Boosie Badazz repeatedly pointed to his security detail when police questioned him about firearms discovered during the May 2023 San Diego traffic stop that would eventually develop into a yearslong federal gun case.

The Baton Rouge rapper, whose legal name is Torrence Hatch, was arrested May 6, 2023, after San Diego police tracked him from an Instagram Live broadcast in which authorities said he could be seen with a black handgun tucked into the back waistband of his pants.

According to federal prosecutors, a San Diego police detective had been monitoring the Instagram account of a person authorities described as a known Neighborhood Crip gang member when the detective spotted Boosie apparently participating in a music-video shoot.

After Boosie was tagged in the video, the detective began watching content from the rapper's Instagram account and observed what appeared to be a handgun in his waistband. Police then relayed the information to an airborne unit, which located Boosie and watched him enter a black Mercedes SUV.

Officers subsequently stopped the SUV after its driver allegedly committed traffic violations.

Boosie Pointed Police Toward His Security

When officers asked about weapons, Boosie denied having one himself and told police that his security detail had a firearm.

His security detail turned over a bag containing a loaded 9mm Springfield Hellcat. But when officers searched the SUV, they discovered another weapon—a loaded Glock 19 containing 10 rounds of ammunition—on the rear passenger seat where Boosie had been sitting.

Authorities said Boosie, his driver and his security guard were taken into custody.

During the encounter, officers reported hearing Boosie yell toward his security guard, “You told me they were in the bag.” Prosecutors later argued that the statement demonstrated Boosie's knowledge that firearms were inside the vehicle.

Boosie continued attributing the weapons to his security detail after his arrest. The U.S. Attorney's Office later said that while at the police station, Boosie told investigators that all of the firearms had remained in the possession of his security detail.

Investigators, however, eventually assembled evidence that contradicted that account.

Authorities determined that the Glock recovered from the backseat was the same gun visible in Boosie's waistband during the music-video shoot. Investigators also said Boosie's DNA was detected on both firearms and determined that the weapons had been purchased by his girlfriend in Georgia rather than by his security detail.

The Instagram Live Became Key Evidence

The social-media footage proved central to the case.

Federal authorities said the Glock 19 recovered from the seat matched the firearm visible in Boosie's waistband in the Instagram footage. Images included in federal court documents showed the rapper wearing red pants and a white shirt with what appeared to be a black handgun tucked behind him.

The case ultimately stretched well beyond the initial May 2023 arrest, moving between state and federal court and through significant legal challenges over federal restrictions on firearm possession by people with felony convictions.

Boosie eventually pleaded guilty to the federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. As part of his plea, he admitted that the loaded Glock 19 found on the seat where he had been sitting was the same firearm he possessed during the video.

In January 2026, a federal judge sentenced Boosie to three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service and a $50,000 fine, with no additional prison term imposed.

The resolution gave the original police encounter added significance. What began with officers watching an Instagram broadcast became a federal case in which Boosie's initial insistence that the firearms belonged to his security detail was eventually confronted with video footage, DNA evidence and, ultimately, his own guilty plea acknowledging possession of the Glock.