A man named Brenden Paul was arrested on Monday the 25th of March at Miami’s Opa-Locka Airport. The 25-year-old is accused of smuggling drugs for Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. According to Rolling Stone, which obtained the arrest records, Paul faces charges of cocaine and marijuana possession.
According to the arrest affidavit, the 4:30 PM take-down was a joint effort between the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security. When asked, Paul’s attorney Brian Beiber declined to comment on the case, saying that he and his client will be presenting their issues to the Court, not the media.
A representative of Combs did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.
The arrest happened around the same time as the simultaneous raids of Combs’s houses in Miami and Los Angeles, also a DHS operation, which the first public indications of a federal investigation into alleged trafficking and abuse by the rap star. Combs, an executive at Bad Boy Records, now faces numerous civil suits over his behavior towards women and teenagers.
It remains unclear at this time whether Homeland Security’s investigations were spurred by the allegations in the civil lawsuits, or whether Paul’s arrest was connected to these investigations.
According to NBC News, Combs was in Florida at the time of the raid.
Paul was thrust into public light when he was named by producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones in a civil complaint against Combs, which alleged that Paul was Combs’s “mule” who both procured and distributed guns and drugs for Combs. Jones claims he “personally witnessed” Paul engage in these activities.
Paul’s arresting officers said that they discovered contraband inside Paul’s personal bags, including a substance that, upon testing, proved to be cocaine.
After his arrest, Paul was booked into Miami’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He is currently being charged with one count of possession of cocaine, and one count of possession of a controlled substance.
