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The Voyage of the Granma and the Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro's Epic Sea Odyssey

AFP / Getty Images

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In November 1956, 82 Cuban rebels piled onto the small yacht Granma and set sail for Cuba to touch off the Cuban Revolution . The yacht, designed for only 12 passengers and supposedly with a maximum capacity of 25, also had to carry fuel for a week as well as food and weapons for the soldiers. Miraculously, the Granma made it to Cuba on December 2 and the Cuban rebels (including Fidel and Raul Castro, Ernesto “Ché” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos ) disembarked to start the revolution.

In 1953, Fidel Castro had led an assault on the federal barracks at Moncada , near Santiago. The attack was a failure and Castro was sent to jail. The attackers were released in 1955 by Dictator Fulgencio Batista , however, who was bowing to international pressure to release political prisoners. Castro and many of the others went to Mexico to plan the next step of the revolution. In Mexico, Castro found many Cuban exiles who wanted to see the end of the Batista regime. They began to organize the “26th of July Movement” named after the date of the Moncada assault.

Organization

In Mexico, the rebels collected arms and received training. Fidel and Raúl Castro also met two men who would play key roles in the revolution: Argentine physician Ernesto “Ché” Guevara and Cuban exile Camilo Cienfuegos. The Mexican government, suspicious of the activities of the movement, detained some of them for a while, but eventually left them alone. The group had some money, provided by former Cuban president Carlos Prío. When the group was ready, they contacted their comrades back in Cuba and told them to cause distractions on November 30, the day they would arrive.

Castro still had the problem of how to get the men to Cuba. At first, he tried to purchase a used military transport but was unable to locate one. Desperate, he purchased the yacht Granma for $18,000 of Prío’s money through a Mexican agent. The Granma, supposedly named after the grandmother of its first owner (an American), was run down, its two diesel engines in need of repair. The 13 meter (about 43 feet) yacht was designed for 12 passengers and could only fit about 20 comfortably. Castro docked the yacht in Tuxpan, on the Mexican coast.

At the end of November, Castro heard rumors that the Mexican police were planning to arrest the Cubans and possibly turn them over to Batista. Even though repairs to the Granma were not completed, he knew they had to go. On the night of November 25, the boat was loaded down with food, weapons, and fuel, and 82 Cuban rebels came on board. Another fifty or so remained behind, as there was no room for them. The boat departed silently, so as not to alert Mexican authorities. Once it was in international waters, the men on board began loudly singing the Cuban national anthem.

Rough Waters

The 1,200-mile sea voyage was utterly miserable. Food had to be rationed, and there was no room for anyone to rest. The engines were in poor repair and required constant attention. As the Granma passed Yucatan, it began taking on water, and the men had to bail until the bilge pumps were repaired: for a while, it looked as if the boat would surely sink. Seas were rough and many of the men were seasick. Guevara, a doctor, could tend to the men but he had no seasickness remedies. One man fell overboard at night and they spent an hour searching for him before he was rescued: this used up fuel they could not spare.

Arrival in Cuba

Castro had estimated the trip would take five days, and communicated to his people in Cuba that they would arrive on November 30th. The Granma was slowed by engine trouble and excess weight, however, and didn’t arrive until December 2nd. The rebels in Cuba did their part, attacking government and military installations on the 30th, but Castro and the others did not arrive. They reached Cuba on December 2nd, but it was during broad daylight and the Cuban Air Force was flying patrols looking for them. They also missed their intended landing spot by about 15 miles.

The Rest of the Story

All 82 rebels reached Cuba, and Castro decided to head for the mountains of the Sierra Maestra where he could regroup and contact sympathizers in Havana and elsewhere. In the afternoon of December 5th, they were located by a large army patrol and attacked by surprise. The rebels were immediately scattered, and over the next few days most of them were killed or captured: less than 20 made it to the Sierra Maestra with Castro.

The handful of rebels who survived the Granma trip and ensuing massacre became Castro’s inner circle, men he could trust, and he built his movement around them. By the end of 1958, Castro was ready to make his move: the despised Batista was driven out and the revolutionaries marched into Havana in triumph.

The Granma itself was retired with honor. After the triumph of the revolution, it was brought to Havana harbor. Later it was preserved and put on display.

Today, the Granma is a sacred symbol of the Revolution. The province where it landed was divided, creating the new Granma Province. The official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party is called Granma. The spot where it landed was made into the Landing of the Granma National Park, and it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site , although more for marine life than historical value. Every year, Cuban schoolchildren board a replica of the Granma and re-trace its voyage from the coast of Mexico to Cuba.

