YoungBoy Never Broke Again has been arrested for his alleged participation in a “large scale prescription fraud ring.”
According to multiple reports, the arrest affidavit accuses he rapper (born Kentrell Gaulden) of participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain prescriptions for promethazine with codeine (often mixed with Sprite to make “lean”) using fake patient names and birthdates.
The affidavit recommends 63 total charges, including 20 counts of identity fraud, 20 counts of obtaining a prescription under false pretenses, 20 counts of forgery, and one count each of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, and possession of a controlled substance.
According to the Cache County Sheriff’s Office, Gaulden and “many other individuals” would call into pharmacies under the name of a “real physician” and then have alleged associates pick up the prescriptions.
“The prescription was called in by an individual claiming to be a physician in the Provo, Utah area, providing an actual, valid DEA number, NPI number, and other identification for the real physician,” according to court documents, referring to one incident allegedly involving Gaulden.
Over the past several years, Gaulden has been on house arrest in Utah while awaiting trial for separate firearms charges. A federal grand jury indicted the artist in March 2021 on drug and weapons charges related to his September 2020 arrest.
After spending seven months in Louisiana jail, Gaulden was released to serve his pre-trial house arrest in Utah. In December, a federal judge relaxed the terms of Gaulden’s house arrest so he could receive mental health treatment.
Initially set to begin in July, Gaulden’s trial was put on hold last month to await a Supreme Court ruling on a potentially relevant Second Amendment case that will decide if a federal gun ownership ban for people with domestic violence restraining orders is unconstitutional.
Gaulden’s criminal record begins with his November 2016 arrest on two counts of attempted murder related to a nonfatal shooting incident. After pleading guilty in 2017 to a reduced charge of aggravated assault with a firearm, he was sentenced to a 10-year suspended prison sentence and given three years of active probation.
In 2022, Gaulden was acquitted of felony gun possession charges related to a 2021 incident in Los Angeles.
Last month, YoungBoy Never Broke Again dropped a compilation album, Compliments of Grave Digger Mountain, via his own Never Broke Again/Motown Records.
