it is.”