Beanie Sigel arrested on I-95 for guns, drugs

In the early-morning hours after his latest album dropped and two weeks before he's to report to federal prison for failure to pay taxes, state police arrested rapper Beanie Sigel and a friend early this morning on gun and drug charges following a traffic stop on I-95 in Tinicum Township, according to a news release.

Around 3:14 a.m., troopers pulled over a Ford Fusion driven by Gerald Andrews of Philadelphia for following another car too closely and swerving out of his lane.

According to the news release, the passenger in Andrews' car was identified as "Dwight E. Grant AKA famous hip hop rapper 'Beanie Sigel,' of Philadelphia."

During a check for weapons, troopers found numerous prescription bottles, several pills wrapped in plastic bags in a cigarette pack and a small amount of marijuana on Andrews, the news release said. On Sigel, police said they found a bottle of codeine syrup with the label scratched off and $4,650 in cash.

Both men were taken in to custody and when police searched the vehicle, they found a gun in the center counsel, according to the release. Both Sigel and Andrews are convicted felons who are not allowed to possess firearms, police said.

The men were charged with drugs and weapons violations.

Sigel's latest album, "This Time," debuted Tuesday. Perhaps he was celebrating its release in all the wrong ways, or perhaps, he was ramping up for his upcoming two-year stint in federal prison for failure to pay about $348,000 worth of taxes on $1 million of income from 2003 to 2005. He was scheduled to report to begin serving his time on Sept. 12.

Sigel, 38, has a long history with the law. In 2005, he spent 10 months in prison for illegally possessing a gun and he was previously acquitted of attempted murder for a West Philadelphia shooting.

Sigel has worked with rap artists like Jay-Z, who will headline this weekend's Made in America Festival.