On January 10, Gucci Mane traveled to Dallas for what he understood to be a business meeting at a recording studio. It had been arranged by one of his own signed artists and Shiesty. What happened instead, according to federal prosecutors, was a coordinated armed robbery and kidnapping involving nine people who had traveled from Memphis specifically to carry it out.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrests on April 1. Pooh Shiesty, born Lontrell Denell Williams Jr., was taken into custody by the FBI in Dallas. Eight of the nine defendants named in the case were arrested the same day agents raided a family home near Memphis. The ninth defendant was expected to be in custody shortly after.
What prosecutors say happened
According to Ryan Raybould, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, all nine defendants made the trip from Memphis to Dallas with a shared purpose. Rather than conducting the meeting as a legitimate business discussion, the group allegedly used violence and intimidation to get what they wanted.
Shiesty is accused of producing an AK-style pistol during the encounter and using it to force one of the three victims to sign a release from a recording contract. The group then robbed all three men of cash, Rolex watches, and additional jewelry before leaving the scene.
Gucci Mane, born Radric Davis, was one of the three victims present at the studio. He is the founder of 1017 Records, the label to which Shiesty has been signed since 2020.
Who else was arrested
Among those arrested alongside Shiesty were his father, Lontrell Williams Sr., and fellow Memphis rapper Big30. Arrests were made across Dallas, Memphis, and Nashville. Jail records cited by local Memphis television confirmed that Williams Sr. was taken into custody in Memphis on the same day as the studio raid.
Shiesty himself was not home when FBI agents searched his residence in Cordova, Tennessee. He was located and apprehended in Dallas later that day.
Three months out of prison
The timing of the alleged incident carries its own weight. Shiesty was released from a Pennsylvania federal prison in October 2024 after serving roughly three years of a 63-month sentence related to a firearms conspiracy charge. That charge stemmed from a 2020 shooting at a Florida hotel, for which he pleaded guilty in 2023 to avoid a more severe sentence.
Gucci Mane publicly acknowledged and celebrated Shiesty’s release at the time, confirming that he remained signed to 1017 Records. The Dallas incident allegedly took place three months after that release.
At the time of his arrest, Shiesty was living in a residential reentry facility in Dallas, where he was expected to remain until April 11.
What he faces now
Pooh Shiesty and all co-defendants face federal charges that carry a potential sentence of life in prison if convicted. The case is being prosecuted in the Northern District of Texas.
The charges frame what happened not as a dispute that escalated but as a premeditated operation. Prosecutors argue the defendants traveled from one state to another with the specific intent to rob and kidnap people who arrived believing they were there for a professional conversation. The contract signing at gunpoint sits at the center of that framing, turning what might have appeared to be a music industry negotiation into a federal kidnapping charge.
The investigation is ongoing.
