Antigua’s government has finally cleared up the mystery surrounding the arrival of a private jet linked to Hip Hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in the past week as federal agents back home in the US raided two properties belonging to the global star.
The Gulfstream 5 aircraft had landed in Antigua late on Monday, fueling speculation that Combs had fled to the Eastern Caribbean island to escape investigators probing alleged human trafficking and related accusations but in the end, the cabinet says that his family had disembarked and were afforded local privacy protocols as is done normally in the tourism-dependent nation.
“I’m not so sure that when these people landed in Antigua that they wanted to become a public spectacle. I think privacy is one of the things they seek to have and it’s not in the best interest of Antigua and Barbuda to speak about folks who choose to come here for privacy and then we are blasting it all over the media. We take the attitude that until you are proven guilty of something, you are innocent,” he stated, adding it is up to the US government and judicial system to decide Diddy’s fate,” said Lionel Hurst, chief of staff in the office of Prime Minister Gaston Browne. Hurst spoke to reporters over the weekend.
Local media had been speculating widely that Combs had actually slipped into Antigua but PM Browne ended such speculation by announcing that Diddy had definitely not made it to the Caribbean as US media had spotted him at an airport just outside Miami.
The aircraft left Antigua on Good Friday even as it was unclear exactly, which family members had arrived on the island as heavily armed federal agents were rummaging through homes on both the east and west coast of the US. American media had reported that Diddy had planned to enjoy a spring break vacation in The Bahamas with his twin daughters and unspecified others but that had been cancelled after the feds had moved in.
Combs has been embroiled in a series of controversies in recent months including the widely reported incident involving ex-girlfriend and singer, Cassie, who had accused him of a series of indecent acts and sexual abuse. He has settled with her. Several others including a male music associate have also hurled similar accusations.
In a statement, Homeland Security said that agents from New York had “executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners.”
