Portuguese rapper jailed in Germany for drug trafficking deported to Portugal

Portuguese rapper 18 Karat was deported by plane from Germany to Portugal, his country of origin, in the early hours of Wednesday, and his family has already been informed of his whereabouts.

"He was able to get in touch with his family this morning [Wednesday] and tell them what time and where he would be arriving," said the musician's lawyer, Lisa Grüter, quoted by German newspaper Die Zeit (source in Portuguese). The deportation was confirmed to the German news agency dpa by the authorities in the city of Dortmund, where the 40-year-old rapper moved with his family as a youngster.

The artist was removed from Germany without his mobile phone and was only allowed to contact his relatives after landing in Portugal.

Euronews contacted the Public Security Police (PSP) on Wednesday, the force responsible for policing airport borders in Portugal, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm details of the operation and of 18 Karat's legal and social situation, but received no answers to the questions submitted.

Ivo Vieira Silva, the artist's real name, had been serving since 2022 a prison sentence of six years and three months for several serious drug-related offences. The city of Dortmund had already announced in August 2025 that it intended to request his deportation, and the German courts ultimately ordered his immediate expulsion from the country.

The rapper had served around four years of his sentence, taking into account the period spent in pre-trial detention since his arrest in June 2022. After a scheduled temporary release was cancelled, the Portuguese national was transferred to another wing of the prison, a sign that the deportation was about to go ahead.

According to his lawyer, the musician was being held under a semi-open prison regime and was close to completing a vocational training course as a painter and varnisher. Within a few weeks, the German courts were due to formally assess whether to suspend the remainder of his sentence and grant conditional release on bail.

"In my view, that decision should have been given priority," the lawyer said, quoted by Die Zeit, describing the immediate deportation as "a disgrace to the rule of law". Being expelled from Germany entails a much longer ban on re-entry.

In Portugal, the artist will remain at liberty, but the deportation does not extinguish his sentence. If he returns to German soil, he will be immediately arrested to serve the remaining two years of his term.

"Compelling reasons of public order"

Ivo Vieira Silva lodged an appeal against the deportation ordered by the Dortmund authorities, who also stripped him of his right to free movement within the European Union.

In court, he argued that he was in regular contact with his family and his young daughter, Amalia, adding that he has a German partner and that they are expecting a second child in the near future.

The rapper maintained that this context, combined with the fact that he was in prison, showed that he would not become involved in crime again and therefore did not pose any danger.

However, the Administrative Court of Gelsenkirchen was not convinced and rejected the appeal. The judges cited "compelling reasons of public order", noting that drug trafficking has serious consequences for society. During a police operation targeting the Portuguese national, officers found almost twelve kilograms of cannabis, small quantities of ecstasy and hashish, and two homemade plantations.

The court also pointed to a concrete risk of reoffending, arguing that the rapper had shown no evidence of having cut ties with the network through which he committed the offences.

The first-instance decision was upheld on Tuesday, at an emergency hearing, by the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia.

A leading figure on the German rap scene

Ivo Vieira Silva burst onto the German rap scene in 2015 with his debut album "FSK 18 Brutal". Several of his tracks have racked up between 10 and 30 million streams on Spotify.

Known for wearing a golden mask, the rapper managed to keep his identity under wraps for a decade, despite becoming a hugely prominent figure thanks to his partnership with the label Banger Musik.

In 2025, he decided to reveal his name and nationality. Originally from Portugal, the country that issued his passport, he very likely has Bosnian roots, according to German portal Raptastisch (source in Portuguese), which specialises in news about rap-world celebrities.

It was also last year that he became a father for the first time while serving his sentence. He was allowed to leave the prison, where he had married his German partner, Maya, to attend the birth of their daughter, Amalia Adriana. The couple's second child, conceived during another temporary release from prison, is due in September 2026.

18 Karat's wife had already said that the couple intended to move to Portugal after the artist's release, stressing that her husband "could make music anywhere in the world".