An associate of now-deceased Chicago rapper Juice WRLD told Chicago police that the performer may have overdosed on a high-strength painkiller in an effort to hide the drug from law enforcement, according to a police source.
The source told the Chicago Sun-Times that the rapper, born Jarad Anthony Higgins, took several Percocet pills, possibly to conceal them from local and federal police officers at Midway Airport early Sunday.
The Chicago Police Department said officers were called to the airport at 1:34 a.m. Sunday to assist federal law enforcement with “a private jet arriving at the airport which contained a large amount of narcotics.”
When police arrived, they found the plane’s passengers in the airport with several pieces of luggage. A drug-sniffing dog from the Illinois State Police indicated narcotics were inside, and officers soon found 41 bags believed to contain marijuana and six bottles of suspected liquid codeine. TMZ reported Monday that authorities seized 70 pounds of marijuana.
Three guns were also found on board, according to police, and two of the plane’s 10 passengers — working as security for the rapper — have since been charged.
Christopher Long, 36, of Buena Park, California, is charged with a misdemeanor count of possession of a firearm, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi previously said. Henry Dean, 27, of Chatham, is charged with two counts of possession of a firearm and one count of possessing a high capacity magazine, Guglielmi said. They are due in court Dec. 30.
According to the CPD, Juice WRLD suffered a seizure during the search, and a Homeland Security officer administered a shot of Narcan, which is often used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.
He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead. Juice WRLD turned 21 last week. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said Monday that his cause and manner of death could not yet be determined until more examinations were performed.
According to the Mayo Clinic, side effects of Narcan use can include: body aches, nausea or vomiting, restlessness, sweating and shivering or trembling.
The Mayo Clinic also says that seizures can be another side effect, though only when the drug is applied to babies.
TMZ reported Tuesday that last weekend’s incident at Midway was not the first time law enforcement agencies focused on Juice WRLD’s travel habits.
On Nov. 18, federal agents searched a plane that was set to take Juice WRLD and others to Australia. As they were on Sunday, drug-sniffing dogs were summoned to help officers search the plane, though it was eventually allowed to take off, according to TMZ.
A representative for the Los Angeles Airport Police did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
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