wayne-ja2.JPGLil Wayne and Ja Rule were both released from police custody on Monday evening after being charged with weapons possession in their separate Sunday night arrests. After performing at Wayne’s concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City, both rappers were arrested with an hour and a few blocks of each other after police found weapons in their vehicles. According to the New York Post, the NYPD says it stopped Ja’s Maybach on West End Avenue and 78th Street for a suspended registration and searched the vehicle after smelling marijuana. Ja and his two associates, Mohamed Gamal, 38, and Dennis Cherry, 36, were all taken into custody. The Post reports that the Murder Inc. front man put up his Saddle River, NJ mansion as collateral for their combined bail of $320,000. “Everybody wants to point finger at hip hop for the destruction of America's youth,” Ja told reporters as he walked out of court on Monday night. “If you need to know why there is so much crime, corruption, hatred and violence, you need only look at yourselves.”

Lil Wayne was arrested about an hour after Ja when police approached his parked tour bus at Columbus Avenue and 61st Street after claiming they smelled marijuana. According to prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, when officers boarded the bus, they saw Wayne toss a Louis Vuitton bag off of his lap. A search of the bag turned up a .40 caliber Springfield Armory semiautomatic pistol, similar to the gun found in Ja’s car just an hour earlier. After his arraignment, Wayne posted a $70,000 bond and was released from custody. Attorney Stacey Richman, who is representing both artists, says that the vehicle Ja Rule was driving in is a company car and the gun could have belonged to several different people.

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