Rapper Lil Durk charged in Florida murder-for-hire plot

Chicago rap superstar Lil Durk has been arrested in South Florida in connection to a murder-for-hire scheme, court records reveal.

The 32-year-old Grammy Award-winning musician, whose real name is Durk Devontay Banks, is being held Friday morning at Broward County Main Jail on behalf of the U.S Marshal’s Service, pending charges of murder-for-hire, according to jail records.

It is unclear why Banks was arrested in Broward. A representative of Banks could not immediately be reached for comment.

As Banks was taken into custody Thursday, federal prosecutors in California announced the arrest of five others: Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Keith Jones, David Brian Lindsey and Asa Houston — whose charges include murder-for-hire, murder-for-hire conspiracy and use of a machine gun in a violent crime resulting in death.

The charges stem from the 2022 slaying of Georgia rapper Quando Rondo’s cousin, Lul Pab, born Saviay’a Robinson, in Los Angeles. All of the suspects have ties to hip-hop collective “Only the Family” or “OTF,” a record label that Banks formed in 2010 around the same time that the drill rap subgenre originated. The subgenre is characterized by its monotone lyrics that reference gang violence.

According to the indictment, the plot was aimed at Quando Rondo, real name Tyquian Terrel Bowman, in retaliation for his suspected involvement in the 2020 death of emerging rapper King Von, also known as Dayvon Daquan Bennett, an “OTF” affiliate who was close friends with Durk.

The defendants were offered money and “lucrative music opportunities with OTF,” for the murder of Bowman, according to the indictment. A credit card associated with OTF was used to purchase airplane tickets to fly to California and murder Bowman, the indictment detailed.

Earlier this month, the mother of deceased rapper FBG Duck filed a lawsuit linking Lil Durk and the late King Von to her son’s gang-related murder in Chicago’s Gold Coast in August 2020. The suit claims that Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was shot to death in broad daylight masked assailants outside a Dolce & Gabbana store, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The lawsuit accused “OTF” of functioning as a “criminal enterprise.”

Banks’ arrest Thursday comes just a week after he was honored by Cook County, Illinois, for efforts to uplift underserved communities in Chicago through his Neighborhood Heroes Foundation, which is also expected to send water and food supplies to Florida to help with Hurricane Milton recovery efforts. The self-proclaimed “Voice of the Trenches” was awarded multiple keys to the city, including Village of Broadview and Village of Bellwood.

In a September post made on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Banks celebrated upon learning that his criminal record had been cleared.

“Everybody should get second chances at life...” he wrote. “My background wiped and clean of all cases. I ain’t a felon anymore. Who would have thought?”