for that." Legal issues 1994–2006: Drugs, weapons and assault Harris first began dealing drugs as a teenager, and by the age of 14, he had already been arrested several times. In March 2004, a warrant was issued for T.I.'s arrest after he violated his probation of a 1997 drug conviction, as well as a 1998 conviction for violating a state controlled substances act and for giving false information. He was sentenced to three years in prison. While imprisoned in Cobb County, Georgia, he filmed an unauthorized music video. In May 2004, he was released on probation. After being released, he earned a litany of probation violations in several counties around Georgia for offenses ranging from possession of a firearm to possession of marijuana. In 2006, after appearing in an Atlanta court on (May 10) and having charges that he threatened a man outside a strip club the previous year dropped for lack of evidence, Harris was arrested on an outstanding probation violation warrant from Florida. The warrant claimed that Harris did not fulfill the required number of community service hours he was sentenced to complete for a 2003 battery of a female sheriff deputy at University Mall in Tampa. Harris was detained by several mall Security Guards at the time of the incident. According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, the rapper's attorney said that the problem was nothing more than a "technical matter" between Georgia and Florida. The confusion arose because T.I. was also sentenced to community service in Georgia for driving with a suspended license, for which he did complete 75 hours of community service in his home state. He was released on bail shortly after being arrested, and was expected to surrender to Florida state authorities the following week to resolve the matter. 2007–2009: Weapons conviction On October 13, 2007, federal authorities arrested Harris four hours before the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. He was charged with two felonies, possession of three unregistered machine guns and two silencers, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. The arrest was made in the parking lot of a downtown shopping center, which a witness identified as the Walgreens drug store at the corner of North and Piedmont Avenues. Harris was arrested after allegedly trying to purchase the guns from a "cooperating witness" with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to federal officials, the witness had been cooperating