US rapper Juice Wrld died accidentally from an overdose of oxycodone and codeine.
Camera IconUS rapper Juice Wrld died accidentally from an overdose of oxycodone and codeine.

US rapper Juice Wrld died from overdose

Jeremy Gorner, Chicago TribuneAAP

Chicago rapper Juice Wrld died last month from an overdose of oxycodone and codeine.

An autopsy performed on the body of the 21-year-old found he died accidentally from an overdose of oxycodone and codeine, the Cook County medical examiner's office said on Wednesday.

The rapper, whose real name was Jarad A Higgins, died on December 8 after he suffered convulsions and went into cardiac arrest as Chicago police and federal agents searched his and his entourage's luggage for guns and drugs at a private hangar at Midway Airport.

The rapper's girlfriend, asked by police at the scene if he had any medical issues or had ingested any drugs, replied that he took Percocet, a painkiller, and had "a drug problem", law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune at the time of his death.

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Percocet contains acetaminophen and oxycodone, a powerful painkiller and opioid that was found in Higgins' blood.

The medical examiner's office did not release the full autopsy results or the toxicology report, saying they hadn't been completed yet. The autopsy report could be made public as soon as Thursday.

According to the law enforcement sources, the search at the private Midway hangar turned up 41 "vacuum-sealed" bags of marijuana, and six bottles of prescription codeine cough syrup.

Authorities also recovered two 9 mm pistols, a .40-calibre pistol, a high-capacity ammunition magazine and metal-piercing bullets, according to the sources.

Two men identified by police as working security for Higgins were charged with misdemeanour offences for illegally possessing the guns and ammunition.

The officers and agents had been waiting at the Atlantic Aviation hangar at Midway because of suspicions that the private plane from Los Angeles with the musician on board was carrying contraband, the sources said.

Higgins' music career took off after he gained support from freestyling on his high school's radio show, according to a 2018 Tribune profile. He racked up millions of streams on SoundCloud for music that blended "elements of meandering, mumble-rap singing against drill-lite percussion and pop-punk melodies ... bridging the gap between urban and suburban youth experiences; an angst-riddled adolescence that feels just as romantically rejected and isolated as it wants to turn-up."

Higgins has also been open on social media as well as in media interviews and his music about his struggles with drug use.