close
close

Pasteleria-edelweiss

Real-time news, timeless knowledge

Authorities launch ‘interagency operation’ at federal prison in New York where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is held
bigrus

Authorities launch ‘interagency operation’ at federal prison in New York where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is held

NEW YORK — Investigators from several federal agencies launched an “interagency operation” Monday at the troubled New York City prison where Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held.

Investigators from the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department inspector general’s office and other law enforcement agencies descended on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Monday, the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press.

The law enforcement operation was “designed to achieve our shared goal of providing a safe environment for both our employees and the incarcerated individuals housed at MDC Brooklyn,” the agency said. Prison officials declined to provide details about the operation Monday morning.

But the move comes as the prison faces increasing scrutiny for horrific conditions, widespread violence and scores of deaths, and as pressure from the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons to fix problems at the prison and hold perpetrators accountable.

Last month, 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, made public last month, detailed serious safety and security problems at the prison, including accusations that 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 at a car during an unauthorized high-speed chase.

The criminal charges opened 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 Bureau of Prisons said Monday that the operation in Brooklyn was planned in advance and that there was no “active threat.”

The agency said it would not provide additional details about exactly what investigators were doing there Monday until the operation was completed “in order to protect the safety and security of all personnel within the facility and the integrity of this operation.”

The number of inmates at the facility, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, has dropped to about 1,200 from more than 1,600 in January. It is used primarily for post-arrest detention of individuals awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates are there to serve short sentences following convictions.

Those held at the Brooklyn jail have long complained of widespread violence, appalling conditions, severe staffing shortages and rampant drug and other trafficking, some of which is facilitated by employees. They also say they were subjected to frequent quarantine and were prohibited from leaving their cells for visits, phone calls, showers or exercise.