CHICAGO (CBS) — Grammy Award-winning Chicago rapper Lil Durk has been charged with murder-for-hire and is now in custody.

The FBI said the Englewood native was arrested Thursday evening in South Florida as he attempted to flee the country.

Lil Durk – the stage name of Chicago native Durk Devontay Banks – was arrested in Broward County, Florida. The investigators assume that he is targeting the rapper Quando Rondo.

Rondo was the intended target of a shooting in 2022 in which shots missed him but killed his cousin, 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson.

The arrest came hours after five people connected to Lil Durk’s music business were also charged in the case. The other members of Durk’s Chicago-based rap collective Only the Family, or OTF, were also arrested and at least two more arrests could be imminent, according to filed court documents.

Investigators believe it was retaliation for the earlier murder of Chicago OTF rapper King Von, who was killed in an early morning shootout outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge in Atlanta, authorities said.

FBI agent Sarah Corcoran said in her affidavit that OTF members “use violence, including murder and assault, at the direction of Banks and to maintain their status in the OTF.”

According to Corcoran’s affidavit and other federal court filings, the shooting stems from the Nov. 6, 2020, killing of 26-year-old Von outside the Atlanta hookah lounge after Von and Rondo got into an argument. Records show a friend of Rondo pulled out a gun and shot Von several times, killing him. Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, had two hit singles, “Crazy Story” and “Took Her to the O.”

Charges against Rondo’s friend in the King Von case were later dropped due to Georgia’s stand-your-ground law.

Authorities say Durk announced he would pay a bounty to anyone who killed Rondo, whose real name is Tyquian Bowman.

Almost two years later, an assassination attempt quickly emerged, Corcoran wrote.

Durk received the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance for his single “All My Life” featuring J. Cole, which triumphed over musical celebrities such as Drake, SZA and Doja Cat. Durk was also nominated for a Grammy three other times.

Durk was recently honored by two villages in Chicago’s western suburbs when they announced their collaboration with his charity, Neighborhood Heroes Foundation.

“This partnership and collaboration will provide resources and mentoring opportunities to the youth in our community,” Andre Harvey, mayor of Bellwood, 14 miles west of Chicago, said on the village’s Facebook page last week.

But on Friday, Katrina Thompson, the mayor of nearby Broadview, said announced that she had severed ties with Neighborhood Heroes and withdrawn the Village’s Honor Key that Durk had received.

While he acknowledges that Durk and other suspects are presumed innocent, the villagers “have even higher moral and ethical standards of behavior. And our public partners must hold the same uncompromising standards,” Thompson wrote on the village’s Facebook page. “As mayor, protecting Broadview’s interests and upholding residents’ values ​​is the most important job.”

Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey said he was surprised to hear of Lil Durk’s arrest but wasn’t ready to take the key away. He said: “We live in the United States of America where the defendant is innocent until proven guilty.”

Representatives for Durk did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

The indictment lays out investigators’ case against Lil Durk

Prosecutors said several members of the OTF and their associates used two cars to “track down, pursue and murder” Quando Rando at a gas station in Los Angeles.

On August 18, 2022, Durk’s employees learned that Rondo was staying at a hotel in Los Angeles. That day, Deandre Wilson, Keith Jones, David Lindsey, Asa Houston and a fifth unnamed suspect flew from Chicago to San Diego and then drove to Los Angeles using funds provided by Durk, Corcoran said.

That day, Durk allegedly texted an employee arranging the flights: “Do not book flights under any name associated with me.” Corcoran said there was video evidence that Durk was at a house that day lived in the San Fernando Valley.

When they arrived in Los Angeles, the OTF members met Kayon Grant, who had flown there on a private jet. Grant, a top OTF official, got the men hotel rooms, bought them four ski masks and got two luxury sedans, court documents show. Grant allegedly gave Jones, Lindsey and a third unnamed suspect weapons, including one that had been converted into a fully automatic machine gun.

The next day, the group allegedly followed Rondo and Robinson as they drove a Cadillac Escalade to a marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, a clothing store in West Hollywood and then to a gas station across from the Beverly Center.

There, Houston allegedly parked his car behind the train station so that Jones, Lindsey and the unnamed defendant could ambush Rondo. They got out and opened fire, killing Robinson, who was standing in front of the Escalade, but missing Rondo, according to the indictment and news reports about the shooting.

The indictment states that 18 shots were fired in the shooting at the gas station.

The suspects then went to an In-N-Out hamburger stand, where they discussed payment with Grant and then flew back to Chicago from San Diego, Corcoran and other documents say. Wilson later allegedly paid Jones and Lindsey an undisclosed amount.

Grant, Jones, Lindsey, Wilson and Houston were arrested Thursday in Chicago on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire. No attorney information for these men was immediately available in court records.

After her arrest, Corcoran wrote, Durk booked two flights from airports in South Florida – one to Dubai and one to Switzerland. He then booked a private flight to Italy, but was arrested in Miami before he could board that flight.

Durk is formally charged with conspiracy to use interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death. His pre-detention hearing will take place in California – but a date has not yet been set.

Durk and the other defendants are being held until they are transferred to Los Angeles. At a hearing in federal court in Miami on Friday, a federal prosecutor called for Banks to be held in custody because he was a flight risk.

Durk and his attorney, Alex Ubieta, agreed that his next detention hearing should take place in the Central District of California because the original crime took place in Los Angeles.

No date has been set for this hearing.

Banks’ father and other supporters were present at the hearing. In federal court, they declined to comment on the charges or the upcoming hearing.

Ubieta said they wanted privacy.

Chicago reacts to Lil Durk’s arrest

Chicago radio host Seandale of Raw TV Radio on Power 92.3 FM called the allegations against Lil Durk “devastating.” Seandale knew Lil Durk long before he was famous and was the first to play Durk on Chicago radio more than a decade ago.

“He was very cool, down to earth, humble and grateful for the opportunity to just be on the radio,” Seandale said.

Seandale added that it was difficult to imagine Durk selling out the United Center last Sunday and being charged with murder.

“It’s definitely a jump from the Willis Tower,” Seandale said. “It’s a real fall. It’s a real blow.”

Chicago hailed Durk for his community service and charitable donations. He even donated $150,000 to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2023 campaign.

The mayor declined to comment when asked if he would return the money.

“Right now we have allegations,” Mayor Johnson said Friday. “He was not brought to justice.”

Nevertheless, Durk is named in a civil lawsuit on behalf of the estate of rapper FBG Duck murdered on Oak Street on the Gold Coast while shopping on August 4, 2020. The lawsuit accuses the same OTF crew that Durk led of being the mastermind of FBG Duck’s murder.

In January of this year, a jury found six of Durk’s label colleagues and friends guilty of several counts in the murder of FBG Duck, including murder in furtherance of an extortion plot – including Charles Liggins, 32; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Christopher Thomas, 24; Marcus Smart, 25; Tacorlos Offered, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.

Lil Durk has been making headlines for his involvement in the criminal justice system for more than a decade. He was convicted of weapons offenses in 2012 and sent to prison was arrested the following year on a weapons violation in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.

Just last Sunday, Lil Durk performed at the United Center in Chicago. Three teenagers on the way to the concert were shot in a violent robbery a few blocks from the stadium, and one of them –18 year old Jesse Kendall– was killed.

Lil Durk also performed at Lollapalooza in 2022. He was injured during his performance when two pyrotechnic effects exploded in his face.

Quando Rondo released a music video paying tribute to his cousin on social media and YouTube hours after the arrest was announced. It’s called “Life goes on.”

Eric Henderson contributed to this report.