The raids by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) targeted homes in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, following a case run out of the Southern District of New York, pursuant to a series of lawsuits against the music mogul alleging an array of salacious illegalities, including murder, sex trafficking, illegal firearms, and drug trafficking. The raids have renewed scrutiny on the legal filings, the most recent of which has implicated a number of high profile individuals allegedly connected to a sprawling sex trafficking network involving minors. Five of the defendants named in the lawsuit are said to have financially benefited from the sex trafficking venture. “Mr. Combs was known for throwing the ‘best’ parties,” the filing states. “Affiliation with, and or sponsorship of Mr. Combs sex-trafficking parties garnered legitimacy and access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artist, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry.” While the lawsuit makes numerous references to famous individuals ensnared in some way in the operation (“celebrities, music label executives, politicians, and athletes”), Prince Harry is the only person specifically named in connection with the activities. He is not listed as a defendant in the case, is not accused of any criminality, nor does the filing state that he was aware that sex trafficking occurred at the parties. The lawsuit filed by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer on Combs’ staff, says that Combs “has hidden cameras in every room of his homes” and that Combs “possesses compromising footage of every person that has attended his freak off parties, and his house parties.” According to the filing, Combs “had hundreds of cameras in his homes in LA, NYC, and Miami” and “required the sex workers and underaged girls to sign [nondisclosure agreements] prior to entering his parties, and prior to being drugged and sex trafficked at these parties.” Following the allegations of the trafficking network, Combs has been compared to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested and indicted in 2019 for sex trafficking underage girls.On March 25, federal agents swarmed multiple mansions owned by mega-producer and label boss Sean “Diddy” Combs in a series of raids connected to a sex trafficking investigation.
