Here in Phoenix, there’s a lot of news coming out of a raid at the Scottsdale home of rapper DMX last Friday. According to the local papers, based on a tip from a neighbor earlier this month, sheriff’s deputies looked at the house and then called one of the rapper’s lawyer to let him know there were animals in distress. A week later, deputies entered the house and found twelve undernourished dogs, three dog carcasses, a cache of guns, cars with license plates that weren’t registered to the cars they were on, and a big powdery pile of … something.

Another of DMX’s lawyers told the Arizona Republic that the rapper hadn’t been at the house for months; the sheriff said that neighbors had told his deputies that he had been seen there in recent weeks. The lawyer said there was a caretaker who was supposed to look after the dogs.

Stacey Richman, a New York attorney who also represents [DMX], told The Arizona Republic that word of the animals’ conditions was “very upsetting to us. We cannot understand who this can possibly be when we hired someone to care for those animals.”

When asked about a caretaker Saturday, [Sheriff Joe] Arpaio said he was “not going to get into him right now.”

The AP reported that there was no evidence that the dogs had been used for fighting, a la Michael Vick, and it wasn’t as yet clear whether the guns were unregistered. The sheriff’s office has said the half pound of powder was a suspected illegal narcotic, but hasn’t said yet what it was.

DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, comes across as a charming guy in the AP story …

In 2002, Simmons pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia in New Jersey. Police said they found pipes for smoking crack cocaine, a pistol and 13 pit bulls at his home in 1999.

… and even more charming in the Republic:

In 2004, Simmons slammed his car into a gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after telling a parking attendant that he was a federal agent.

Later that year, he pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He was sentenced to conditional discharge but ended up in a New York jail in 2005 for violating those conditions.

A year later, the rapper was cited for carrying a concealed handgun outside a Scottsdale nightclub.