Rapper Nicki Minaj was released Saturday after an arrest for allegedly "carrying drugs" as she attempted to leave the Netherlands for a scheduled performance in Britain.
The incident led to the cancellation of her sold-out concert at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, England, for some 20,000 fans Saturday night, the BBC reported.
Minaj, 41, recorded her interaction with Dutch police officers who detained her at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, and she posted the video clips online.
The first video shows Minaj arguing with an officer after one accused her of "carrying drugs," and told her to get into a nearby police van.
"I'm not carrying drugs," she said. "I'm not going in there. I need a lawyer present."
An officer assured her she would get a lawyer at the police station and said they would help her get to her show "as soon as possible."
"So I'm under arrest?" she asked.
"Yes," one cop answered.
After an officer said, "We will go with you," Minaj stepped inside and the door was shut behind her.
In another exchange she was told all of her bags would be searched.
In a statement posted on X, Dutch police said: "We have just released a 41-year-old American woman whom we arrested this afternoon at Schiphol on suspicion of exporting soft drugs."
"The suspect was fined and can continue her journey," the statement added, according to a BBC translation.
Minaj also posted a series of messages on X in which she addressed her arrest.
"Keep in mind they took my bags without consent. My security has already advised them those pre-rolls belong to him," she wrote, referring to commercially prepared marijana cigarettes.
In another post, she complained: "This is Amsterdam btw, where weed is legal."
Under Dutch law, "soft drugs" include marijuana, hashish, sleeping pills and sedatives.
Although it's against the law to possess, sell or produce drugs, the government tolerates the sale of small amounts of cannabis to adults in coffee shops where no alcoholic drinks are sold or consumed, and people aren't prosecuted for possession no more than 5 grams of weed or hash, or five marijana plants.
😩 now they said they found weed & that another group of ppl have to come here to weigh the pre-rolls. Keep in mind they took my bags without consent. My security has already advised them those pre-rolls belong to him. Oh yea & the pilot wants me to take my ig post down.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) May 25, 2024
At the new Co-op Live Arena, where Minaj was scheduled to perform the first of two sold-out shows, one fan started a chant of "Free Nicki Minaj" while heading inside before the concert was canceled, the BBC reported.
"I really hopes she comes on," said another fan, Darcy Nicholls, 18, of Newcastle.
"But it's Nicki so we knew it would be delayed somehow," said Nicholls, who was there with friend.
Minaj's Saturday night concert will be rescheduled, with existing tickets valid for that performance, organizer Live Nation said in a statement.
