Rapper Nelly Arrested for Alleged Drug Possession Near St. Louis After Casino Visit

Rapper Nelly Arrested

The 49-year-old rap­per Nel­ly, real name Cor­nell Iral Haynes Jr., was arrest­ed around 4:45 a.m. on Wednes­day morn­ing in Mary­land Heights, an out­er sub­urb of St. Louis, Missouri. 

Accord­ing to the Mis­souri State High­way Patrol’s arrest report, police alleged­ly found four ecsta­sy pills on Nel­ly and arrest­ed him for drug possession.

Nelly’s Attorney Denies Charges

How­ev­er, Nel­ly’s attor­ney Scott Rosen­blum denied that his client was charged with felony drug pos­ses­sion. Rosen­blum claimed that Nel­ly had won a jack­pot at a casi­no he fre­quents and was try­ing to col­lect his win­nings when an offi­cer per­formed a back­ground check on him, lead­ing to the arrest. 

The attor­ney also alleged that the offi­cer had no prob­a­ble cause to search Nel­ly, which result­ed in the alleged ecsta­sy finding.

Nelly’s Warrant and Traffic Charge

After the ini­tial arrest by the Mis­souri State High­way Patrol, Nel­ly was then trans­ferred to the cus­tody of the Mary­land Heights Police Depart­ment, where he was arrest­ed on a fail­ure to appear warrant. 

The war­rant was report­ed­ly relat­ed to a pre­vi­ous traf­fic charge Nel­ly had received in Mary­land Heights.

Nelly’s Marriage and Engagement

Ear­li­er this sum­mer, Nel­ly was report­ed to have secret­ly mar­ried the singer Ashan­ti in Decem­ber 2023. 

The cou­ple are also expect­ing their first child togeth­er, with Ashan­ti announc­ing her preg­nan­cy and their engage­ment in April.