A man accused of being Diddy’s ‘drug mule’ was arrested trying to board at the same time the rapper’s mansion was raided by police.
Brendan Paul, 25, was arrested by Miami-Dade Police, alongside Homeland Security agents, at Opa-Locka Airport in Miami about 4.30pm on Monday.
Federal agents raided Diddy’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami the same day as part of a sex trafficking investigation and detained two of his sons.
Justin and King Combs were later released without charge. Photos show at least two men were put in handcuffs during the Los Angeles raid.
Brendan Paul, 25, was arrested by Miami-Dade Police, alongside Homeland Security agents, at Opa-Locka Airport in Miami about 4.30pm on Monday
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs whereabouts are unknown after federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami
Diddy was spotted about 3pm at Opa-Locka Airport, not long before Paul was arrested there, hours after the raid started, after his jet flew in from LA.
Department of Homeland Security and other local law enforcement offices contacted by DailyMail.com on Tuesday have not been able to comment on Diddy’s location and it was not clear where he went.
He was scheduled to fly to the Caribbean and blocked the public tracking of his jet after it arrived in Miami. Police seized his phones but he was not arrested.
The LoveAir LLC Gulfstream 5 jet was later tracked to the Caribbean island of Antigua, but he wasn’t on board.
An arrest warrant obtained by DailyMail.com says that Paul admitted to having drugs in his luggage as law enforcement intercepted him at Miami Opa Locka Executive Airport at 4:15pm on Monday.
The document, filed by the Miami-Dade Police Department, states: ‘While working alongside the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, the defendant was taken into custody for being in possession of suspected cocaine and marijuana candy.
‘The defendant had the contraband inside of his personal travel bags, which he claimed prior to being searched.
‘The suspected cocaine was located and tested by agents… the defendant was charged accordingly.’
Paul, 25, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio is charged with felony cocaine possession and marijuana possession. Paul is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on two $2,500 bonds.
Helicopter cameras were on the scene Monday afternoon as dozens of agents are were advancing on the massive Los Angeles-area estate
Paul was referred to as Diddy’s ‘drug mule’ in a lawsuit Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones (pictured) filed against Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs
Paul was referred to as Diddy’s ‘drug mule’ in a $30 million lawsuit Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones filed against Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs.
The complaint, one of five against Cobs since November, alleged he was involved in ‘acquir[ing] and distribut[ing] Mr Combs drugs and guns’.
Whether Paul’s arrest was connected to allegations in the lawsuit, or to the raids on Diddy’s properties, was not confirmed.
Jones claimed in the lawsuit that he ‘personally witnessed’ Paul ‘acquire and distribute’ drugs to Combs and his entourage, and transport or intend to transport drugs in baggage on flights.
He wrote the flights were between Los Angeles, Miami, Virginia, the Caribbean, and London three times in December 2022, April 2023 and November 2023.
‘Members of the enterprise and their associates procured, transported and distributed ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, mushrooms, by packing these substances in their carry-on luggage and going through TSA,’ he wrote.
‘Mr Jones personally witnessed… Brendan transport firearms to and from nightclubs, strip clubs, and other venues for Mr Combs on his person in Miami, Florida.
‘Mr Jones personally witnessed Mr Combs distribute firearms out of his bedroom closet to individuals that Mr Jones knew to be members of local gangs.’
Paul with Diddy in the recording studio, posted to Paul’s Facebook and included in the lawsuit
Another photo of Diddy (left) and Paul (right) attached to the lawsuit
Brendan Paul once played for college basketball for Syracuse, seen here in a game against the St Rose Golden Knights on October 25, 2018, in Syracuse
Jones attached a photo of Paul holding prescription pill bottles with a black pouch sitting on his lap.
‘Brendan Paul is videotaped with one of the black pouches Combs, and Kristina Khorram required the associates and members… to carry,’ he claimed.
‘This pouch was filled with ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, mushrooms, and tuc.’
‘Mr Combs required Brendan Paul and Mr Jones to carry his firearm on their person whenever they went out,’ another part of the lawsuit read.
‘One of these occasions Mr. Jones was required to carry Mr Combs’ firearm was when Mr Combs recorded himself coaching Mr Jones on how to solicit sex workers.’
