Canadian rapper sentenced to 6 years in prison for gun-running in Minnesota

A 30-year-old rapper from Toronto who's charged with murder in his home country has been sentenced to federal prison for hauling dozens of guns in a truck on Interstate 94 in western Minnesota while in the United States illegally.

Dayne A. Sitladeen, who goes by Yung Lava professionally, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to a prison term of 6 ¹⁄₂ years in connection with the discovery of 67 guns in a rental pickup truck during a state trooper's traffic stop on westbound I-94 near Fergus Falls on Jan. 10.

The trooper searched the truck after smelling marijuana, and Sitladeen and codefendant Muzamil A. Addow, 30, gave him fake identification. The trooper then found a bag inside filled with guns, according to an affidavit by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in support of the charges. Most of the weapons were handguns. Ammunition also was seized.

Sitladeen was wanted on a 2019 Canadian arrest warrant for first-degree homicide, fentanyl distribution and possession of proceeds of crime, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota.

Addow, who was driving when pulled over going nearly 100 miles per hour, had outstanding felony arrest warrants in Canada for firearms offenses and kidnapping.

According to the Toronto-based National Post, Sitladeen joined hip hop star Drake in a 2019 documentary that lamented gun violence in Toronto. That same year, the news outlet reported, police disclosed that Sitladeen was wanted in the shooting death of a man in a west Toronto home.

In arguing in a presentence court filing in Minnesota for a prison term of 7 ¹⁄₄ years for Sitladeen, the government noted not only his connection to a killing in Ontario but that he allegedly went to Florida and bought guns from straw purchasers with the intent to sell them for a substantial profit in Canada, where "it is much harder to purchase a handgun."

Of the 67 seized from Sitladeen and Addow in Minnesota, 54 were bought in Florida, according to prosecutors.

The defense sought a sentence of closer to four years and to have that time served concurrently in connection with the allegations in Canada, should he be extradited, convicted and sentenced.

Sitladeen pleaded guilty in June to one count of firearm possession by aliens illegally in the United States, acknowledging that the two were transporting the firearms that night. Addow has pleaded guilty to the same count and is scheduled to be sentenced in Minnesota on Tuesday.