Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, has expressed his amusement at being incarcerated in the same prison as ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The 29-year-old musician reported to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday.
Hernandez's admission to the MDC follows his confession of assaulting a man and drug possession last year in a case linked to gang activity. In December, he was handed a three-month federal custody sentence after violating the terms of his supervised release, which had previously resulted in a 45-day sentence in 2024.
Upon entering the MDC, which also houses Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare's CEO, Hernandez joked about forming a basketball team with his fellow inmates. He posted on Instagram: "About to have the best basketball team the prison has ever seen."
The rapper has also reminisced about sharing a cell with Sean "Diddy" Combs and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on one occasion.
This marks the second time within a year that Hernandez has been sentenced to prison for breaching his probation. His arrival at the prison coincides with that of the deposed Venezuelan president, just days after the USA launched a raid to apprehend Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, reports the Mirror.
The MDC has hosted several high-profile inmates besides Hernandez, including Sam Bankman-Fried, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Mexican drug lord "El Chapo".
The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) is situated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighbourhood and serves as a holding facility for prisoners awaiting trial in the USA's district court for New York's eastern district, according to The Guardian. It also houses individuals serving short sentences.
Despite previous criticisms, a recent fact sheet from the Federal Bureau of Prisons suggests that conditions at the MDC have improved. The document states: "Since January 2024, there has been a substantial decrease in violence, limits on the inmates' scheduled times out of their cells, and attempted introductions of contraband at MDC Brooklyn. In short, MDC Brooklyn is safe for the inmates and staff."
However, the Mirror reports that the prison has been referred to as "hell on earth", with two inmate deaths and several injuries occurring in 2024 alone. Additionally, despite being designed to accommodate 1,000 inmates, the facility has reportedly often housed between 1,200 and 1,600 inmates, leading to allegations of poor conditions.