CHICAGO — Rapper and Englewood native Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, was scheduled to take a private jet to Italy when he was arrested Thursday in Florida in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed in California on Friday.

Banks, 32, was charged in the complaint with contracting five associates to murder Georgia rapper Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Terrel Bowman, in retaliation for the 2020 slaying of Chicago rapper King Von.

The complaint said Banks “put out a monetary bounty” for Bowman’s slaying.

That shooting, carried out at a Los Angeles gas station in August 2022 and captured on surveillance video, took the life of Quando Rondo’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, according to the criminal charges.

Banks’ associates were arrested in Chicago early Thursday morning and a series of search warrants were conducted. At the time, Banks was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he subsequently booked international travel on separate flights to Dubai and Switzerland — but he didn’t get on either plane, according to the criminal complaint.

Instead, the complaint alleged, the FBI learned at about 6:40 p.m. Florida time that Banks had been booked on a private jet to Italy that was scheduled to depart at 9 p.m.

Federal agents arrested Banks about an hour before the flight while he was on his way to the airport in Miami, according to the complaint.

Banks was held in the Broward County Jail until Friday morning, when he was transferred to the custody of U.S. marshals, according to a county representative.

In Banks’ charging documents, federal investigators also said “witnesses and/or their family members have already received threats and/or have been contacted in what appear to be attempts to influence their participation in this investigation.”

A lawyer for Banks could not immediately be reached.

Also arrested Thursday were five associates of “Only the Family,” also known as OTF, a hip-hop collective founded by Lil Durk, a mentor of King Von.

Charged in that indictment are: Kavon London Grant; Deandre Dontrell Wilson; Keith Jones; David Brian Lindsey; and Asa Houston.

The charges include conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, committing murder-for-hire involving a death, and use of a machine gun in a violent crime resulting in death. The most serious charge carries up to the death penalty if convicted.

All five were arrested Thursday in the Chicago area and appeared at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in the afternoon. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert ordered the defendants held in custody pending further proceedings and the shift of the case to Los Angeles.

Nearly a dozen federal agents were present for those hearings, in a courtroom that was packed with friends and relatives of the defendants, who all appeared in street clothes and shackled at the ankles. Courthouse security officers were guarding the courtroom door.

Meanwhile, Banks’ arrest comes less than a week after he performed a concert at the United Center to celebrate his birthday. He was also recently awarded keys to the city in two nearby west suburbs, Broadview and Bellwood, and Banks also made an appearance on the HBO series “Hard Knocks” earlier this year as the show followed the Chicago Bears’ training camp.

OTF was founded by Lil Durk more than a decade ago as Chicago’s drill rap scene was gaining international attention. Federal prosecutors say the group primarily “produced and sold hip hop music” from artists from Chicago.

FBG Duck, the Chicago drill rapper, was killed in a hail of gunfire on Oak Street in 2020, and his death led to the convictions of several men in a federal conspiracy trial last January. Earlier this month, FBG Duck’s mother filed a lawsuit alleging Lil Durk, OTF and King Von were involved in the shooting, as well. The lawsuit alleges that OTF operates as a criminal enterprise.

Lil Durk is among the most successful drill rappers to come out of Chicago since the genre first gained a foothold. Also popularized by Chief Keef, G Herbo and other artists, drill is hallmarked by hyper-violent lyrics that often revolve around — and sometimes worsen — feuds between gang factions.

Banks was previously convicted in Cook County of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number, though records of those cases were expunged in 2022. The attorney who represented Banks in those proceedings did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Around the same time, prosecutors in Georgia dropped attempted murder charges brought against Banks in 2019. Those charges stemmed from a shooting near an Atlanta restaurant that left a man seriously injured.

According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday, the rapper’s former manager rented a house in LA’s Encino neighborhood between for the months of July, August and September, 2022, and prosecutors allege Banks was in Los Angeles when the fatal shooting was carried out.

Banks took part in a podcast that was recorded in that home, and “video footage from an Aug. 18, 2022 podcast shows the host of the podcast with Banks, wherein Banks appears to be inside the Encino house,” the charging document stated.

According to the indictment filed Thursday against Lil Durk’s associates, after tracking Bowman to the Los Angeles area, Grant rented a hotel room for the co-conspirators on Aug. 18, 2022, and later met them there. He brought several firearms, including one that had been modified to operate as a fully automatic machine gun.

Grant also provided two rented vehicles to “use to find, track, and kill” Bowman, the indictment stated, a white BMW sedan and a white Infiniti. The group followed and tracked Bowman’s black Escalade from his hotel to a marijuana dispensary and then a clothing store in downtown Los Angeles, the indictment stated.

A surveillance image included in the indictment allegedly shows the BMW and Infiniti following the Escalade as it traveled between stores.

When Bowman stopped at a gas station, Houston drove around to the alley and let Jones and Lindsey and another unidentified co-conspirator out to carry out the shooting, according to the indictment.

The flights and rental cars were paid for with credit cards linked to OTF, according to prosecutors.

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