Where is Diddy? Sources say Sean Combs remains in U.S. amid widening sex trafficking probe

Richard Winton March 27, 2024

Two days after federal authorities searched his homes in a probe of sex trafficking, Sean “Diddy” Combs remains in the United States and vows to fight the allegations, sources close to the music legend said.

His 17,000-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion, where Combs debuted his last album a year ago, was flooded with Homeland Security Department agents who gathered evidence on behalf of an investigation being run by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the inquiry. His Miami home was also searched.

Sources with knowledge of the situation said Combs was scheduled on Monday to depart by plane for a spring break vacation with his school-age daughters but opted to delay the trip after learning of the search. He still has his passport, they added. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Homeland Security

Investigations

agents did not

never

detain

ed

Combs at an executive airport in Miami, but they did

stoppull up on

a plane

on the ground

, they said.

Miami-Dade police officers who accompanied them arrested Brendan Paul, a man in Combs’ entourage, after cocaine and marijuana-laced candy was allegedly found in his bag.

Paul, 25, was recently described in a lawsuit against Combs as his “mule” for narcotics and firearms.

Authorities have declined to comment on the case, and Combs has not been charged with any crime.

Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the sex-trafficking investigation

into Combs, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly,

said federal authorities have interviewed at least three women but declined to provide any details.

Combs’ former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of rape and repeated physical assaults and said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes

as he watched

.

in front of him.

Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs in a suit of drugging and raping her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent.

Another woman, Liza Gardner, filed a third suit in which she claimed Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall sexually assaulted her. Hall could not be reached for comment.

Another lawsuit alleges that Combs and former Bad Boy label President Harve Pierre gang-raped and sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl. Pierre said in a statement that the allegations were disgusting, false and a desperate attempt for financial gain.

Aaron Dyer, one of Combs’ lawyers, on Tuesday called the raids a witch hunt and

criticized how they were conducted.a gross overuse of military-level force.

Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs residences, Dyer said in a statement. This unprecedented ambush paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits. There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations.

The sources said that it appeared investigators searching Combs’ L.A. home emptied safes,

pulled apart dismantled

electronics and left paper

swork

strewn in some rooms.