Jones worked with Combs most recently on his record, The Love Album: Off the Grid. He claimed Paul and other staff were told to hire sex workers to come to the recording studio.
‘Mr Combs felt there was too much testosterone in the studio and wanted sex workers there to create the vibe for the Love Album,’ the lawsuit claimed.
‘Then these workers arrived, and Mr Jones and the other musicians and producers were required to engage in sex acts with them.’
Jones attached to the lawsuit this photo of Paul holding prescription pill bottles with a black pouch sitting on his lap that he claimed was ‘filled with ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, mushrooms, and tuc’
Jones (left) and Paul (right) together, wearing ‘Bad Boy’ hats
Paul shared this photo online of a dinner related to Diddy’s Love Album
Jones is suing the beleaguered rapper over claims he engaged in ‘serious illegal activity’ including sexual assault.
The initial lawsuit alleged Combs forced him to procure sex workers and pressured him into acts with them.
He also accused Gooding Jr. of groping him while on Diddy’s yacht in January 2023, according to the filings.
The incident allegedly took place in the Virgin Islands and saw Combs try to ‘pass off’ Jones to actor Gooding, the lawsuit states.
‘Cuba Gooding Jr. began touching, groping and fondling Mr. Jones’ legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks and his shoulders,’ Jones’ the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint also includes a photo appearing to show ‘Jerry Maguire’ star Gooding with his arm around Jones, as well as a pictures purportedly showing Combs and Gooding talking on the yacht.
Combs was accused in the lawsuit of failing to step in and stop Gooding from ‘sexually assaulting’ Jones.
Jones claims Gooding (pictured) groped him while aboard Diddy’s yacht in the Virgin Islands in 2023
Jones’ lawsuit includes this photo appearing to show ‘Jerry Maguire’ star Gooding with his arm around him
One of the photos in Jones’ lawsuit accusing Diddy of connections to a shooting
Sex workers Jones claimed Diddy forced him to have sex with
Jones’ bombshell lawsuit against Diddy claims Combs subjected him to a year of groping and ‘constant unsolicited touching of his anus’.
He says he was ordered to recruit prostitutes and have sex with them for the star’s pleasure, and has hundreds of hours of video documenting Combs’s ‘serious illegal activity’.
He claims he was also sexually assaulted by a female cousin of Combs’s girlfriend Yung Miami and forced to watch a video of record producer Stevie J having sex with another man.
Jones was required to work in Combs’ bathroom where the star would shower naked behind a glass screen, according to the lawsuit.
The producer alleges Combs boasted of having shot people and threatened to inflict bodily harm if Jones did not comply with his demands.
He says the ‘forceful and demanding’ star privately admitted involvement in a 1999 nightclub shooting that saw him acquitted of gun possession and bribery charges.
‘Mr Combs consistently made it clear that he has immense power in the music industry and with law enforcement,’ the lawsuit claimed.
Jones claims that underage girls and sex workers were guests at the star’s house parties and that he saw the star drug their drinks.
He also claims he was ordered to Miami trawl bars and nightspots to recruit sex workers, and says he himself was drugged in February last year before he woke up naked, dizzy and confused in bed with Combs and two sex workers.
His lawsuit also names Combs’ son Justin, his chief of staff Kristina Khorram, and Universal Music Group chief executive Sir Lucian Grange as defendants.
It accuses Khorram of ‘grooming’ him on Combs’s behalf and claims that Motown Records, Love Records and Universal Music Group comprised a ‘Rico enterprise’ that ‘failed to adequately monitor, warn or supervise’ Combs and his inner circle.
At least two men who have yet to be identified were seen being put in handcuffs at Diddy’s Holmby Hills property
The raids of his Miami and Los Angeles homes conducted by Homeland Security were in connection to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation
Jones named some of the industry’s biggest names as co-defendants in the $30 million suit, claiming record boss Ethiopia Habtemariam dismissed Combs’s groping as ‘friendly horseplay’, and his way of ‘showing that he likes you’.
His lawsuit alleged Diddy’s ‘affiliation’ to Prince Harry and other stars gave him and his associates ‘legitimacy’.
