Nelly was arrested early on Wednesday morning for alleged drug possession.
The 49-year-old, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., was arrested around 4:45 am according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s arrest report, as per FOX 2 News.
He was taken into custody in Maryland Heights, an outer suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, after police allegedly discovered four ecstasy pills on him.
Nelly, who was revealed in June to have secretly married the singer Ashanti last year, was also arrested for driving without insurance.
He was reportedly released later on Wednesday.
Despite the police report, an attorney for Nelly denied that he was charged with drug possession in a statement to DailyMail.com.
After the Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested Nelly, he was transferred to the custody of the Maryland Heights Police Department, where he was arrested on a failure to appear warrant.
The department said in a statement to NBC News that that warrant was reportedly related to a traffic charge he had previously received in Maryland Heights.
However, in a statement to DailyMail.com, Nelly’s attorney Scott Rosenblum denied that his client had been charged with felony drug possession and criticized overzealous police for the run-in.
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Scott Rosenblum, Nelly’s lawyer, addressed the charges in a statement, saying that Nelly was not charged with drug possession.
“He was arrested for ‘No Proof of Insurance’ from 2018 on a warrant issued December 2023 that he received no notice.”
The statement claimed Nelly was “targeted by an overzealous, out of line officer”, who said a background check was required after Nelly won a certain amount at the casino where he was arrested.
Scott Rosenblum said a background check had not previously been performed when Nelly won “similar or greater amounts” at the same venue.
He claimed the officer handcuffed Nelly “and parade[d] him through the casino” and then “conducted a search without probable cause where he claimed to have found alleged ‘ecstasy'” in Nelly’s personal items.
