A man accused of being Diddy’s ‘drug mule’ was arrested and charged with drug possession 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.
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 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.
Paul is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on two $2,500 bonds for cocaine and marijuana possession, according to jail records.
He had ‘contraband inside his personal travel bags… the suspect cocaine was located and tested’, an affidavit read.
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’.
A person familiar with the allegations told Rolling Stone that the Paul in the lawsuit was the same one arrested at Opa-Locka Airport on Monday.
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.’
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 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’ 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.
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.