The court documents do not suggest any wrongdoing on Prince Harry’s part.
Jones’ lawyers claim guests were drawn to Diddy’s alleged sex-trafficking parties because of his ‘access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artist, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry’.
Prince William and Prince Harry met Diddy and Kanye West at a post-concert party the Princes hosted to thank all who took part in the ‘Concert for Diana’ at Wembley Stadium’ in 2007.
However, the Prince of Wales is not named in the court documents.
Diddy denied the existing allegations against him, calling them ‘sickening’, and his lawyer dismissed Jones’s claims as ‘pure fiction’.
‘Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 billion lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday,’ attorney Shawn Holley told TMZ in February.
Rapper and music mogul Diddy has been fighting at least five legal battles, including one against an unnamed woman who claimed he and two friends sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
Kanye West, Prince Harry and P Diddy after the after Concert for Diana at Wembley in July 2007
Harry laughs as he tries on Kanye’s trademark glasses with a smiling Diddy next to him wearing a Princess Diana T-Shirt
Harry is named on Page 63 of the $30million lawsuit by Jones
Diddy’s former girlfriend R&B singer Cassie Ventura in a lawsuit filed in federal court in November also accused him of sex trafficking.
She claimed Diddy controlled and abused her for over a decade – as well as plying her with drugs, beating her and forcing her to have sex with multiple male prostitutes while he watched and recorded.
Ventura said she was 19 when Combs, then 37, signed her to his record label, Bad Boy, in 2006.
She claimed Combs gave her drugs, including ecstasy and ketamine, soon after to make her ‘compliant’. Ventura alleges that ‘all aspects of her life’ were controlled by Combs, including her medical records.
Among the alleged episodes of ‘intense violence’ was a beating in an SUV on the way home from a party with rapper Jay-Z.
On another occasion, a jealous Combs allegedly pulled Ventura out of a club, ‘stomping on her face’, leaving her with injuries so bad she had to recover for a week in a hotel.
Perhaps the most disturbing claims are that Combs allegedly forced Ventura to take part in drug-fuelled parties where she had sex with male prostitutes while wearing masquerade masks as he filmed it and performed a sex act on himself.
The lawsuit states: ‘Ms Ventura was repulsed by Mr Combs’ demands, but between the physical beating and recognising his incredible power and incredible temper, Ms Ventura became petrified of her partner and boss, and felt that she could not say no.’
In another alleged incident, an enraged Combs dangled Ms Ventura’s friend over a 17th floor hotel balcony.
The rapper and music industry mogul was sued in November by the singer Cassie Ventura, who accused him of rape and physical abuse before the case was settled out of court
Multiple accusers of rapper Diddy – including R&B singer Cassie Ventura (pictured left) – have spoken out
It is also claimed he threatened to blow up the car of love rival, rapper Kid Cudi – which later exploded on his driveway, though it is unclear who was responsible.
In September 2018, after Ventura tried to break things off, Combs allegedly forced his way into her home and raped her.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages for sex trafficking, sexual battery, sexual assault and harassment.
Combs denied the ‘offensive and outrageous allegations’ and settled with Ventura out of court.
The lawsuit by Ventura was one of at least five civil complaints brought in recent months leveling sexual assault allegations against Combs, including one from Jones.
Joi Dickerson-Neal, another accuser, claims Combs slipped something into her drink and sexually assaulted her in 1991 while she was a student at Syracuse University. She alleges that he filmed the attack and shared the video with his social circle.
Another Jane Doe alleges that she and a friend were raped by Combs and his friend, the singer–songwriter Aaron Hall, in the early 1990s.
Rolling Stone reported Monday that ‘four Jane Does and one John Doe’ have already been interviewed by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York ‘for a probe related to alleged sex trafficking, domestic violence and racketeering,’ with more scheduled.
Combs, 54, founded the Bad Boy record label in 1993, and was a major figure in hip-hop’s commercialization over the decades that followed. His proteges included the late Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige.
He is among the industry’s billionaires, not least due to his ventures in the liquor industry.
But contrary to a public image of suave businessman, lawsuits describe Combs as a violent man who used his celebrity to prey on and intimidate women.