Ja Rule Released from Prison for Gun Charges, in Custody for Tax Evasion

Jeffery Atkins, stage name Ja Rule, has been released from state prison, having stayed there for two years on gun charges.

He was charged with unauthorized possession of a .40-caliber semiautomatic, discovered during a traffic stop in New York City, in 2007. The weapon was placed in the rear door of Ja Rule's vehicle.

Elite Daily Informs that Ja rule was tried in 2010 and pleaded guilty, going to jail in June 2011. He was released in the shortest possible amount of time, his reps explained. While in prison, he was only given disciplinary notices twice, for unauthorized phone calls in 2012.

“Many people are looking forward to experiencing his talent again,” says the artist's defense attorney Stacey Richman.

Reports say that the rapper is back in custody, this time for a federal tax return violation. Thursday, February 22, at 9:30 a.m., he was transported from the Mid-State Correctional Facility to Oneida County Jail in central New York.

He will be serving time for the remaining part of his 28-month sentence on tax evasion charges. Ja Rule failed to pay $1.1 million in back taxes, accumulated over two years.

The amounts stems for earnings totaling $3 million, between 2004 and 2006. The singer pleaded guilty to the charges in March 2011, in federal court.

“Let me just clear this up for people who think that Ja Rule doesn't pay taxes. [...] Ja Rule pays plenty of taxes, millions of dollars in taxes. I owed them a little bit more.

“I had some issues when the whole Murder Inc. thing went down with my accountant, and she had some federal issues with the boys herself for doing some things, so I fell into a few issues there, but it's not an issue like that. That's being taken care of,” the rapper told MTV, appearing on RapFix Live in 2011.