CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses sexual abuse
R. Kelly is in custody, having been charged with sex crimes including sex trafficking.
The Chicago-Sun Times reports that 52-year-old Kelly was arrested by Federal Homeland Security agents and NYPD detectives.
The artist faces a 13-count indictment on charges including child pornography and obstruction of justice.
Kelly also faces five additional federal charges in a separate indictment over racketeering, kidnapping, sexual exploitation of a child and forced labor.
Kelly and a business partner are alleged to have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and used blackmail to prevent girls from providing evidence to law enforcement.
A bail hearing is set to take place next week, and Kelly reportedly hopes to be released from custody at its conclusion.
The latest indictments stack up with multiple sex crime charges against Kelly from incidents going back as far as 1998.
If Kelly is convicted on all counts, he’d be sentenced to 195 years in prison.
In addition, TMZ reports that the federal investigation into the artist uncovered 20 underage sex tapes, and that it was in fact members of R. Kelly’s inner circle who handed the videos over to police.
Several of Kelly’s enablers recently flipped against the artist and turned over the tapes.
Allegations first surfaced against the singer in 2002, and interest was renewed around several of them earlier this year following the release of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary.
