Diddy charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and assault in federal case

Combs, 54, was sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Tuesday — a place that’s been described as "hell on earth" and an "ongoing tragedy." 

The facility, the only federal jail in New York City, has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. 

In recent years, its conditions have been so stark that some judges have refused to send people there. 

It has also been home to a number of high-profile inmates, including singer R. Kelly, Ghislaine Maxwell and Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Diddy is being accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed "Freak Offs."

But just what are Freak Offs? According to court documents, Mr Combs "wielded the power" of his status to "lure female victims... to engage in extended sex acts" called "Freak Offs".

"During Freak Offs, Combs distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant," the indictment said.

In a news briefing, US prosecutor Damian Williams said officials found firearms, ammunition and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant during raids on Mr Combs's homes in Miami and Los Angeles, about six months ago.

In court documents, federal prosecutors said that Mr Combs had "abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct".

Prosecutors accuse Mr Combs of "creating a criminal enterprise" whose members - under his direction - engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson and bribery.

"On numerous occasions", the documents said, Mr Combs assaulted women by "striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them".

The Bad Boy Records founder, formerly known as Puff Daddy, is accused of facilitating a network of associates and employees who helped keep victims in line using blackmail like the videos taken during the parties.

"In arranging these Freak Offs, Combs, with the assistance of members and associates of the Combs Enterprise, transported, and caused to be transported, commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally," the court documents stated.

These employees would allegedly be in charge of facilitating the "Freak Offs" by booking hotel rooms.

Associates would allegedly arrange travel for victims, sex workers, and Diddy, in addition to delivering cash to pay the workers, and schedule IV fluid deliveries (used to recover from the parties).

Authorities say these "Freak Offs" would occur regularly, even lasting multiple days.

His employees would also allegedly ensure that the "Freak Offs" were stocked with baby oil, linens, drugs and lighting.

Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo has, however, declared his client’s innocence, and said they would appeal the bail decision, with a hearing expected Wednesday afternoon.

The "Freak Offs," Agnifilo says, were agreed upon prior and not coercive.

"Is it sex trafficking? Not if everybody wants to be there," Agnifilo said.

Allegations of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse have been piling up against Combs since late last year, when Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a civil suit against Combs, her ex-boyfriend. 

Combs settled the case out of court the day after it was filed, but since then nine more people have come forward with their own allegations of abuse against the rapper.

Ventura stated that she was given “ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol in excessive amounts” which allowed her to disassociate while engaging in sex acts with sex workers at Combs’s direction. 

Eventually, Ventura claimed, she was tasked with facilitating hiring the sex workers and finding the location for Combs’s Freak Offs.

In Ventura’s complaint, she alleged that Combs’s assistants were tasked with stocking hotel rooms with “baby oil and Astroglide” before Freak Offs. She  claimed that during Freak Offs, Combs would instruct her “to pour excessive amounts of oil over herself.”

Throughout the indictment, the prosecution claims that Combs was regularly physically abusive toward his victims. They claim that Combs assaulted women by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.” They also claim that he “hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair.”

A federal magistrate ordered him jailed without bail as he awaits trial. Combs asked a judge Wednesday if he could wait for his trial from his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach instead of the grim federal jail. He was denied that request.