Federal officials searched Sean “Diddy” homes on Monday; the American hip-hop entrepreneur is at the center of allegations of sex trafficking and lawsuits alleging sex abuse.
Video footage showed helicopters buzzing overhead and a heavy police presence on the ground as armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security invaded opulent homes on the East and West Coasts of the United States.
“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners,” the department stated.
AFP was informed by a source that Combs was the intended target of the searches.
Los Angeles media broadcasted aerial images of a large gathering at a fancy Holmby Hills home connected to Combs, the producer and musician better known by his stage name, Puff Daddy.
The vast property was surrounded by heavily armed agents, and video from the area showed unidentified people being held.
According to the entertainment publication TMZ, images purportedly showed Justin and King Combs, the rapper’s sons, handcuffed.
The outlet claimed to have more video of a raid on Combs’s opulent Miami waterfront house.
The reason behind the raids was not immediately confirmed by the authorities, but the fact that Homeland Security was involved in two separate, well-planned raids raises severe suspicions.
This revelation coincides with mounting legal pressure on the rapper, who has been the target of at least four lawsuits from individuals alleging decades-old sexual abuse.
Combs was sued last year by his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, who was signed to his Bad Boy label and went by the stage name Cassie.
According to the lawsuit, he coerced her into having intercourse with several guys in several American cities over an extended period of time.
The lawsuit claimed that Ventura was the victim of sex trafficking, a federal offense, as a result of stays at several sites that required crossing state lines.
After that lawsuit was resolved, more were filed, one in December by a woman who claimed Combs had sexually assaulted her when she was seventeen and that he and other people had done it in a gang.
The lawsuit claimed that after supplying her with drink and narcotics, Combs and other men repeatedly raped her violently.
Two of the women who have accused Combs of abuse are represented by attorney Douglas Wigdor, who told AFP on Monday that “we will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law.”
“Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”
Combs has fiercely refuted every allegation made against him.
Combs, 54, established the Bad Boy record label in 1993 and played a significant role in the marketing of hip-hop in the ensuing decades. Mary J. Blige and the late Notorious B.I.G. were among his protégés.
His forays into the liquor business have contributed to his status as one of the industry’s billionaires.
However, lawsuits portray Combs as a violent guy who preyed on and intimidated women using his celebrity, in contrast to the public’s perception of him as a suave businessman.
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