DISGRACED rapper Diddy has been locked up in a hellhole rat-infested prison as he awaits trial.
The music mogul – real name Sean Combs – is in custody after being charged with sex trafficking as well as racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The infamous Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn[/caption]
Diddy, pictured in 2018, is among high profile names being held at the jail[/caption]
Protesters gathered outside MDC after inmates were left without heating in 2019[/caption]
Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday and yesterday had his $50 million bail bid denied by a judge.
Prosecutors argued that the embattled hip-hop tycoon was a danger to the community and urged the judge to keep him locked up.
Accused of running a sex crime empire, Combs has denied allegations made against in following a months-long investigation.
But as he awaits trial, Combs is being held in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC).
Plagued with rat infestations, violent outbreaks and understaffing, the prison is far cry from the luxury Combs has lapped up for years at his Miami and LA mansions.
Able to hold 1,600 inmates, cartel kingpins and other celebrities are among those to have called the jail home.
High-profile individuals to experience the prison’s brutal conditions include R Kelly, Fetty Wap, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell famously bemoaned her time at the jail – including about sleep deprivation, a lack of potable water, a sewage stench in her cell and living among rodents and cockroaches.
She also complained that guards kept her up with flashlights and repeatedly subjected her to humiliating searches.
R Kelly meanwhile had his lawyers sue the prison after he claimed they placed him on suicide watch as a punishment.
Conditions are so vile at the prison that it has been reported the jail has stopped accepting inmates serving out their sentences.
All but a few dozen of its inmates are suspects awaiting trial or prosecution
In June, an inmate was even murdered and at least four have died by suicide in the last three years.
Inmate Uriel Whyte – who had been awaiting trial on gun charges for more than two year – was stabbed to death at MDC on June 7.
Then in July, Edwin Cordero died after being injured in a brawl at the jail.
Following Whyte’s death, inmate Eli told Spectrum News NY1: “It’s very violent. There’s stabbings at least a couple times a week.”
Despite repeatedly hitting headlines for its conditions, the prison has not been officially inspected by the Department of Justice since 2020.
Even that was conducted remotely – making the last in-person inspection five years ago in 2019.
Eli added: “They know this place should be shut down, and it is impossible, nearly impossible, for you to fight a case from MDC Brooklyn.
“Forget about your constitutional rights. Human rights here are a problem.”
In 2019, MDC was again in the national spotlight after inmates suffered days without heat or power during a cold snap.
Power and heating in parts of the jail were cut off after a fire, with inmates left in near freezing temperatures and total darkness after the sun went down.
Inmates watched the protest from the jail[/caption]
Signs left by family members of prisoners of the jail[/caption]
A law enforcement officer walks outside the entrance to the MDC[/caption]
The MDC has housed several high-profile individuals over the years[/caption]
Cameron Lindsay, a former warden at the jail, previously told the New York Times: “The MDC was one of the most troubled, if not the most troubled facility in the Bureau of Prisons.”
Despite issues raised ranging from overcrowding to human rights violence, it has remained one of the go-to locations to house both high-risk and high-profile detainees.
Right now, the jail is housing a trio of cartel figures – Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Nestor Perez “El Nini” and Genaro Garcia Luna.
Zambada was the co-founder of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, while Perez has been identified as El Chapo’s top security man.
Luna is a former Mexican national Security Security being held for his links to the cartel.
Combs is one of the latest inmates to join the jail – despite his attorney’s pleas.
His lawyers noted “several courts in this District have recognized that the conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center are not fit for pre-trial detention”.
They wrote: “Just earlier this summer, an inmate was murdered.
“At least four inmates have died by suicide there in the past three years.”
In court filings, his attorneys argued that he should be released on a $50 million bail because he was struggling to find a place to live in New York City.
Diddy’s downfall
By The U.S. Sun’s Senior Reporter Forrest McFarland, who has been reporting on Diddy’s legal battles for years
BEFORE Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest on Monday night, it had been highly speculated that the rap star would find himself in custody after he was repeatedly hit with disturbing accusations – and had two of his mansions raided by the feds.
His mounting legal troubles finally came to a head on September 17, when he was charged with three federal counts, including sex trafficking, for allegedly forcing victims to take part in drug-fueled sex parties he called “Freak Offs.”
