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Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Shareif Ziyadat | Getty Images
Federal agents on Monday raided homes owned by hip-hop music mogul Sean Combs in Los Angeles and Miami, NBC News reported, citing sources.
The Department of Homeland Security agents were authorized to search the properties by warrants issued in Manhattan federal court, law enforcement sources said.
A source familiar with the situation told NBC that three women and one man have been interviewed in New York by federal authorities in connection to a probe involving possible sex trafficking, sexual assault, the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms related to 54-year-old Combs, who is also known as “Diddy,” “Puff Daddy,” and “P. Diddy.”
Interviews with three more women, identified as “Jane Does,” are scheduled.
“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,” Homeland Security said in a statement to NBC 4 Los Angeles.
Benjamin Brafman, a New York attorney who has represented Combs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Douglas Wigdor, a New York lawyer for the singer Cassie Ventura, who quickly settled a bombshell lawsuit against Combs last fall accusing him of raping and sex trafficking her, said he was also representing a “Jane Doe” in the federal probe of him.
“We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law,” Wigdor said in a statement.
“Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct,” the lawyer said.
The raids come a month after a music producer named Rodney “Li Rod’ Jones filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court claiming that Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him while he was living and traveling with Combs.
Combs was sued in the same court four months ago by Cassie.
Cassie’s suit said that in 2005, when she was 19 years old, Combs lured her into a professional relationship by signing her to his label, Bad Boy Records, and within several years induced her into a sexual relationship, and introduced her “to a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse and required her to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions.”
The suit claimed Combs raped Cassie in her home after she tried to leave him, “blew up” another man’s car after learning of his romantic interest in her and often beat and kicked her.
Cassie and Combs agreed to settle her complaint for undisclosed terms just a day after she filed the suit.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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