T.I. Held Without Bail After Being Arrested On Gun Charges

Rap star T.I. was arrested on Saturday, hours before he was supposed to appear on the BET Hip Hop Awards show, for attempting to illegally purchase three machine guns and two silencers from a Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms And Explosives (ATF) undercover agent posing as an arms dealer.

T.I. (real name Clifford Harris Jr.) was charged with felony possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. He allegedly paid his bodyguard $21,000 U.S. to purchase weapons since he couldn't legally obtain them himself since he's a convicted felon from a 1998 violation under the Georgia Controlled Substances Act.

The bodyguard, who was hired by T.I. in July, claims that he purchased nine weapons for T.I. and 17 for others on behalf of T.I.

The arrest was the result of an undercover mission that began on Oct. 2 when authorities learned that an individual, now recognized as T.I.'s bodyguard, was looking to buy machine guns without registering them.

The bodyguard acted as a co-operating witness after he was arrested last Wednesday for purchasing unregistered firearms and silencers. He made a number of phone calls to T.I. that the ATF recorded and the hip-hop star asked for the weapons to be delivered on Saturday.

T.I. was arrested after taking possession of them in an Atlanta shopping centre parking lot on Saturday afternoon. Three other firearms were allegedly found in the vehicle he was driving.

Later that day, ATF agents conducted a search of T.I.'s house, where they said they found six other firearms in a bedroom closet. They also carried out 10 boxes, papers and folders from the home.

T.I. was taken into custody and appeared before a judge on Monday afternoon. He had his hands cuffed and legs chained during his appearance, at which he was ordered to be held without bail. He'll be back in court on Friday, when a judge will decide if there was probable cause for his arrest and if he'll be eligible for bail. If convicted of the charges, T.I. could spend a number of years in prison.

Lawyer Dwight Thomas told CNN that a number of people lived in T.I.'s suburban Atlanta home and that he believed that the legal system would work in his client's favour.

T.I. was expected to perform "You Know Where It Is" with Wyclef Jean at Saturday night's awards show. He tied with Common for the album of the year award, and Common accepted it on T.I.'s behalf.

A member of T.I.'s entourage was killed in a post-show shooting that left three other people wounded in Cincinnati, Ohio in May 2006. That same month, he violated probation in connection with convictions for assaulting a law enforcement officer, trespassing and disorderly conduct at a Tampa, Florida mall in 2003.

T.I. punched the manager of fellow rapper Ludacris during a charity event in Hollywood in June.T.I. is working on the follow-up to his T.I. Vs. T.I.P. album and (appropriately) is one of the stars of the film American Gangster, which hits theatres on Nov. 2.