MIAMI — Rapper-actor Lil Meech, a protege of hip-hop star 50 Cent, is accused of being involved in a scheme to steal watches worth hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of watches, authorities said.
The 22-year-old musician, whose real name is Demetrius Edward Flenory Jr., was arrested on Saturday and charged with two counts of first-degree grand theft and a separate count of organized fraud, according to Miami-Dade County online court records.
Authorities said Flenory did not honor an agreement to make a $200,000 payment for one watch, the Miami Herald reported. Police said that Flenory convinced a Miami jeweler to loan him a $275,000 Richard Mille Roberto Mancini watch on consignment before trading it to another jeweler, the newspaper reported.
Rapper Lil Meech stole luxurious Richard Mille watches, cops say. He’s now charged in Miami https://t.co/eU8Kji0Lkn
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) May 18, 2022
Police said Flenory was able to obtain the watch by saying he needed it for a GQ photo shoot, according to the Herald.
TMZ also reported on the alleged theft.
Police said that on Feb. 4, Flenory visited Haimov Jewelers in Miami on Feb. 4, the Herald reported. Store owner Moshe Haimov agreed to sell him the Richard Mille watch if he traded his $80,000 platinum Rolex and made $100,000 payments in March and April, according to the newspaper.
Flenory went to the store on Feb. 14 and asked Haimov to repair the watch he was buying because it was missing some stones, the Herald reported. Haimov also agreed to loan Flenory a $350,000 Mexico edition of the Richard Mille watch on consignment, according to the newspaper.
Police said Flenory failed to pay the balance on the watch and never returned it, TMZ reported.
Two weeks later, Flenory allegedly visited a jeweler at Timepiece Trading and asked for an assessment of the watch’s value, the Herald reported. That jeweler then agreed to trade a Richard Mille Yohan Blake edition watch to Flenory for the watch he borrowed on consignment, according to the newspaper.
Flenory was chosen in 2021 by 50 Cent -- whose real name is Curtis Jackson -- to star as his father, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory in the Starz “BMF” series, TMZ reported. Da’Vinchi played the role of Flenory Jr.’s younger brother, “Southwest T,” WSVN-TV reported.
The elder Flenory, a drug kingpin and founder of the Black Mafia Family drug syndicate in Detroit during the 1980s, was sentenced to 30 years in 2008 for laundering drug money through BMF Entertainment, the Herald reported. His sentence was reduced by three years in 2021.
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