Brendan Paul, the man arrested at a Florida airport earlier this week and who had been accused of being Sean “Diddy” Combs’ “drug mule,” is a former Syracuse University men’s basketball player.
Federal agents raided Combs’s LA mansion on the same day Mr Paul was apprehended at Opa Locka Airport airport in Miami before he could board a private jet.
Mr Paul was recently named in a lawsuit filed by Rodney Jones, a music producer, who alleged that the former basketball player was Combs’ “mule” and worked to gather and distribute guns for the rapper.
In the lawsuit, Mr Jones says he “personally witnessed” Mr Paul either transport or try to transport illegal drugs on flights between LA, Miami, Virginia, the Caribbean, and London on three occasions.
Mr Paul has not yet made any public comment personally or through an attorney addressing the allegations or his arrest.
On the day he was arrested, Mr Paul allegedly had contraband in the form of cocaine inside his travel bags.
The 25-year-old was booked for cocaine and controlled substance possession and released on Tuesday after posting a $2,500 bail, per Miami-Dade County court records. His first hearing is scheduled for 24 April.
Despite allegedly working as an associate of Combs, Mr Paul’s residence lists him as living with his parents in their Chagrin Falls, Ohio, home.
Mr Paul played at Syracuse after attending Brewster Academy, a private boarding school in New Hampshire, and Hawken High School in Ohio.
After two years at Syracuse, he transferred to Fairmont State for the 2020-21 season, where he played for another two years.
After his college playing career ended he reportedly became an amateur music producer, according to the New York Post.
He produced for Combs on The Love Album, which is likely how the pair met.
Mr Paul was arrested while with Combs at the airport in Miami. The pair were attempting to board Combs’s private plane when federal agents swooped in and took the 25-year-old into custody.
Federal agents later raided Combs’s home and seized computer equipment and other evidence allegedly relevant to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing, and has called the investigation a “witch hunt.” He also accused federal officials of using “excessive force” against his children and staff during their raid of his home.
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences. There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated,” Combs’ attorney, Aaron Dyer, said in a statement.