On Wednesday, Daniel “6ix9ine” Hernandez got his reward. Federal prosecutors wrote a letter recommending that he get a sentence below the minimum of 47 years. The 5K1 letter, named after the section of the sentencing guidelines that mentions it, was what 6ix9ine was hoping to receive in return for cooperating with the prosecution of other defendants in his racketeering case.
Receiving the letter doesn’t guarantee him any particular sentence. That will be decided by the judge. But the fact that he got the letter means that it’s very likely that 6ix9ine will receive time served, and will be free shortly after his December 18 sentencing.
While the fact that he got the letter isn’t surprising—he was, after all, a high-profile witness in a major gang trial—some of the information in it is. Here are some of the key things we learned in 6ix9ine’s 5K1 letter.
He started cooperating before he was arrested
The letter makes it clear that 6ix9ine gave information to law enforcement the night before he was arrested. In the aftermath of 6ix9ine’s November 2018 interview on the Breakfast Club, where he insulted the Nine Trey members who had previously been protecting him, Nine Trey godfather Mel Murda made a phone call to his longtime friend Jim Jones where he said that 6ix9ine needed to be “super-violated.” Mel’s phone was tapped by authorities, and they alerted 6ix9ine about the threat that same night, November 17, and offered him protection. While he turned the protection down, the letter says 6ix9ine “provided some information about the organization of Nine Trey and identified certain members of Nine Trey.” He was arrested the next day.
He and Shotti attacked someone for not “checking in”
For all of his public pronouncements about not “checking in” with people in the cities he visited, 6ix9ine apparently thought checking in was important for other people. The letter gives details about a March 20, 2018 incident in New York City where 6ix9ine and his manager Kifano “Shotti” Jordan teamed up to attack the rapper Frenchie BSM.
We already knew that the incident took place after 6ix9ine’s crew attempted to beat up Trippie Redd at Radio City Music Hall, but found the place surrounded by too many cops. And we knew that Frenchie BSM was acting as Trippie’s security for his New York trip, and that Shotti ended the night by firing around five bullets into a van with Frenchie inside. But now we know the reason.
“According to Hernandez, Frenchie BSM was violating the rules by providing protection to White without first ‘checking in’ with Nine Trey,” the letter reads. “In retaliation, Jordan, Hernandez, and others planned to shoot at Frenchie BSM.”
He paid around $200 to get guns
We previously knew that 6ix9ine had paid a small sum of money for someone to move guns from Atlanta to New York. 6ix9ine claims it was Nine Trey member Billy Ado who brought “two or three pistols/revolvers from Atlanta on a bus” in exchange for $200-$300.
He dealt drugs as a kid
6ix9ine’s history of drug dealing as a kid has been mentioned in passing in legal documents, but this letter gives far more specifics than previously known. His older brother Oscar used to sell marijuana, and a young 6ix9ine would help out. But he moved a little bit beyond that.
“On one occasion (while still a minor), Hernandez bought a bundle of heroin from a local heroin addict and tried to sell it,” the letter reads. “He was caught the same day and was ordered to perform five days of community service.”
He brokered a heroin deal
One of the charges 6ix9ine pleaded guilty to involved heroin, which puzzled many at first. We found out that this refers to a fall 2017 drug deal—just before “Gummo” took off and propelled him to stardom. But the letter has new details. He acted as a middle man for a 1 kilogram heroin deal between a Nine Trey member named Pac Man BBA and a guy named Jazz. 6ix9ine gave the $2,000 he earned from the deal to the mother of a man who was arrested for being in possession of Jazz’s drugs.
Details about domestic violence are secret
The “Domestic Violence” section of the letter is entirely blacked out. We know from other documents that 6ix9ine admitted to years worth of domestic violence. But the details remain out of public view.
He has a half sister
The letter gives a short biography, most of which was previously known. But there is one interesting new detail. It says that he has an older brother, which was public knowledge. But the letter also mentions a half sister. It doesn’t specify whether she’s the child of his mother or of his biological father, who the letter explains “abandoned” 6ix9ine when he was “an infant.”
His cooperation is a major reason a lot of people plead out
6ix9ine’s guilty plea, and the fact of his cooperation, became public on February 1, 2019. The “knowledge that Hernandez was ready, willing, and able to testify” was a “significant” factor in the decisions of many of his co-defendants to plead guilty. The government also referred to 6ix9ine as a “key witness” in the trial of the two defendants who did go to trial: Anthony “Harv” Ellison and Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack. They were both found guilty on most counts.
