Nicki Minaj reportedly arrested for drug possession in the Netherlands

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Rapper and pop star Nicki Minaj was reportedly arrested in the Netherlands on Saturday, May 25, after police said they found drugs in her luggage when she tried to board a plane for a concert in England, which was subsequently postponed.

Minaj documented the incident on social media, including in footage she appears to have shot at an airport near Amsterdam. In one video, a man in a gray suit, whom Minaj later identified as her pilot, apologetically informed her that police needed to search all her luggage.

“He doesn’t believe you, that you have more with you than you say,” the man says.

“He asked me if I had any more in my purses and I said no!” Minaj replies.

In another video, an officer tells Minaj to go to a police station. The footage shows Minaj, 41, refusing to do so and demanding a lawyer. She wrote on the social media platform X that authorities had found “weed” – or marijuana – in her baggage, which she said belonged to one of her security guards.

Robert Van Kapel, a spokesperson for the Netherlands military police, told the Associated Press that the agency had arrested a 41-year-old American woman on suspicion of “exporting soft drugs.” Police later said the woman arrested at Schiphol Airport had been fined and allowed to continue on her journey.

Dutch authorities did not immediately respond to questions from The Washington Post.

Minaj is in the middle of a world tour for her latest studio album, “Pink Friday 2.” She was due to perform Saturday evening at a Manchester concert hall, which delayed its opening by half an hour after reports of the arrest.

Minaj went dark on social media shortly after reporting that she had been asked to go to the police station, leaving fans uncertain whether she would make the concert. The venue, Co-Op Live, still opened its doors, and the BBC reported that thousands of people were waiting for her – some chanting “Free Nicki Minaj!”

The arena later announced that the show would be postponed to another date.

“Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible,” Co-Op Live wrote on X. “We are deeply disappointed by the inconvenience this has caused.”

Throughout the day, Minaj had repeatedly accused Dutch authorities of trying to prevent her from making it to the show.

“They’re being paid big money to try to sabotage my tour b/c soooooo many ppl are mad that it’s this successful & they can’t eat off me,” she wrote in one X post.

“This is Amsterdam btw, where weed is legal,” she wrote in another, inaccurately. Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands but tolerated for recreational use. It cannot be taken on a plane.

Minaj’s representative could not immediately be contacted for comment.