Hours before his arrest, The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed the feds investigating Combs were secretly liaising with Tupac Shakur murder prosecutors on gangland activities.
The development also came after Combs was named 77 times in documents submitted by prosecutors in the Tupac murder case.
Aside from the Tupac probe, Combs was already facing a slew of lawsuits, including one he settled with his ex, Cassie Ventura, after she accused him of rape and abuse.
Disturbing hotel surveillance video from 2016 showed Combs chasing Cassie down and then punching, kicking, and beating her in a hallway.
Two months earlier, in March 2024, two of Combs’ mansions were raided by federal investigators, who seized three AR-15s, drugs, and 1,000 bottles of lube which were part of his “Freak Off” supplies.
In addition to his federal criminal charges, Combs also faces a handful of lawsuits with allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and sex trafficking dating back to the early 1990s.
Music producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones filed one suit in February 2024, claiming Combs forced him to hire sex workers and participate in sex acts while he worked on his latest album.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the federal sex trafficking charges against him, but his battle is far from over.
He faces life in prison if he’s convicted on all counts.
The lawyers cited the US Open and Fashion Week as some of the reasons why their client couldn’t land a month-long rental.
But prosecutors argued that Combs was a danger to the community and urged the judge to keep him locked up until trial.
Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson said: “Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades,”
“He used the vast resources of his company to facilitate his abuse and cover up his crimes.
“Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial constructor.”
The prosecutors then referenced a video that matched the footage of Combs chasing his ex, Cassie Ventura, in a hotel hallway and beating her, which CNN obtained in May.
They argued this was surefire proof that Combs shouldn’t be trusted to roam free alongside his alleged victims.
The rapper is alleged to have used “certain employees” to “carry out, facilitate and cover up his abuse and commercial sex [ring]”.
According to the indictment, “high-ranking supervisors” helped orchestrate “freak-offs” – which Combs called the alleged drug-fuelled sexual performances.
The unsealed indictment reveals Combs allegedly forced victims to have sex with sex workers and recorded the disturbing scenes.
Prosecutors allege: “Freak Offs were elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Documents claim Combs arranged for sex workers to be transported internationally and across state lines for the “freak offs”, which sometimes lasted for multiple days and involved several sex workers.
Prosecutors said that Combs used “the sensitive, embarrassing, and incriminating recordings that he made during Freak Offs as collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims.”
Recent lawsuits against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Diddy was hit with a wave of lawsuits in late 2023 and 2024 with allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault. He has denied all claims against him.
- November 17, 2023: Cassie, Diddy’s longtime girlfriend, sued him, claiming she endured “a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” until their relationship ended in 2018. Diddy and Cassie settled the suit the day after it was filed.
- Diddy was hit with two more lawsuits a week after he settled with Cassie.
- November 23, 2023: Joi Dickerson accused Diddy of drugging and raping her and filming the attack when she was a 19-year-old college student in January 1991.
- November 24, 2023: A second unidentified accuser in a separate lawsuit claimed that Diddy and another man sexually assaulted her and a friend in 1990 or 1991, then showed up at her apartment and beat her several days later.
- December 6, 2023: Diddy was sued again by an unidentified woman who claimed he and two men gang-raped her in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
- February 26, 2024: Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones, who helped produce Diddy’s most recent album, claimed that the mogul sexually harassed, drugged, and threatened him from September 2022 to November 2023 as they worked together.
- May 21, 2024: Model Crystal McKinney accused Combs of sexually assaulting her after meeting at a Men’s Fashion Week event in New York City in 2003. McKinney claims she was drinking alcohol and smoking weed with Combs and several of his colleagues when she took a hit off a joint that she claims was laced with another drug. McKinney claims she felt woozy, and Combs ordered her to the bathroom, where he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him.
- May 23, 2024: April Lampros, 51, claimed in her lawsuit that she met Sean Combs in New York City in 1994 while attending the Fashion Institute of Technology. Combs is accused of drugging and raping Lampros in a hotel after promising to help mentor her in the fashion industry.
- July 3, 2024: Adria English, an ex-porn star who went by Omunique, accused Diddy of grooming her into sex trafficking in the early 2000s, according to TMZ.
