Rapper Young Thug pleaded guilty to gang, drug and gun charges

ATLANTA (AP) — Rapper Young Thug pleaded guilty Thursday to gang, drug and weapons charges.

The 33-year-old Grammy Award winner, Jeffrey Williams, entered the pleas without reaching a plea deal with prosecutors after negotiations between the two sides broke down, lead prosecutor Adrian Love said. Sentencing is entirely up to the judge.

Young Thug pleaded guilty to one gang charge, three drug charges and two weapons charges. He also pleaded no contest to the other gang charge and the racketeering conspiracy charge, meaning he chose not to contest those charges and is accepting the sentence.

Before deciding on the sentence, the judge heard from Love and attorney Brian Steele.

The wildly successful rapper Young Thug has launched his own label, Young Stoner Life, or YSL. Prosecutors said he also co-founded a violent criminal street gang and that YSL stands for Young Slime Life.

He was charged two years ago in a sprawling indictment that accuses him and more than two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He also faces gang, drug and firearms charges.

Young Thug’s plea comes nearly a year after the prosecution began presenting evidence in the troubled trial. Jury selection at the Atlanta courthouse started in January 2023 and took almost 10 months. The trial of the six defendants has begun admissions last November, and since then prosecutors have called dozens of witnesses.

Three of his co-defendants have already pleaded guilty this week following a deal with prosecutors. The pleas leave the fate of two other co-defendants still undetermined.

Nine people accused in the indictment agreed to plead guilty before the trial began. Another twelve are being tried separately. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was found guilty of murder in an unrelated case.