Pot May Send Suge Back to Slammer

Wherever Marion "Suge" Knight goes, trouble follows.

The rap boss was busted for marijuana possession in Barstow, California, after police allegedly found a baggie in his truck during a routine traffic stop over the weekend. While the pot charge seems like no biggie, Knight is on parole and any drug-related crime would constitute a violation that could send him back to prison.

Knight was pulled over about 7:30 p.m. Saturday after making an unsafe U-turn, according to the San Bernadino County Sheriff's Department, and a subsequent search of his vehicle turned up a small amount of marijuana. Officers also cited Knight for not having insurance.

The passenger in the truck, 18-year-old Las Vegas resident, Alexis Wilkenson, was arrested for having a fake ID.

While Wilkenson was eventually released, the 39-year-old Death Row Records cofounder was locked up in the county jail pending transfer to a federal penitentiary next week. At that point, state officials will decide whether to send him back to state prison or release him while investigators determine whether the pot possession violated his parole on assault and weapons violations.

Knight's no stranger to the big house. The 300-poundish hip-hop kingpin served four and a half years of a nine-year sentence for kicking a man in the head during a 1996 Las Vegas brawl. That incident--which occurred just hours before Death Row's biggest star, Tupac Shakur, was killed in a drive-by shooting as he sat in Knight's car on the Vegas Strip--violated the terms of an earlier parole for beating up two rappers in 1992 at a Hollywood recording studio, as well as Knight's probation for a 1994 firearms-trafficking conviction.

After his parole in August 2001, Knight resumed his music-biz career by rebranding his old Death Row label as Tha Row. The company came under investigation for federal racketeering by the Justice Department, which alleged Knight used it as a cover for tax fraud and that the label had links to drug dealing, street gangs, money laundering and several assaults. Prosecutors dropped the probe after Tha Row pleaded guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges.

In 2002, Knight spent two months behind bars for consorting with a known gang member, and in 2003 he served an additional 10 months for slugging a valet at a Hollywood nightclub. Upon his release, he said he was planning to devote his time to charity work.

Apparently that charity didn't extend to Dr. Dre, at least according to police. Knight came under scrutiny after Jimmy James Johnson allegedly admitted to investigators that Knight had paid Johnson $5,000 to sucker-punch Dre at November's Vibe Music Awards. Dre and Knight were former partners at Death Row before falling out. Dre has since obtained a restraining order against his old pal.

According to HiphopRnb.com, Johnson took Knight up on the offer in exchange for the rap overlord forgiving a financial debt owed by Johnson's brother.

The attack touched off a melee that sent Johnson to the hospital for a collapsed lung after he was allegedly stabbed by G-Unit rapper Young Buck.

The Santa Monica Police Department and state officials have since launched a probe to examine whether Knight had any connections to Johnson, who remains in jail in lieu of a $1.4 million bond.

Knight's attorney, David Chesnoff, could not be reached for comment Monday regarding the marijuana arrest. Chesnoff previously asserted that Knight had no hand in the attack on Dre, which would be yet another parole no-no.