Juice WRLD’s mother acknowledges his drug use in first statement

The mother of the late Homewood rapper Juice WRLD issued a statement Thursday acknowledging his dependence on prescription drugs in the wake of reports that he may have overdosed on a high-powered painkiller as law enforcement officials searched his entourage when they arrived Sunday at Midway airport.

The death of the multi-platinum-selling artist, born Jarad Anthony Higgins, sent shockwaves through the hip-hop world, with fellow rappers and fans quickly sending condolences on social media. In her first public statement Thursday to TMZ, Higgins’ mother Carmella Wallace said the rapper’s family “loved Jarad with all of our hearts and cannot believe our time with him has been cut short.”

“As he often addressed in his music and to his fans, Jarad battled with prescription drug dependency,” Wallace told TMZ. “Addiction knows no boundaries and its impact goes way beyond the person fighting it. Jarad was a son, brother, grandson, friend and so much more to so many people who wanted more than anything to see him defeat addiction.”

Wallace said she hopes “the conversations he started in his music and his legacy will help others win their battles as that is what he wanted more than anything.”

A police source told the Sun-Times that a friend of Higgins told authorities that the rapper had ingested several Percocet pills prior to his death, possibly to conceal them from local and federal police officials at Midway.

The Chicago Police Department said officers were called to the airport at 1:34 a.m. Sunday to assist federal law enforcement with “a private jet arriving at the airport which contained a large amount of narcotics.” When officers arrived, they found the plane’s passengers in the airport with several pieces of luggage.

A drug-sniffing dog indicated narcotics were inside and officers soon found 41 bags believed to contain marijuana and six bottles of suspected liquid codeine, police said. TMZ reported Monday that authorities seized 70 pounds of marijuana.

Three guns were also found on board, according to police, and two men working as security for the rapper were charged. They are both due in court Dec. 30.

Higgins suffered a seizure during the search and was given a shot of Narcan, which is often used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. He was then rushed to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and pronounced dead.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office said Monday that Higgins’ cause and manner of death could not yet be determined until more examinations were performed. He had turned 21 just six days before his death.