Nicki Minaj Live Streams Her Arrest by Amsterdam Police: "They’re Being Paid Big Money"

Nicki Minaj recorded a video of her arrest in Amsterdam. On Saturday, May 25 morning, authorities tried to arrest her for drug possession at the Amsterdam airport, while fans watched the incident unfold on Minaj's Instagram Live video. As reported by Marca, Minaj was seen speaking with an airport employee who told her that she had to have her bags examined by police. Subsequently, she shared on X, "Now they said I have to go 5 mins away to make a statement about my security to the police precinct."

Minaj was traveling from Amsterdam to Manchester, England, for a performance as part of her Pink Friday 2 World Tour, which was scheduled to happen on Saturday night, at the Co-op Live Arena. In a different video, Minaj questions an Amsterdam police officer about her detention. In response, the officer informs, "Because you're carrying drugs."

In the clip, Minaj mentions that authorities confiscated 'pre-rolls' from "bags that they were not authorized to take." She said, "And after the security said, 'Oh, those pre-rolls are his.' They’re telling me I have to go to the police precinct." She posted, "They’re being paid big money to try to sabotage my tour because so many people are mad that it’s this successful and they can’t eat off me. They got caught stealing money from my travel/jets. Got fired. Got mad. Etc. They try to make me book another jet every time. All because, I fired management who I found out, [sic] for years were adding on 30-50K on my jet and pocketing it. I fired a tour manager recently who was doing the same thing and was mad he got the boot. Their goal is to make me late and to pocket 40K."

Ranting on X, she added, "Now they said they found weed and that another group of people have to come here to weigh the pre-rolls. Keep in mind they took my bags without my consent. My security has already advised them those pre-rolls belong to him. Oh yeah, and the pilot wants me to take my Instagram video post down."

When police urged the rapper to get into a car, she insisted on having a lawyer and denied possessing narcotics. Additionally, an officer was heard assuring the rapper that they would "try to get [her] there [Saturday's performance]" as quickly as possible. The Netherlands police "arrested a 41-year-old, American woman at Schiphol Airport because of possession of soft drugs", an official told NBC News. A few hours later, Co-op Live announced on X that Minaj's show would start at 7 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m. At about 4 p.m. EDT, the police department shared that Minaj had been freed from detention. However, Co-op Live was forced to postpone the event. They shared on X, "Despite Nicki's best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight's show happen, the events of today have made it impossible. We are deeply disappointed by the inconvenience this has caused."