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Lil Durk mocked rival Quando Rondo while rapping about murder-for-hire plot, feds say
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Lil Durk mocked rival Quando Rondo while rapping about murder-for-hire plot, feds say

Chicago rapper Lil Durk has released a song referencing the nefarious plot he allegedly planned to target rap rival Quando Rondo in a freak shooting in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said this week in while racking up more felony charges against him.

Lil Durk, real name Durk Banks, was originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a criminal complaint filed Oct. 24 — the same day an indictment charging five others in the 2022 attack that killed him was unsealed on Quando Rondo’s cousin. , whose real name is Tyquian Bowman.

Banks was arrested in Florida that day while trying to board a private jet to Italy – one of three international flights he had booked. He remains in custody at the federal detention center in Miami and faces life in prison.

Banks now faces additional conspiracy and gun charges, which were detailed in a superseding indictment filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Prosecutors also filed a motion Thursday to keep him locked up pending trial, arguing he poses a threat to public safety.

The superseding indictment alleges that Banks released a song that “sought to commercialize” the shooting that targeted Bowman and fatally wounded his cousin, Saviay’a Robinson.

In the song, released months after the shooting, Banks referenced a news report in which Bowman was heard screaming after seeing Robinson’s body, the feds say. “No, no!” Bowman said in the clip.

“He told me they got an addy, go,” Banks rapped, referring to an address. “He told me they have a location, go. Green light, go, go, go. Watch the news and see your son. You scream, ‘no, no.'”

The indictment states that Banks’ record label, Only the Family, doubled as a violent criminal organization whose members engaged in “murder and assault at the direction of defendant Banks and to maintain his status in the OTF.”

“Banks would pay bounties to people he and other members of the OTF wanted to kill, including (Bowman),” prosecutors said. “As part of the reward, known and unknown co-conspirators … would pay off anyone who took part in (Bowman’s) murder and/or reward individuals with lucrative musical opportunities with OTF.”

Also charged: Kavon “Cuz” or “Vonnie” Grant; Deandre “DeDe” Wilson; Keith “Flacka” Jones; David “Browneyez” Lindsey; and Asa “Boogie” Houston. All five were arrested in Chicago.

The defendants learned Bowman was staying at a hotel in Los Angeles on Aug. 18, 2022, according to the feds. An unnamed accomplice used credit cards associated with OTF to book flights and a hotel room, despite Banks insisting he didn’t want a paper trail leading to him.

“Do not book any flights under any name involved with me,” Banks wrote in a text message to the accomplice that day.

Wilson, Jones, Lindsey, Houston and an unnamed co-conspirator flew from Chicago to Los Angeles, prosecutors said. Banks and Grant traveled there separately on a private jet “to help coordinate the crime.”

On August 19, 2022, Wilson, Jones, Lindsey, Houston, Grant and the co-conspirator “used two vehicles to pursue, pursue and attempt to kill (Bowman) with gunfire – including with a fully loaded firearm automatic – resulting in (Robinson’s) death.”

Banks later used “coded language” to make it clear “that he would pay a reward or reward money” to those involved in the shooting, prosecutors said.

The plot was hatched as revenge for the murder of King Von, a Chicago rapper who was Banks’ protégé. King Von, real name Dayvon Bennett, was shot and killed outside an Atlanta hookah lounge during an altercation with Bowman and his crew on November 6, 2020.

An associate of Bowman’s was charged with the murder, but the case was later dropped.

Bennett died while he and Banks were facing charges in connection with another shooting in Atlanta in 2019. Charges against Banks were later dismissed.

Bennett’s death came just months after his bitter rival FBG Duck was gunned down in a daytime shooting on the Gold Coast. Bennett allegedly placed a bounty on FBG Duck, real name Carlton Weekly, federal prosecutors said.

Six reputed gang members were convicted of the killing in January.

Ralph Turpin, who allegedly alerted the other defendants to Duck’s location, spoke to someone at a phone number associated with Banks’ brother at the time of the shooting, prosecutors said. Banks’ brother, Dontay “D Thang” Banks, was later shot and killed outside a strip club in Harvey in June 2021.

Although Banks was not directly involved in Weekly’s murder, an FBI agent indicated that he was on the agency’s radar. When questioning the agent about who was targeted in the murder investigation, a defense attorney suggested that Banks was not important.

“Did I say it wasn’t important?” The agent fired back.