Warren Brown, the Houston rapper everyone knows as Cartel Bo, is locked up in the Harris County Jail on an aggravated kidnapping charge. The mother of his three kids told investigators he kept her locked in a closet for at least four days at a house in the 15000 block of Darby Retreat Lane in Cypress.
Court papers say Brown grabbed the woman—known from past fights and social media as Trillselda Blanco—on July 21. Prosecutors claim he put her in a closet that had a deadbolt on it, checked on her about every hour, wouldn’t let her leave, and sexually assaulted her. When deputies went through the house later they found zip ties all over and fast-food wrappers on the closet floor.
She only got out after Brown left the house on Saturday. Precinct 4 deputies pulled him over on old warrants from another assault case with the same woman and took him to jail. Once he was gone she slipped free, still in her underwear, and waved down a neighbor. Investigators found her close by and got her to a hospital.
Constable Mark Herman’s office said deputies went out on a welfare check at the Cypress address over the weekend. What they saw inside turned it into a kidnapping case for the Special Victims Unit. Brown was already in jail on family-violence assault and bodily-injury charges when they added the kidnapping count. Bond was denied.
That earlier fight happened June 23 in the parking lot of a recording studio on West Road. Blanco had met Brown there to pick up their one-year-old and called an Uber. The driver told police he watched her run off carrying the car seat. Brown grabbed her, the driver stepped in, and Brown punched him in the face and body a few times, then said he was going to kill him, according to the records.
Brown’s full name shows up as Warren Tramelle Brown II or Warren Brown III in different filings. He’s got a long list of Harris County convictions—assault, burglary, terroristic threat, driving without a license, failure to identify. Back in 2018 he was the main guy in a federal gun case that started with a music video for “Hoova” he shot with Maxo Kream at Lakewood Park right next to Hillard Elementary. About two dozen people said to be 52 Hoover Gangsta Crips were waving loaded guns in the video, some of them stolen. Eleven of them, including Brown, went to federal prison. He got 78 months and got out in early 2024.
After he came home he dropped the “NFL” from his name because the feds were still watching the old gang stuff. He tried to get back on track with freestyles and songs that had Sauce Walka, Paul Wall, Lil’ Keke, Maxo Kream, and Trae Tha Truth on them. That comeback is on hold now. The new charge can bring a life sentence.
His lawyer, Sam Milledge, told reporters the claims “aren’t the prettiest,” but he’s seen worse and says the case still has to go through court. “Once it’s all said and done, Mr. Brown will come away from this unscathed hopefully,” Milledge said. He pointed out that a lot of what’s been released hasn’t been tested in front of a judge yet. Prosecutors plan to ask Judge Kelli Johnson on Monday to keep Brown locked up with no bond.
Blanco and Brown have three little kids together and have been going at each other in public for months. There was a viral Instagram story where Brown named a bunch of men he said she’d been with, and another video of them fighting after he supposedly won custody. Those earlier messes are why the June warrants were out there. If the kidnapping charge sticks, it’s the biggest step up yet in a relationship that keeps pulling in police and attention around Houston.
