Tekashi 6ix9ine: How witness protection would work for the rapper

A former US Marshal says the agency’s witness protection program is well up to the task of protecting the rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine — and dealing with his face tattoos.

The former Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods member, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, has a massive “69” inked across his forehead, along with other designs splashed across his cheeks, temples, and throat.

Lenny DePaul, a retired chief inspector and commander of the Marshals Service, said those tattoos are going to cause a major headache for the US Marshals Service if Hernandez ends up in the famed program known as WITSEC — which prosecutors have indicated is a possibility.

Read more: Here’s everything you need to know about Tekashi 6ix9ine, the controversial 22-year-old rapper who could go to prison for life

Witnesses who enter WITSEC are assigned new names, identities, and locations, and are usually given an extensive makeover, DePaul said.

He added that Hernandez’s tattoos could prove particularly difficult to conceal, but the agency still has a number of options available — whether that be removing some tattoos, adding more to cover up the existing ones, or simply moving Hernandez “off the grid” entirely.

“Tattoos are an issue. Even with a makeover and even with altering his appearance, it’s difficult if he’s all tattooed up like that,” DePaul said. “There’s only so much you can do, besides completely go off the grid and go dark somewhere. And then your whole life changes at that point. It’s a life-altering circumstance you’re in.”

The witness protection program has disguised famous witnesses before — even giving them plastic surgery and liposuction

Hernandez is facing possible witness protection after he recently testified against gang members in a well-publicized trial in New York City.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year to racketeering conspiracy and a slew of other charges. The crimes carry a minimum sentence of 47 years in prison, though federal prosecutors have vowed to try and cut him a better deal due to his cooperation.

WITSEC has been floated for Hernandez since he has received at least one death threat from the gang, according to The New York Times. But the possibility has prompted a number of questions over how US Marshals could possibly conceal the rapper and social media influencer whose distinctive appearance is recognizable to millions of people across the country.

Read more: Inside the wild world of US Marshals, who do one of America’s most dangerous jobs

But DePaul said the agency can make even the highest-profile witnesses with top-dollar bounties on their heads disappear for good. WITSEC has protected roughly 18,900 people since the program was created in 1970, disguising many an infamous criminal who flipped and turned government witness.

“It’s not their first rodeo, that’s for sure,” DePaul told Insider. “They got everyone from [Irish-American mobster] Mickey Featherstone to [former Gambino underboss] Sammy Gravano — the worst of the worst or the best of the best, however you look at it…They can protect anybody. It doesn’t matter who it is.”

Gravano, who flipped on the New York City mobster John Gotti and helped put him away in 1992, notoriously ditched the witness protection program after less than a year, frustrated by the tedious restrictions on contacting his wife and children.

But before the US Marshals had moved him to Arizona to start a new life under a new name, the agency arranged for Gravano to undergo plastic surgery and liposuction to help disguise his face and body. DePaul said it wouldn’t be unusual to give Hernandez a similarly thorough makeover.

“They’ll do whatever’s necessary to protect that person, that’s their job,” DePaul said. “Whether they’re going to spend money to remove the tattoos or add some new ones, I don’t know.”

To protect Hernandez, the US Marshals first have to make sure he’s serious about the program

DePaul said he saw some parallels between Hernandez’s case and the months he spent as a US Marshal in 1992 working with the mobster Gotti and Gravano.

Gravano has told media he quickly chafed against some of the more aggressive restrictions WITSEC placed on him — for instance, he was forbidden from contacting his family, friends, or anyone he knew in his previous life. He eventually divulged his identity, reunited with his family, and was convicted and sentenced again for trafficking ecstasy.

If Hernandez goes the same route as Gravano, “he won’t last long,” DePaul said.

If Hernandez commits to the program, he’ll have to sit through “a litany of questions and agreements and contracts.” After that comes the complex labyrinth of rules and regulations known as “TPP,” for tactics, techniques, and procedures, DePaul said.

“When that time comes, and he needs that protection, he’s going to cooperate,” he added. “[The Marshals] are going to take a hard look at him and do their homework and make sure he’s completely on board. They’re not going to dedicate their resources and manpower and credibility, if you will, to somebody who doesn’t want to play ball.”

DePaul said most of the rules and regulations WITSEC places on witnesses are unknown, due in part to the need for secrecy, but also because every case is different.

He said US Marshals generally work with prosecutors to come up with a plan, perform a threat assessment, figure out what to do with the witnesses’ families, and tailor the rules directly to the people involved. DePaul said the agency even takes extreme measures like running safehouses to help guard witnesses while they’re transported from one location to another.

In Hernandez’s case, it’s hard to know what the details of such an arrangement would look like. But DePaul said if the agency goes so far as to extensively plan Hernandez’s new life and give him a new name, a new place to live, and new government-issued documents, the expectation is that Hernandez will commit.

He’ll have to follow the general rules of sticking to his new identity, never divulging his real name or history, and never again contacting the people he once knew, DePaul said.

If he flouts the rules and protection he’s been given, DePaul said the US Marshals won’t have any qualms about kicking him to the curb.

“They’ll give it their best obviously, and if he violates it while he’s in their protection, then yeah, they’ll pull him,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Well, alright, good luck.'”