Bronx rapper Lee Drilly has sent a sentencing memorandum to the judge in his drug trafficking case, pleading to get a reduced sentence that would be less than those available to his alleged co-conspirators.
According to the court documents obtained by HipHopDX, the memorandum — which was originally written in January, but filed on Friday (March 15) — claimed that the drill rapper (real name Ali Doby) should only receive a sentence of five years because he wasn’t as culpable as the others involved in the alleged conspiracy.
The documents further state that Lee Drilly was a dedicated student in high school, who fell away from his studies during the COVID-19 pandemic and was lured into the drug game by his brother. It was also revealed that Lee Drilly’s father was a security guard for Bad Boy Records, and it was his father’s connections in the music industry that helped him gain an entrance into the industry.
“Ali’s participation in the criminal organization charged in this case was relatively minor,” read the documents, in part. “He was the principal seller of crack in just one transaction recorded by the Government and was otherwise essentially just present while others were doing the selling.”
The documents continue: “Ali takes responsibility for his actions, accepts that he will be punished, and vows to live a law-abiding life once released from prison. For these reasons, and those discussed above, a below-guidelines sentence of 60 months is sufficient, but not greater than necessary to meet the goals of sentencing.”
Check out the documents, in full, below:
In 2022, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced more than 20 alleged Bronx gang members were taken into custody and named in an 82-count indictment that covers 32 violent crimes committed over three years.
According to the NY Daily News, the investigation — aptly titled “Operation Drilly” — outlines a series of murders, including the 2021 shooting death of 20-year-old Bronx woman Delila Vasquez and the July 2020 fatal shooting of 24-year-old James Rivera, who was killed when six assailants chased and gunned him down.
In addition to the arrests as part of Operation Drilly, authorities recovered 18 firearms and filed charges that included murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault, and grand larceny.
Lee Drilly was among the 20 individuals arrested. He allegedly bragged about crimes he committed in his 2021 “BET” single featuring E-Wuu, which has amassed over 250,000 YouTube views at the time of his arrest.
Clark called the crimes allegedly committed by the defendants named in the indictment “senseless” acts of violence and claimed the alleged perpetrators “terrorized” neighborhoods by reigning down gunfire on residential streets in broad daylight.
“It was senseless violence,” Clark said. “It was beefs and slights and disrespects that all drove some of these incidents.
