Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ luxury homes were raided by Homeland Security agents on Monday, and numerous sources have come forward to media outlets saying the rap mogul is under federal investigation for sex trafficking. The raids come as Combs faces multiple lawsuits over allegations of sexual assault.
Two properties owned by Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were searched. Footage taken by an ABC7 news helicopter showed agents in bulletproof vests entering the Los Angeles mansion and staying on the property for hours seizing evidence.
Footage obtained by Global News showed police dogs and agents in Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) jackets searching Combs’ Miami Beach mansion. Huge boxes of evidence were seen being loaded into vans.
A law enforcement officer leads out a canine as federal agents stand at the entrance to a property belonging to rapper Sean (Diddy) Combs, Monday, March 25, 2024, on Star Island in Miami Beach, Fla.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
In a statement, Homeland Security officials said it “executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners.”
Two sources in law enforcement told The Associated Press that the raids on Combs’ homes were part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York.
Sources told NBC News that the feds are also probing allegations of sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms. Combs was in the Miami area when the properties were raided and Homeland Security seized his phones before he was scheduled to fly to the Bahamas for a trip, three law enforcement sources told the outlet. It’s not clear if Combs has left the U.S.
Law enforcement rides an armoured vehicle near a property belonging to Sean (Diddy) Combs on Monday, March 25, 2024, in Los Angeles.
AP Photo/Eric Thayer
Two men, later identified as Combs’ sons, were seen in handcuffs outside the Los Angeles home, footage showed. Combs’ sons weren’t arrested, a source told the outlet. They were being detained as law enforcement officials searched the property, associated with Combs’ Bad Boy Films company.
Combs has been at the centre of five sexual assault lawsuits in as many months. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
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In November 2023, Combs’ former longtime partner R&B singer Cassie Ventura accused the music mogul of repeated rape and physical assault spanning nearly a decade. In her lawsuit, Ventura, who was signed to Combs’ record label, said the rapper “punched, beat, kicked and stomped” her and forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed them. The suit was settled the day after it was filed.
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Shortly after, a woman who appeared in a music video with Combs came forward and filed a lawsuit against him accusing him of slipping drugs into her drink and sexually assaulting her in 1991. Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs of then sharing a recording of the rape with other men in the music industry as a form of “revenge porn.”
A third woman accused Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall of sexually assaulting her and a friend at an apartment in the early 1990s. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she and her friend were “coerced” into having sex.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
In a fifth lawsuit, Combs is accused of raping and trafficking a 17-year-old girl in 2003 after he invited her to his studio and “plied” her with drugs and alcohol. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, claims she was “gang raped” by Combs, Harve Pierre, the former president of Bad Boy Entertainment, and another unnamed person.
Combs had said in a December 2023 statement, “I did not do any of the awful things being alleged.”
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represents Ventura and another woman who sued Combs, said in a statement Monday that the accusers support the raids on Combs’ homes.
“Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”
— With files from The Associated Press and Global News’ Sarah Do Couto
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
