Nicki Minaj Arrested At Amsterdam Airport: ‘Weed is Legal’ Confusion and Police Drama

Nicki Minaj was arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday enroute to the next stop in her Pink Friday 2 World Tour.

The rapper was incredulous that ‘this is Amsterdam’ claiming ‘weed in legal’ but I don’t want readers to be misled. Marijuana is not actually legal there, and amounts greater than 5 grams certainly punishable. It is not clear how much was found. Also bear in mind that drugs that are tolerated for individual use while inside a country may not be permitted for import or export.

In a video initially shared live on Instagram, she’s shown inside her van talking to an official who says,

The police officer informed me that we must offload all the luggage and conduct a thorough search.

Apparently this was a “random” check that wasn’t actually random, triggered by Minaj filming the officer.

Minaj says “He asked me if I had any more in those purses, and I said no,” apparently referring to weed. In later video she’s surrounded by police and arrested. She wants to call her lawyer on the spot, but police insist she can call them on arrival. She’s told to stop filming.

Police told her that they could process her quickly enough so that she wouldn’t miss her Saturday night performance in Manchester. Her defense appears to be people I pay a lot of money to are going to take the rap for me.

(HT: Paul H)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. lucky for her this wasn’t in Singapore or her time on this earth would be short

  2. The most remarkable thing about this whole saga is that we know who Nicki Minaj is.

  3. @Doug C’mon man. I think she’s a talentless hack, but “human garbage” should be reserved for genuinely bad people.

  4. She has enough money to pay for people who know the ins and outs of this. Weed IS legal in Amsterdam, but so is women sitting mostly naked in a shop window offering sex. Hint: that doesn’t mean you can also do that at the airport.

  5. This is what the ugly American looks like. Roll into town with complete disregard to local laws and customs. An “I am better than you” attitude of entitlement. She should have had one of her people research the local situation and advise her.

  6. At least she didn’t escalate it like others we see on social media. Where I live, marijuana is indeed legal, however that doesn’t mean you can fly intra-state with it. I’ve seen TSA in Seattle hold back folks with a bit more weed than they should (not sure what happened to them), and friends who work for TSA where I live say they’ll let “a little” slide, but they are to notify local cops if its a big amount.

    Even going between the US/Canada (border) where its legal, there are stiff penalties for bringing it into Canada.

    Someone might want to warn Nicki to NOT go to the Turks & Caicos…

  7. There’s a difference between consuming weed and transporting weed.

    Also, love the racism in some of the comments. She’s an entertainer, maybe not of the type you’d like, but certainly not the first entertainer to have weed where they’re not supposed to. I highly doubt anyone slandering her would care if it were Willie Nelson.

  8. So so sad 🙁
    Crying crocodile tears for the woman of pure crass
    The upside the world may have some time off from her musical wailing

  9. If Willie Nelson did it and had the same attitude, my remarks would stay the same.

  10. Next stop Turks and Caicos with a couple bullets in her purse. Let’s see where her mouth gets her

  11. Lessons here:

    1. We live on a planet called Earth.
    2. It’s divided into countries.
    3. Each country has different rules and rights and systems of processing and enforcement.

    Know them before you step outside your country. Don’t trust people “checked for you” or what you “thought you knew” — KNOW. THE. LAWS. YOURSELF.

    I have an interesting story re-entering the USA from Cuba after the Biden/Trump switch which makes for a fascinating tale, but ultimately it was my fault because I did not know the rules at that exact time and place where it was in effect.

  12. Just your average typical no talent hood rat…nothing new to see here

  13. She was arrested by Kmar and released upon paying a fine. She’s lucky they stopped the “pre-roll” marijuana at AMS instead of catching her for it at MAN in the UK.

