By David Newman
Four people in Diddy’s entourage were cuffed by federal agents after they raided his Miami Beach mansion Monday. Another Diddy associate was busted on drug charges at the Opa-locka airport. And the rap mogul was questioned by agents at the airport before a plane linked to him flew to a Caribbean island.
The agents ultimately let the four go, but Miami-Dade Police arrested a man at Miami Opa-locka Executive Airport on Monday afternoon who was described as Diddy’s “mule” in a lawsuit against the music producer.
At the same airport, federal agents seized Diddy’s phone and questioned him before clearing him to fly with family and friends to Antigua and Barbuda, a twin-island Caribbean nation just east of Puerto Rico. On Tuesday morning, the plane was at V. C. Bird International Airport in Antigua and Barbuda, but there is no evidence that Diddy landed in Antigua and Barbuda, a government official on the island told the Herald. Antigua and Barbuda has an extradition treaty with the United States, the official noted.
The incidents followed Monday’s raids by Homeland Security Investigations agents at Diddy’s mansions on Star Island in Miami Beach and in Los Angeles, part of an ongoing sex-trafficking investigation into the rap mogul. A source familiar with the Miami Beach raid told the Herald that Diddy, whose legal name is Sean Combs, and his entourage arrived in Miami over the weekend and were here when federal agents simultaneously searched his homes on Star Island and in Los Angeles.
The feds were concerned that Diddy,54, would destroy evidence, prompting the secretly coordinated raids, the source said.
The raids came a month after a lawsuit filed by music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones accused Diddy of being the leader of a criminal enterprise that could qualify as a “widespread and dangerous criminal sex trafficking organization.” On Monday, Jones amended the complaint, filed in New York federal court, to name the actor Cuba Gooding Jr. as a co-defendant.
In a statement to the Herald Tuesday evening, attorney Aaron Dyer, who is representing Diddy, slammed the raid as a “gross overuse of military-level force.” He also said Diddy was never detained and “spoke to and cooperated with authorities.”
“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,” Dyer said. “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”
The swarms of federal agents largely disappeared from Star Island Tuesday, as life returned to normal for the tony neighborhood, except for the media throng lined up by Diddy’s compound on Star Island. The hip hop mogul owns two homes there: 1 Star Island Drive, which Diddy bought from two other Miami luminaries, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, for $35 million in 2021; and 2 Star Island Drive, the home federal agents raided on Monday.
A woman visiting her friend on Star Island told the Herald Tuesday morning that she witnessed agents leaving Diddy’s compound with several people in handcuffs. She also said landscapers working on top of palm trees told her they had seen a “tank” ramming the custom-made, 15-feet-tall gate at the home.
WHAT DID AGENTS FIND?
Homeland Security Investigations agents from Miami and New Yorksearched the Star Island mansion from 3:30 p.m. until after midnight. The home appeared as if no one lived in it, the source familiar with the raid said. Agents seized electronics found inside — and four of Diddy’s staffers were detained, handcuffed and questioned, according to the source. They were let go. Prosecutors from the federal Southern District of New York, where Jones filed the lawsuit, are heading the sex-trafficking investigation. Jones is one of their key witnesses, a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Miami Herald.
Several people — including singer Cassie — came forward before the search warrant was executed, the source said. The witnesses’ information helped agents establish probable cause to obtain the warrant.
