Young Thug and co-defendant made hand-to-hand drug exchange in court, prosecutors say

Atlanta rapper Young Thug, charged with criminal gang activity in Georgia, was passed drugs in a hand-to-hand exchange with a co-defendant during a court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said. 

The brazen act was caught on camera, according to a motion filed Thursday by prosecutors in Fulton County.

The artist, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, was in court with co-defendant Kahlieff Adams when Adams walked unattended to where Young Thug was sitting with his attorney and put something in his hand, the motion said.

Young Thug then tried to conceal his hand with the contraband, Percocet, under the table, prosecutors said. 

A sheriff's deputy noticed the exchange, walked up to Young Thug and seized the bag of Percocet, according to court documents.

Deputies also searched Adams, who resisted, and found Percocet, marijuana, tobacco and other contraband “wrapped in plastic and food seasonings to mask the odor of the marijuana,” the motion said. 

Adams was taken to a nearby hospital after he appeared to "ingest other items of contraband that he held on his person, in an effort to conceal the extent of his crimes within the courtroom," the filing said.

Adams is currently serving a life sentence in jail without parole for murder, prosecutors said in the filing. 

Court was delayed after the interaction. Court documents described it as the “illegal acts of possession and distribution, respectively, of contraband inside the Fulton County Courthouse.” 

Keith Adams, an attorney for Young Thug, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the state’s motion is “replete with factual inaccuracies, embellishments and attempts to make Mr. Williams responsible for someone else’s actions.”

“The end result of an investigation into (Wednesday’s) incident was that Mr. Williams was not engaged in any wrongdoing,” Adams said. 

An attorney for Kahlieff Adams, Teombre Calland, told the paper, “These allegations are simply that: mere statements made by the State in an effort to thwart the lengthiness of the jury selection process. Mr. Adams adamantly maintains his innocence and looks forward to the conclusion of this trial.” 

NBC News has reached out to both attorneys for comment.

Young Thug, 31, a Grammy-award winning artist and major name in the hip-hop world, was arrested in May. He was one of dozens of people accused in a sprawling indictment of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations, or RICO Act, and participating in criminal street gang activity, court documents said. 

Young Thug is alleged to be one of three founding members of YSL, or “Young Slime Life,” which prosecutors say is a street gang formed in 2012 in Atlanta, according to the indictment. The indictment said YSL claims affiliation with the national Bloods gang.