  14. Some years back while I was staying in a London hotel, Nicki Minaj and/or ASAP Rocky was either visiting the hotel or staying at the hotel. Had no idea who they were until I was told that the reason the hotel elevators were an issue was because one was set aside to be used by them. I was not a happy camper with the long elevator wait times. Sometime thereafter ASAP Rocky got arrested in Sweden and “the former guy” made it an issue since he was in a Swedish bashing mode..

  15. @Thing 1, she was originally from Trinidad (no idea before I looked it up) but came to the USA at the age of 5 so she could have been naturalized any of a number of ways. However that is (no definitive answer that I could find), she has been here 35+ years which is long enough to become a true ugly American no matter her immigration status. Anyhow, I didn’t say that she is an ugly American, only acts like the proverbial one.

  16. As a traveler, is this not a reminder you are always a guest? The host’s rules will always be what you must follow. Even if you disagree, you are obligated to comply. No exception.

  17. It seems she didn’t make it to Manchester. Her show was cancelled minutes before it was due to begin. Reports suggested her plane was still in Amsterdam, when the show was aborted..

  18. Apparently they just do not read, do not believe, do not care, think they are too special to obey the laws of other Countries. A basketball player in Russia comes to mind.
    Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Claiming ignorance of the laws of where you are traveling has never been and will never be a defense. If you cannot do without your drugs of choice then stay home. I cannot in any way imagine traveling without knowing everything I am carrying with me in my purse or my luggage.

  19. @Christopher I think Biden, Trump, and Jr. are worthless. But, according to you, if I include the VP in that list, I’m a racist. See whiz.

  20. Her Saturday night MAN concert is to be rescheduled because she couldn’t make it on time to MAN due to the AMS drama. But she was released within a couple of hours of being arrested.

  21. The United States is increasingly seen as a lawless country, where everyone feels entitled to exercise their freedom by doing whatever they want without any expectation of accountability. The leniency of the law has led to a lack of fear among people. However, individuals who take this attitude to other countries often receive a wake-up call. They then expect the diplomatic services to rescue them or put pressure on the host country. It’s important to note that those who carry illegal items such as drugs and ammunition deserve whatever punishment the host country deems fit.

  22. “The leniency of the law” in the US? ROTFLOL

    Your claim about the law in the US doesn’t line up with reality when we are “Prison Nation” with a huge number of people and huge proportion of the current public that is locked up or has been locked up behind bars in the US. If it weren’t for China’s mass detention of Uyghurs and other perceived “enemies of the state” in China, no country would come anywhere close to the US in being “crackdown country” with the law for so very many of its residents.

  23. Dave W should be informed that she was released for a fine that amounts to less money than what I would see from speeding tickets in some parts of Europe for driving 15 miles per hour over the speed limit.

  24. @GUWonder – the thugs deserve to be in prison (or executed). There are too many low lifes in the US that disregard the laws and rights of others. Even worse we have DAs that won’t prosecute property crimes or legislatures that pass laws basically giving criminals a pass (looking at you CA). This is crazy. Build more prisons and deal severely with those that break the law. Only way to get order back in our country.

  25. Some say a brutal state begets a brutal people and that society eventually gets its due with how it treats the less fortunate groups under its barbaric domain. There seems to be a lot to that.

    A country born with violent law enforcement treating groups of people as sub-human from birth has never fully purged that mentality of inequality from all of society and thus harsh policing and law enforcement continues hand in hand with Incarceration Inc and the evil of “white supremacy” that is a home for the insecure and those playing up insecurity while trying to frighten others into blindly following the political agenda of the insecure. While the Netherlands has its own awful legacy of racism and racist colonialism, the country is a less dangerous place than the US because the insecurity level isn’t so high that the public is inundated with gun violence. That, the relative “leniency of the law” in the Netherlands, and less economic desperation creates a less brutal, less widespread and smaller criminal underclass as a proportion of the population than what the US has created for itself.

  26. This is such a horrible violation of her constitutional rights. Surely Queen Nikki will have her lawyers drag these POS cops into the courts and have them fired for profiling her, while the rest of the Netherlands smokes up.

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