Nicki Minaj criticizes her arrest at Schiphol

US rapper Nicki Minaj thanked her fans for all the support after arriving in Manchester on Saturday night after she was arrested for possession of soft drugs on Saturday when she wanted to depart from Schiphol Airport. She strongly criticized her arrest at the Amsterdam airport. However, Minaj was released shortly before 10 p.m. after paying a fine of 350 euros.

"I arrived just over an hour ago, after being in a prison cell for 5-6 hours," Minaj wrote on X just after 2 a.m. (Dutch time) from her hotel in the English city. She stated in her message that, in her opinion, there was intent and that the purpose of her arrest would have been to delay her so much that she would no longer be able to act.

According to the rapper, the concert promoter Co-op Live was willing to move her concert from 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., but even this ultimately failed to solve the problem. "So they succeeded with their plan not to let me on stage tonight," the rapper writes. But she warns, "I managed to get everything on point by recording everything and posting it in real time. I have sooooooooooo much video evidence."

"Although cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands, there is a so-called' tolerance policy', which means the law is not enforced in relation to the retail sale of small quantities for personal use in cannabis cafés known as 'coffeeshops'," the city of Amsterdam states on its government website. In general, personal use quantities are limited to five grams.

Later on, she also apologized to her fans in Manchester in the message for the cancellation of the concert. Minaj said she now leaves the further handling of the cases to her "lawyers and God."

The US rapper is currently on her Pink Friday 2 World Tour in support of her latest album, released in 2023. She was supposed to perform in Manchester, UK on Saturday night, but the show has now been postponed.