Lil Durk Indicted: Chicago rapper indicted on superseding murder-for-hire charge in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Grammy Award-winning Chicago rapper Lil Durk has been charged in a superseding federal grand jury indictment alleging he conspired with others to kill a rival rapper, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Durk Banks, 32, also known as Lil Durk, has been charged with conspiracy; use of interstate facilities to commit murder for hire resulting in death; using, carrying and discharging firearms and a machine gun; and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death.

The indictment adds two misdemeanor charges against Banks.

The four-count superseding indictment, returned late Thursday, adds Banks as the primary defendant to an earlier indictment filed Oct. 17 and charges other defendants in connection with the August 2022 murder of a rival rapper’s relative near the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles. Angeles.

Kavon London Grant, 28, also known as “Cuz” and “Vonnie,” of Atlanta; Deandre Dontrell Wilson, 33, aka “DeDe,” of Chicago; Keith Jones, 33, aka “Flacka,” of Gary, Indiana; David Brian Lindsey, 33, aka “Browneyez,” of Addison, Illinois; and Asa Houston, 36, aka “Boogie,” of Chicago, also have been charged.

Banks was arrested near Miami International Airport on Oct. 17 after police learned he had been booked on multiple international flights, the DOJ said. A federal magistrate judge in Miami jailed him without bond until he is transferred to Los Angeles for arraignment.

All six defendants, none of whom have yet entered pleas, are expected to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

According to the superseding indictment, Banks founded an organization in 2010 called Only the Family (OTF), which, among other things, produced and sold hip-hop music by artists primarily from the Chicago area. OTF also functioned as a de facto association of individuals involved in violence, including murder and assault, at the Bank’s direction and to maintain their status within OTF, the DOJ said.

Banks argued with a victim, identified in court documents as “TB.” The feud stemmed from a November 6, 2020 murder in which a TB associate shot and killed an OTF rapper named Dayvon Bennett, aka “King Von.” Bennett and Banks were close friends, the DOJ said.

In response to Bennett’s murder, Banks is said to have placed a bounty on TB’s life.

On August 19, 2022, several OTF members and associates used two vehicles and worked together for hours to track, stalk and attempt to kill tuberculosis, culminating in a shooting at a gas station near the Beverly Center Mall, according to the DOJ. The co-conspirators used multiple weapons, including a machine gun, and fired at least 18 rounds at TB’s vehicle, striking and killing a victim identified in court documents as “SR,” a relative of TB, officials said.

Banks allegedly ordered TB’s murder, and the hitmen used Banks’ money and OTF-related finances to carry out the killing, the DOJ said. Bank and flight records show that an OTF member and close associate of Banks coordinated and paid for the travel of five co-conspirators from Chicago to California the day before the murder, the DOJ said.

Around the time the one-way flights were purchased, Banks told the OTF employee who booked the flights, “Do not book any flights without a name associated with me.”

On the same day that the assassins traveled from Chicago to California, Banks also traveled to California with Grant on a private jet. Later that day, Grant allegedly purchased ski masks for the gunmen to use to commit the murder and paid for the other co-conspirators’ hotel room with a credit card in Banks’ name.

The other five suspects are in federal custody in Illinois following their initial court appearance in Chicago. They remain charged with one conspiracy; one count of using interstate facilities to commit murder for hire resulting in death; and one count of using, carrying and discharging a firearm and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death. Jones faces an additional count of possession of a machine gun.

If convicted, all defendants face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison, the DOJ said.

The FBI and Los Angeles Police Department are investigating.

Banks is also accused in a lawsuit in the gang-related shooting that left Chicago rapper FBG Duck dead.

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.