Prosecutors at Sean Combs’s sex-trafficking and racketeering trial on Wednesday walked jurors through the items that federal agents found when they raided the music mogul’s Florida estate. There were disassembled AR-15-style guns, cocaine and ketamine, lingerie and seven-inch platform high heels — and bottles and bottles of baby oil.
Federal agents descended on Mr. Combs’s homes, one in Miami Beach, Fla., and another in the Los Angeles area, in March 2024, an event captured on live television that made public the criminal investigation into the music mogul.
The prosecution detailed the Miami Beach raid on the eighth day of the trial in an attempt to illustrate their accusations that Mr. Combs ran a violent criminal enterprise that facilitated sex trafficking and drug violations, among other crimes.
The sex-related supplies are not themselves illegal, but prosecutors have described baby oil and a lubricant called Astroglide as frequent tools in voyeuristic sexual encounters between women and male prostitutes that they say amounted to sex trafficking. Casandra Ventura, who testified about participating in “hundreds” of the sex marathons known as “freak-offs,” said that Mr. Combs made specific requests about her appearance during those encounters and told her to reapply oil so that she would be “glistening.”
Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. His lawyers have argued that the sexual encounters were fully consensual, and they deny the existence of any criminal conspiracy.
Gerard Gannon, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations who oversaw the Miami Beach search, testified that to gain access to Mr. Combs’s home — which is on a man-made island known for large celebrity estates — the government used an armored vehicle to break through the front gate.
“They deemed that was the quickest and safest option to be able to get onto the property,” Mr. Gannon testified.
At the time of the searches, Mr. Combs’s lawyers called them “a gross overuse of military-level force.”
Between 80 and 90 agents were involved in the Miami Beach search. Once inside, agents discovered parts from two AR-15-style guns with their serial numbers scratched off, as well as magazines with ammunition, inside a closet of the home’s primary bedroom. They also found sex toys, condoms and boxes of stilettos. In one hallway closet, they found 25 bottles of baby oil and 31 bottles of lubricant. (Prosecutors have said that agents found more than 1,000 bottles of those substances during the searches of the two homes.)
A Gucci bag found in the home contained white powder that tested positive for cocaine and ketamine, pink MDMA tablets and different types of benzodiazepine pills. Ms. Ventura testified that drugs were a fixture of freak-offs.
On cross-examination, Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, pointed out that the AR-15-style guns were found disassembled — and thus were inoperable — and asked the federal agent, Mr. Gannon, if he kept guns in his own home.
“You are familiar that many people in Florida have guns in their home — do you?” Ms. Geragos asked.
“I am issued firearms for work, yes,” Mr. Gannon replied.
Later this week, prosecutors are expected to call to the stand Kid Cudi, the rapper whose romance with Ms. Ventura is said to have sent Mr. Combs into a jealous, threat-filled rage. Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, could take the witness stand as soon as Thursday, but the precise timing of his testimony is uncertain.
Ms. Ventura, who is known as the singer Cassie, testified last week that after Mr. Combs discovered her relationship with Mr. Mescudi in 2011, Mr. Combs made a series of threats to her, including that Mr. Mescudi’s car would be “blown up” in his driveway.
In 2023, after Ms. Ventura filed the lawsuit that kicked off Mr. Combs’s legal troubles, Mr. Mescudi confirmed that his car had exploded. But he has yet to speak publicly about the details of his role in the case.
As part of the racketeering conspiracy charge, one of the allegations is that Mr. Combs’s associates set fire to a rival’s car with a Molotov cocktail.
Ms. Geragos said in the defense’s opening statement that Mr. Combs was “simply not involved” in the allegations of arson put forward by prosecutors.
After four days of searing testimony by Ms. Ventura about a pattern of physical abuse and drug-fueled sex marathons, the government has lined up a series of witnesses they hope will help corroborate her account for jurors.
Several witnesses, including Ms. Ventura’s mother, testified to directly witnessing Mr. Combs abusing her or to seeing the resulting bruising and swelling. Two men testified that they were paid to have sex with Ms. Ventura while Mr. Combs watched, describing for the jury the sexual choreography in hotel rooms that they said Mr. Combs directed.
The dispute between Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura over her relationship with Mr. Mescudi has become one of the central events of the trial.
Ms. Ventura testified that Mr. Combs discovered evidence of the budding romance while looking through her phone during a freak-off. She said he lunged at her with a wine bottle opener between his fingers, and then threatened to release sexually explicit videos of her and “hurt” both her and Mr. Mescudi.
“He mentioned that when we were out of the country, that Scott’s car would be blown up,” Ms. Ventura testified. “He wanted his friends to be there to see it.”
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
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