Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was released Friday from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he served three months in custody after violating the terms of his supervised release.
As he left on Friday, he was filmed carrying a few belongings — including a SpongeBob plush toy, which he happily held up for the camera. A signature was visible on it, and he said it belonged to Nicolás Maduro, the former Venezuelan leader with whom he shared time at the facility. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been held at the high-security center since they were taken out of Venezuela by the U.S. military on January 3rd. The jail has housed other high-profile detainees, including Mexican drug traffickers Rafael Caro Quintero and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, as well as rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and Luigi Mangione.
The rapper returned to prison after authorities caught him violating his probation with cocaine and MDMA possession charges last year. His three-month sentence at the Brooklyn facility turned into an unexpected networking opportunity when he crossed paths with Maduro, who’s been detained there since the American military extracted him from Venezuela back in January. The unlikely prison friendship between the two became the centerpiece of his release day celebration.
In the video footage from his release, 6ix9ine’s energy is unmistakable as he exits the facility with his attorney, Lance Lazzaro, by his side. He’s holding the SpongeBob doll up to the camera, proudly displaying Maduro’s signature and the date written across it. The moment captures something surreal: a rapper leaving federal prison with a presidential autograph on a cartoon character, then immediately throwing on a thick diamond chain that gleams under the morning light.
