Rapper Nicki Minaj was detained on Saturday in Amsterdam after drugs were found in her luggage, but she has since been released.
Minaj, 41, was live-streaming on Instagram in a post that has since been removed when a uniformed officer accused her of having drugs in her bags. In the video, she denied possession, but she wrote on X that officers found marijuana that belonged to her security team. Another video of Minaj, whose legal name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, showed her speaking to a man she identified as the pilot, explaining that all her bags would be searched because she was filming the first officer.
“They’ve been trying to stop me from coming to every show,” Minaj posted on Instagram. “They took my bags before I could see them. Put it on the plane. Now saying they’re waiting on customs. This is what it looks like when [people] are paid big money to try to sabotage a tour after all else failed. Everything they’ve done is illegal.”
Officials confirmed that while they “arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol Airport due to possession of soft drugs,” as marijuana is legal in the Netherlands, they later released her after imposing a fine. Minaj’s release came too late for her to make her concert in Manchester, England, on time.
“Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible,” a spokesperson for the venue, Co-Op Live, said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed by the inconvenience this has caused.”
While a new date for the concert has yet to be announced, the spokesperson stated that all tickets are valid for the rescheduled performance. Minaj’s next tour stop is Sunday in Birmingham, England. Additional performances are lined up through July 14.
Minaj accused her former management of planting the drugs in her luggage, as she recently terminated their employment, claiming she discovered they had overcharged her for booking flights. She said her former employees have “been trying everything they possibly can to TRY to stop this tour.”
The rapper has seven MTV Music Video awards to her name along with several Grammy nominations.
