Utah police are accusing YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA YoungBoy) of running a “large scale prescription fraud ring” aimed at purchasing codeine from local drug stores, according to new legal filings that shed light on his arrest earlier this week.
In an affidavit disclosed in court documents Thursday (April 18) and obtained by Billboard, the Cache County Sheriff’s Office said it had executed a search warrant Monday on YoungBoy’s home – where he’s been living under house arrest for more than two years while awaiting trial on federal gun charges.
According to the filings, the raid followed a monthslong investigation into allegedly fraudulent prescription drug purchases at multiple Utah drug stores by “associates” of YoungBoy (real name Kentrell DeSean Gaulden). The search allegedly turned up prescription drugs bearing the names used in some of the phony purchases, as well as a gun.
“Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, also known as NBA YoungBoy, has been a target of investigation by the Cache County Sheriff’s Office after being identified as a suspect in a large scale prescription fraud ring,” reads the affidavit, signed by a local police officer. “The prescription fraud ring is known to have attempted or has acquired various prescription medications … from multiple pharmacies in Cache County as well as throughout the state of Utah.”
Thursday’s affidavit from local police was disclosed by federal prosecutors, who filed it along with a request for a federal judge to revoke YoungBoy’s pre-trial house arrest and place him in detention until his trial.
YoungBoy’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment. The Cache County Sheriff’s Office has not yet responded to requests for comment on YoungBoy’s arrest.
According to Thursday’s filings, Utah authorities claim that multiple people used a real doctor’s name and identification number to call in prescriptions at local pharmacies for promethazine with codeine, a cough suppressant-opioid mix that’s best known as an ingredient in “purple drank” or “lean.” Several such people were reportedly arrested in a car registered to YoungBoy; several of them were also allegedly recorded as visitors to the mansion where he is serving house arrest.
“A suspect calls in a prescription, claiming the identity of a real doctor and using a fraudulent patient name and birthday, all for Promethazine with Codeine,” the Utah police affidavit reads “Sometime after the prescriptions are called in, they are filled and picked up by various individuals that have been found to be involved in the organized criminal dealings.”
The filing sheds light on YoungBoy’s sudden arrest Tuesday, when the rapper was hit with six new charges, including procuring or attempting to procure prescription drugs; possession of other controlled substances; possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person; a “pattern of unlawful activity”; identify fraud; and forgery.
The new accusations came as YoungBoy was awaiting trial on federal firearms charges filed against him in March 2021, stemming from a September 2020 incident in Baton Rouge, La., in which he was allegedly found with two guns. He was charged with violating a long-standing federal law that bans convicted felons from ever again possessing guns — a rule that applied to him because he had been convicted in 2017 of aggravated assault with a firearm.
The rapper had finally been set for a trial on those charges this July. But in a March ruling, a federal judge paused the case to await a Supreme Court ruling on a major gun-control case that could play a key role in YoungBoy’s efforts to avoid a conviction.
While awaiting trial, YoungBoy has been confined to his Salt Lake City mansion — a house arrest that has now lasted more than two full years. In October, his attorneys pleaded that the “long period of social isolation” was harming his mental health and asked that the judge loosen restrictions, including allowing him to travel to a recording studio to create new music. But that request was largely denied in November.
Now, based on the new Utah arrest, federal prosecutors are seeking to revoke YoungBoy’s house arrest arrangement entirely: “The United States respectfully requests that this court issue an order to arrest the defendant, set a hearing to determine whether the defendant’s pre-trial release order shall be revoked, and detain the defendant pending trial.”
YoungBoy remains in Cache County jail as of Thursday, according to inmate records. Utah authorities have asked that he not be granted bail until the federal judge rules on the request to revoke his house arrest and detain him.
