A platinum-selling rapper is in a New York City jail.

Ja Rule, 36, had only just left a state prison in central New York a week ago after serving most of a two-year sentence for illegal gun possession, before he went straight into federal custody over tax evasion charges.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said his expected release date is 28 July. Ja Rule admits he failed to pay taxes on more than $3m (£2m) earned between 2004 and 2006 while he lived in New Jersey.

The rapper, whose real name is Jeffery Atkins, and appeared in the 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious, had been in protective custody because of his celebrity, AP reports.

Ja Rule's 'Pain is Love' album scooped a Grammy Award nomination in 2002 for best rap album.

In the gun case, NYC police said they found a loaded gun in a rear door of Ja Rule's car after it was stopped for speeding. He pleaded guilty in 2010.