It’s safe to say N3on’s trip to Dubai didn’t go to plan. The popular streamer told fans he spent around 37 hours behind bars in the United Arab Emirates city, all part of what he said “might have been the craziest 13 days of [his] life, bro.”

N3on, born Rangesh Mutama, is a 19-year-old streamer known for his Fortnite and NBA 2K content, according to The U.S. Sun. He currently has more than 120,000 followers on X, more than 162,000 followers on TikTok, more than 293,000 followers on Kick, around 645,000 followers on Instagram, and around 835,000 subscribers on YouTube.

N3on says he went to jail for illegal filming.

After days of social media silence, N3on resurfaced on April 17, posting a selfie on X with the caption “IM BACK” and explaining his absence in a Kick stream. He said he was detained for illegal filming. “We did some not good activities there, man,” he told Kick viewers. “You know, it was not good what we did. We were filming in the areas where we were not supposed to film.”

He went on: “It was a really crazy situation, bro, it was a really s--t situation. I was behind bars for probably, like, approximately 37 hours or some s--t. … The funny thing is, the motherf--kers down there knew me, bro. They knew me. … I was Willy Wonka. I was a king in there. I was a f--king king. They were giving me free beds and s--t. It was fire, bro. It was fire.”

Despite the “fire” of it all, N3on said he learned a lesson. “It showed me, genuinely, that actions have consequences,” he said. “Actions have consequences. You can’t go around in Dubai … recording whatever, thinking I could just get away with it. I thought I was invincible, bro.”

Death rumors circulated during his absence.

While N3on was M.I.A., some Internet users spread rumors about his situation being much more dire that it allegedly was. Some claimed, for example, that N3on was sentenced to a year behind bars, while others said he died in custody, according to The U.S. Sun. In fact, the death rumors caused the phrase “Neon dead” to trend, the site reports.

If this sounds like déjà vu, The U.S. Sun also reports that in 2019 the streamer faked having terminal cancer — and that a false death announcement was uploaded to his channel — and later claimed to have recovered from the illness in two days.

N3on also had a brush with law enforcement just weeks prior.

In February 2024, weeks before his alleged Dubai ordeal, N3on and his entourage were stopped by cops in West Hollywood, Calif., and ordered out of their car at gunpoint, according to TMZ. Law enforcement sources told the site that the cops’ plate-readers flagged the car as stolen.

But N3on told the cops that the car had been stolen but then recovered by the LAPD, and the law enforcement sources added that the cops’ system hadn’t logged that update. N3on was ultimately released without further incident, TMZ added.