Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 13
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Monday that agents have raided properties in Los Angeles, Miami and New York that local news outlets have reported are tied to rapper and mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
NBC News and local stations in Los Angeles and Miami first reported the activity at Combs’s properties on Monday. Federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement were conducting searches of the properties as part of a sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, two law enforcement officials told the Associated Press.
It’s not clear whether Combs was the target of the investigation. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The exact reason for the raids remained unclear. The musician is facing multiple civil lawsuits over alleged sexual assault and sex trafficking. Last year, he settled a lawsuit from his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, who accused him of physically and sexually abusing her for years. Another of Combs’s accusers alleges that Combs, along with two other men, raped her two decades ago, when she was 17. The producer Rodney Jones has also accused Combs of sexually assaulting him and forcing him to hire sex workers and perform sexual acts with them.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that Jones’s lawsuit alleged that Combs’s access to celebrities such as Prince Harry drew guests to “sex-trafficking parties” hosted by the rapper.
Combs has denied the allegations. NBC reported that federal officials in Manhattan have interviewed people and are scheduled to interview sources in relation to allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms, citing anonymous sources. A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.
Source: The Guardian
