Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine has boasted about being incarcerated alongside deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The artist, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, 29, surrendered himself to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday.
Hernandez's arrival at the MDC follows his admission to assault and drug possession charges last year in a gang-related case.
In December, he was handed a three-month federal sentence after receiving a 45-day term in 2024 for violating the conditions of his supervised release.
Taking to social media ahead of his time at the MDC, which also houses Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO, Hernandez suggested he would be playing basketball with fellow inmates during his stint.
On Instagram he posted: “About to have the best basketball team the prison has ever seen.”
The performer has also previously claimed that he once shared a prison cell with Sean “Diddy” Combs and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
This marks the second occasion in less than 12 months that Hernandez has been jailed for violating his probation terms. He enters the facility just days after the US conducted an operation in Venezuela to apprehend Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
The MDC has previously held notorious figures including Sam Bankman-Fried, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Mexican drug lord “El Chapo”.
The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) is situated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood and serves as a holding facility for prisoners awaiting trial in the USA's district court for New York's eastern district, reports The Guardian. It also houses individuals serving short sentences.
Despite previous criticisms, a recent fact sheet from the Federal Bureau of Prisons suggests that conditions at the MDC have improved.
The document states: “Since January 2024, there has been a substantial decrease in violence, limits on the inmates' scheduled times out of their cells, and attempted introductions of contraband at MDC Brooklyn. In short, MDC Brooklyn is safe for the inmates and staff.”
However, the Mirror reports that the facility, often referred to as “hell on earth”, saw two inmate deaths and several injuries in 2024 alone.
Additionally, despite being designed to accommodate 1,000 inmates, it has reportedly regularly housed between 1,200 and 1,600, leading to claims of substandard conditions.