Drugs, guns and electronics seized in sweep of Brooklyn federal prison where ‘Diddy’ is being held

NEW YORK — Investigators seized drugs, homemade weapons and electronic devices this week during an “interagency operation” to clean out the New York federal prison where Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held, the Bureau of Prisons said Friday.

The contraband was identified and seized during a multi-agency sweep that began Monday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The operation, which continued throughout the week, involved the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s inspector general and other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

The law enforcement operation was “pre-planned and coordinated to ensure the safety and security” of staff and inmates at the facility, the agency said. It was part of a “larger safety and security initiative and not in response to any particular threat or intelligence.”

The measure was unrelated to Combs’ arrest, which spurred public interest in the prison. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the sweep.

Combs’ lawyers have highlighted a host of horrors at the prison – including deplorable conditions, rampant violence and multiple deaths – as they have made repeated attempts to have him released on bail as he awaits trial next May on sex-trafficking charges.

The hip-hop mogul’s arrest and a rash of prison-related crimes in recent months have put MDC Brooklyn in the spotlight, leading to increased scrutiny and a push by the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to fix the problems and to hold the perpetrators accountable.

In September, federal prosecutors charged nine inmates in a series of attacks from April to August at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the only federal prison in New York City. The allegations detailed serious safety and security issues at the prison, including allegations after two inmates were stabbed to death and another was stabbed in the spine with a makeshift ice pick. A corrections officer was also accused of shooting into a car during an unlicensed high-speed chase.

In October, an inmate was charged with a murder-for-hire plot that led to the death of a 28-year-old woman last December outside a New York nightclub. According to prosecutors, the inmate used a contraband cellphone to orchestrate the plot from behind bars while awaiting sentencing for directing another shooting years earlier.

The criminal charges provided a window into the violence and dysfunction that plagued the prison, which houses about 1,200 people, including Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange. The total is down from more than 1,600 in January.

The facility, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, is primarily used for post-arrest detention of people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates are there to serve short sentences after convictions.

Inmates at the Brooklyn prison have long complained of violence, appalling conditions, severe understaffing and widespread drug and other contraband, some of which is facilitated by employees. At the same time, they say they were subjected to frequent lockdowns and were prohibited from leaving their cells for visits, phone calls, showers or exercise.

Twice denied bail, Combs is now asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant him his release. Arguments are scheduled for November 4.

Combs’ attorney, Mark Agnifilo, who previously tried to move him to a New Jersey prison, said at an Oct. 10 hearing: “We’re trying MDC. MDC was very receptive to us.”

Another lawyer for Combs, Anthony Ricco, told reporters outside court: “He is doing well. It’s a difficult circumstance. He makes the most of the situation.”

But, Ricco added, “No one agrees to stay in prison for now.”