CHICAGO — Rapper Juice WRLD died of an accidental overdose of oxycodone and codeine, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said Wednesday.
The medical examiner’s announcement several weeks after the 21-year-old rapper, whose given name was Jarad Anthony Higgins, went into convulsions at Midway International Airport on Dec. 8 after he and his entourage arrived on a private plane. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The announcement that the rapper had oxycodone, an opioid that is a pain killer, and codeine in his system follows initial reports that a federal agent who was at the airport to search the plane administered the opioid antidote Narcan to the performer after he’d gone into convulsions.
At the time, Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said drug-sniffing dog made a “positive alert”on luggage carts that were loaded with bags from the plane and that a search of the bags revealed bags of suspected marijuana, bottles of prescription cough syrup, firearms and metal-piercing bullets.
Guglielmi said none of the dozen or so people aboard the plane admitted to carrying the drugs. But he said that detectives were conducting a forensic analysis to determine which bags belonged to which passengers, adding that two security guards who were on the plane were arrested for misdemeanour gun charges. A call to Guglielmi on Wednesday to ask if anyone else had been charged was not immediately returned.
The Associated Press
