Rapper Kodak Black has been arrested on a drug trafficking charge in central Florida, marking his latest encounter with law enforcement. The musician, whose real name is Bill Kapri, was booked into the Orange County Jail on Wednesday on a felony charge of trafficking MDMA, the synthetic drug commonly known as ecstasy or molly.
Kapri entered a written plea of not guilty and requested a jury trial on Thursday. He also waived his right to appear in person at a future arraignment hearing in state court.
The arrest stems from a police encounter in Orlando in December, when officers responded to a neighborhood after residents reported hearing gunshots. According to a police report, officers encountered a group of people gathered around parked luxury sports utility vehicles, including Kapri.
An officer noticed a white substance on a $100 bill inside a Lamborghini SUV, which smelled of cannabis, providing probable cause to search the vehicle. During the search, officers found a pink bag containing a plastic bag of MDMA, $37,000 in cash, and numerous documents bearing Kapri's name, the police report stated.
The pink bag matched one seen in a photo Kapri had posted to his Instagram account. Investigators noted the bag also contained a distinct lighter that appeared in the same photo.
According to the police report, everyone at the scene denied owning the bag, including Kapri, who acknowledged the money belonged to his business and requested its return.
Ambrosia Healy and Kevin Young, who represent Kapri at Universal Music Group, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Kapri has faced previous legal issues. In 2023, police in Plantation, Florida arrested him after finding him asleep at the wheel with white powder around his mouth. Although authorities initially said the powder tested positive for cocaine, a lab test later revealed it was oxycodone, for which Kapri had a prescription. That arrest violated his probation from an unrelated case, leading to a two-month jail term in Miami.
Kapri was also arrested in 2022 on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He was released on bond with regular drug testing as a condition. In 2023, he was ordered into drug rehab for 30 days after missing a drug test and subsequently testing positive for fentanyl, according to court records.
In January 2021, then-President Donald Trump commuted a three-year federal prison sentence Kapri received for falsifying documents used to purchase weapons. Kapri had served about half of that sentence.
As Kodak Black, Kapri has sold more than 30 million singles, with hits including “Super Gremlin,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022.
