Portuguese rapper jailed in Germany for drug trafficking deported to Portugal
Ivo Vieira Silva, known as rapper 18 Karat, was deported early on Wednesday. Jailed in December 2022 for six years and three months, he will stay free in Portugal but will be arrested at once and made to serve the rest of his sentence if he returns to Germany.
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 now been informed of his whereabouts.
'He was able to contact his family this morning [Wednesday] and tell them the time and place of his arrival,' 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, to which the 40-year-old rapper moved with his family when he was still young.
The artist was removed from Germany without his mobile phone and was only authorised to contact relatives after landing in Portugal.
Euronews contacted, on Wednesday, the Public Security Police (PSP), which is responsible for airport border controls in Portugal, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) to confirm details of the operation and of 18 Karat’s legal and social status, but received no answers to the questions put.
Ivo Vieira Silva, the artist’s real name, has been serving since 2022 a six-year, three-month prison sentence for several serious drug-related offences. The city of Dortmund had already announced, in August 2025, that it intended to apply for his deportation, and the German justice system ultimately ordered his direct expulsion.
The rapper had served around four years of his sentence, taking into account the time spent in pre-trial detention since his arrest in June 2022. After a release that had been scheduled 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 regime and was close to completing training as a painter and varnisher. Within a few weeks, the German judiciary was due to formally assess suspending the remainder of his sentence and switching to 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 exhaust his sentence. If he re-enters German territory, he will be arrested immediately to serve the remaining time in custody (two years).
'Compelling reasons of public order'
Ivo Vieira Silva lodged an appeal against the deportation ordered by the Dortmund authorities, who also withdrew his right to freedom of movement within the European Union.
In court, he argued that he kept in touch with his family and his young daughter, Amalia, adding that he has a German partner and that the couple are expecting a second child soon.
The rapper argued that this context, combined with the fact he was in prison, showed that he would not return to criminal activity 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 rapper, officers found almost twelve kilograms of cannabis, small quantities of ecstasy and hashish, and two makeshift growing operations.
The court also identified a concrete risk of reoffending, with the judges arguing that the rapper had not demonstrated that he had broken with the network through which he committed the offences.
The first-instance decision was upheld on Tuesday, in an emergency hearing, by the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Leading figure in German rap
Ivo Vieira Silva burst onto the German rap scene in 2015 with his debut album "FSK 18 Brutal". Several of his tracks have amassed between 10 and 30 million streams on Spotify.
Known for wearing a golden mask, the rapper managed to protect his identity for a decade, despite becoming a highly prominent figure thanks to his partnership with the label Banger Musik.
In 2025 he decided to reveal his identity 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 out of 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 made it known that the couple intended to move to Portugal after the artist’s release, stressing that her husband 'can make music anywhere in the world'.
