YouTuber WhistlinDiesel has been arrested again at a Tennessee airport
Published on Jan 27, 2026 at 1:20 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Jan 27, 2026 at 1:22 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
YouTuber WhistlinDiesel is giving his fans (and critics) yet one more reason to call him ‘controversial’ after being arrested again.
Diesel was taken into custody at the airport in Tennessee upon returning from an international trip, and this is actually his second arrest in the span of a few weeks.
Interestingly, his arrest is indirectly linked to the same car brand he got in trouble with before.
The YouTuber was quick to update fans on his latest arrest.
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This is the second time a Ferrari got WhistlinDiesel in hot water
WhistlinDiesel – real name Cody Detwiler – built a significant YouTube following by doing stuff with cars that a lot of people have a problem with.
He’s famous for his ‘durability tests’, but those tests often involve damaging the vehicle on purpose.
Damaging vehicles on purpose is one of those things that’s never going to go down well with gearheads.
When Martin Scorsese decided to wreck a real (and rare) Lamborghini Countach for the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, for example, the internet went crazy.
Diesel does the same thing, but for YouTube, and it clearly worked out for him, considering he’s got 10+ million subscribers on the platform.
A while back, he filmed a Ferrari burning to a crisp in a cornfield, which we’re sure made Ferrari and Ferrari fans very unhappy.
Ironically, the IRS is also mad at him because of that exact same Ferrari.
But obviously not because he burned one.
Why WhistlinDiesel got arrested
The YouTuber was first charged with felony tax evasion in November 2025, and he was arrested again for the same reason a few months later, in January 2026.
That’s because, according to investigators, he allegedly bypassed Tennessee state sales taxes on a 2020 Ferrari F8 Tributo by registering it through a Montana-based company.
This is apparently a common tactic used by supercar owners to avoid hefty sales taxes, but authorities in Tennessee are now cracking down on it.
They even gave it a name: the ‘Montana loophole’.
WhistlinDiesel speaks out after second arrest
In an Instagram post, the YouTuber said: “I was arrested again at the airport upon arrival into America. With the combined involvement of 25+ police officers and agents at the TNDOR and the Jail.
“This is because they didn’t send me a letter saying I owed any tax and instead formed a 3 year long case for just 2 cars registered in Montana that were destroyed in other states.
“Because the second car listed in the tax evasion indictment was purchased in another county, they filed another warrant and arrested me again at the airport instead of even allowing me to turn myself in.”
The YouTuber claimed he never received a single tax bill or notice prior to his first arrest, and he was released on bond after just 50 minutes.
But this still feels like chapter two of a novel that’s going to become quite long.
So stay tuned for that.
After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.
