An associate of Sean “Diddy” Combs who was arrested on drug possession charges in Florida has accepted a plea deal to avoid jail.
On March 25, Brendan Paul, 25, was arrested at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport for carrying cocaine and marijuana-laced candy. Paul was later charged with cocaine possession and had a controlled substance charge dropped — but WTVJ reported that he agreed to enter a six-month diversion program to have the case dismissed.
Paul’s arrest occurred around the same time federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Holmby Hills, California, and Miami. At least five law enforcement sources confirmed to WTVJ that his arrest was linked to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
READ: Feds RAID Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Homes Amid Sex Trafficking Investigation
TMZ reported that Paul was formerly Combs’ main assistant. Miami-Dade prosecutors told the tabloid that the program Paul is entering is typically offered to first-time, non-violent offenders.
The reported raids also occurred four months after Combs’ longtime ex-girlfriend Cassie (Cassandra Ventura) accused him of sex trafficking and abuse. In a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, she alleged that Combs drugged her and forced her to have sex with other men. The pair settled the lawsuit a day after its filing.
Two more accusers came forward a week after Cassie. One of the women claimed Combs drugged and raped her at Syracuse University in New York in 1991. Combs denied those allegations before a third accuser, named Liza Gardner, levied similar allegations against him.
In that case, Gardner claimed Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall drugged and raped her and a friend following an Uptown Records event in 1990. Gardner said she was 16 at the time of the incident. She also accused Combs of choking her a day after the assault.
Combs has not been formally charged with any crimes. His legal team has called the raids an “unprecedented ambush.”
