According to police, singer NBA YoungBoy and several of his partners allegedly organized a “large level prescription fraud ring” to fraudulently acquire prescription drugs from numerous Utah-area pharmacies.
The rapper ( born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden ) was named as the main suspect in a court document filed on Thursday by a Cache County Sheriff’s Office officer, which included posing as a doctor to fill prescriptions for promethazine with codeine, a controlled substance, in pharmacies in cities like Hyrum, Logan, and Smithfield. According to court documents reviewed by The Times, Gaulden, 24, was detained on Tuesday night on 63 counts, including matters for identity fraud, fraud, and “procuring or attempting to collect ” prescribed drugs.
Gaulden, a formerly known as YoungBoy Always Broke Again, had no comment to be made to The Times on Friday.
The affidavit, which was filed by Cache County officer Tyson Nielsen, details numerous alleged identity theft attempts and alleged identity theft involving the use of codeine, a key ingredient in a cough syrup-laced drink known as “lean, ” “purple drank, ” and “sizzurp, ” dates from September 2023 to February 2024. ”
On Sept. Two pharmacies in the Cache County area received a prescribed order from a person who claimed to be a doctor in Provo on January 19, 2023. The alleged posing as the doctor requested that the alleged poser supply authentic identification and fill out a prescribing for two people in their 70s, “Bethel White ” and “Gwendlyn Cox.” ” In both cases, the actual doctors ( who was not identified ) told the pharmacists that he did not have people with those titles and said his “name and certificates are being used improperly. ”
A Smithfield store reportedly received a fourth false prescription for the same drug on January 1st. 17, 2024, afterwards by “the suspect identifying as the doctor. ” The prescribing was for a individual named “Gwendolyn Cox” — no “Gwendlyn” — with a unique birthday. According to the petition, pharmacists were cautious about the demand and made an attempt to contact the doctor, but the phone was disconnected. Afterwards, the real doctor later confirmed to the Smithfield pharmacy that he had not placed the order and that he had not received a patient with the name “Gwendolyn Cox.” ”
During the January event, Nielsen began looking into the alleged fraud system, according to documents. Two women allegedly arrived in a white Chevy Tahoe, registered in Gaulden’s name, to pick up the prescription for a “friend ” from the Smithfield pharmacy. The unnamed women were taken into custody by memory County police as Associate 1 and Associate 2 respectively. They were afterwards detained for their alleged role in the “prescription scam ring.” ”
Nielsen said that amid his investigation, “Gwendolyn Cox ” requested to get in touch. However, during the conversation, the caller allegedly offered “ White” as a last name instead of “Cox, ” and did not provide a full date of birth or a home address. “During the conversation with ‘Gwendolyn’ it was very clear that a fake voice was being used, ” Nielsen wrote in the affidavit, before citing the caller’s pronunciation of “ask ” as “axe, ” which he said is “consistent “with a southern dialect” in several states including Gaulden’s native Louisiana.
According to court records, Nielsen, Gaulden, and the rapper’s brother ( “Associate 3” ) allegedly exchanged information regarding the prescription drug for” Gwendolyn Cox. ” The petition also lists a handful of “fraudulent action ” under the Provo physician’s name; All of them involved prescriptions for promethizane and codeine for people in Utah’s pharmacists in their late 60s and 1970s.
Several of the names are repeats, including first and last names that are combined with one another and have various celebrations, Nielsen said.
According to the affidavit,” It is obvious that there are several individuals involved in the scam plan, identified as an business,” based on the evaluation of the fraud incidents. The design of unlawful activity is further supported by Kentrell Gaulden and his associates ‘ continued scams and suspected drug distribution, which have all shared goals, outcomes, participants, victims, and methods of percentage. ”
When Cache County officials seized Gaulden’s palace in Utah on Tuesday, he was detained. Customers at Gaulden’s house were also detained.
According to the affidavit, police located a gun the rapper claimed belonged to his wife, two bottles of the antibiotic doxycycline ( one prescribed to Gaulden, another to a patient named “Caroline White” ), as well as several bottles of promethazine with codeine during the home search. Additionally, officers seized all home electronic devices for which Gaulden reportedly reportedly refused to provide passwords.
Nielsen alleged that the Grammy-nominated “Need It ” rapper denied “knowledge of any illegally possessed prescription ” and fraud schemes.
According to the petition, Gaulden’s past run-ins with the law date to 2018 when he was detained on suspicion of aggravated assault and theft. He was arrested once in 2019 and 2020. A federal grand jury indicted Gaulden in March 2021 in connection with his 2020 case, accusing him of possessing an unlicensed weapons and of “possession of weapon by a convicted felon”. He has been under house arrest in his Weber County apartment since October 2021.
In the affidavit, it is stated that Gaulden has “participated in an ongoing criminal organization that has been involved in the payment of multiple felonies ” despite his house imprisonment.
According to the FBI, Kentrell is the recognized leader of a violent crew from the Louisiana region, according to the affidavit. “Based on Kentrell’s past, it is obvious that he is prone to violence. ”
Gaulden, who was born in Baton Rouge, began rapping as a student posting his song to YouTube. After signing to the music label Never Broke Again, Gaulden released his first album “Before I Go” in 2016, which paved the way for more releases and collaborations with rappers 21 Savage, Boosie Badazz, Yo Gotti , Young Thug and Coming. The rapper’s climb was mottled with legal problems, including an imprisonment for his alleged network in a 2016 firing. Despite this, his song job endured.
In 2022, Gaulden second entered the Grammys talk: He earned a musical song performance nomination for his job in Tyler, the Creator’s music “Wusyaname. ”
Speaking to Billboard while under house arrest in February 2023, Gaulden said he looks forward to “change ” upon release.
“ I am really interested of the person who I shall be, ” he said.
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