Resources and Further Reading

• Castañeda, Jorge C. Compañero: the Life and Death of Che Guevara. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.
• Coltman, Leycester. The Real Fidel Castro. New Haven and London: the Yale University Press, 2003.
• A Brief History of the Cuban Revolution
• Biography of Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban Revolutionary
• Biography of Raul Castro
• Key Players in the Cuban Revolution
• Biography of Fulgencio Batista, Cuban President and Dictator
• Biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, Revolutionary Leader
• Cuban Revolution: Assault on the Moncada Barracks
• Biography of Fidel Castro, President of Cuba for 50 Years
• Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion
• A Short History of the Chinese in Cuba
• Biography of José Martí, Cuban Poet, Patriot, Revolutionary
• Civil Wars and Revolutions in Latin American History
• Most Impressive Facial Hair in the History of Latin America
• US and Cuba Have History of Complex Relations
• The 10 Most Important Events in the History of Latin America
• USS Maine Explosion and the Spanish-American War

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Granma Yacht: the vessel which brought the Cuban Revolution in Cuba

On November 1956, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Castro’s brother, Raul Castro, along with 80 other fighters, departed from the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz and headed to Cuba on the yacht “Granma.” The 60-foot (18 meters) diesel-powered cabin cruiser, originally designed for twelve people, brought the Cuban revolutionaries who overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista.

The cruiser was built in 1943, and it is said that it was originally named after the grandmother of the original owner. However, the revolutionaries called the yacht simply “Granma,” as an affectionate term for a grandmother. The yacht was purchased only a month before the revolution, on the 10th October 1956. It was bought from the United States for MX$ 50,000 (US$15,000), through a gun dealer Antonio “The Friend” del Conde from Mexico City.

Castro’s initial plan for crossing the Gulf of Mexico was to purchase a US naval crash rescue boat or a Catalina flying boat maritime aircraft. However, he wasn’t able to realize his idea due to the lack of funds. The money for the “Granma” yacht was donated to the revolution by the former Cuban President Carlos Prío Socarrás and Teresa Casuso Morín, a prominent Cuban intellectual, and writer, who fought for freedom and democracy in Cuba.

The Cuban Revolutionaries, later known as “Los expedicionarios del yate Granma” (“The Granma yacht expeditioners”) set out from Tuxpan shortly after midnight, on the 25th November. For more than a week, the members of the expedition experienced sea-sickness, diminishing supplies, and a leaking craft until the 2nd December, when the 82 revolutionaries arrived on Playa Las Coloradas, municipality of Niquero, today known as Granma Province. The location was chosen by the Cuban national hero, Jose Marti.

The site was chosen by the Cuban national hero, Jose Marti. He had landed at the very same location 61 years earlier, during the independence wars from the Spanish colonial rule. The yacht was navigated by Castro’s ally and the Cuban Navy veteran, Norberto Collado Abreu.

Here’s what Che Guevara has written about the landing: “We reached solid ground, lost, stumbling along like so many shadows or ghosts marching in response to some obscure psychic impulse. We had been through seven days of constant hunger and sickness during the sea crossing, topped by three still more terrible days on land. Exactly ten days after our departure from Mexico, during the early morning hours of December 5th, following a night-long march interrupted by fainting and frequent rest periods, we reached a spot paradoxically known as Alegría de Pío (Rejoicing of the Pious)”. Ernesto “Che” Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present) by Douglas Kellner, 1989, Chelsea House Publishers, pg 40.

After the triumph of the revolution on 1st January 1959, the yacht was transferred to Havana Bay and its pilot, Norberto Collado Abreu, got the job of guarding and preserving the cabin cruiser. Since 1976, the “Granma” is on permanent display in a glass enclosure at the Granma Memorial adjacent to the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.

The location of the Granma landing, Playa Las Coloradas, was declared “Granma National Park,” a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, for its natural habitat.

Read another story from us: CIA attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro on 638 occasions

On 2nd December, when Cuba celebrates the “Day of the Cuban Armed Forces,” a replica of the vessel has been paraded at state functions to commemorate the original revolutionary voyage. Granma is also the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. As a matter of fact, the name has become an icon of the Cuban communism.

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Cuba’s Granma Yacht: 65 Years since its Historic Voyage

By Alejandra Garcia on December 2, 2021

photo: Juvenal Balán

On December 2, 1956, the Granma yacht arrived in Cuba at Las Coloradas beach, in the eastern part of the island, after a seven-day voyage that began in Mexican waters. On more than one occasion during the trip, the 82 Cuban expedition members, led by Fidel Castro, believed that the small ship would not reach its final destination.

On November 25 of that year, the small wooden yacht, built-in 1943, set sail down the Tuxpan River towards the Gulf of Mexico. It was close to two o’clock in the morning, and barely a soul could be seen. It sailed with its lights off and in absolute silence to avoid the attention of the Mexican guards. The darkness and the sacks of oranges that were placed on the bow did not let them see the course of the boat, and they almost took a detour, which would have taken them away from the open sea.

Fortunately, the revolutionaries corrected the route, and the Granma yacht advanced through the wide Tuxpan river with the expeditionaries piled almost on top of each other. Raúl Castro, brother of the Cuban leader, wrote down every detail of those first hours aboard the Granma: “We left at full speed while we saw just a few lights of the city of Tuxpan”.

Historian Heberto Norman Acosta added other little-known details in an article published recently in Cubadebate: “When the ship was far enough away from Mexico’s mainland, the lights were turned on, and the 82 expedition members excitedly sang the National Anthem. How happy Fidel and the rest of the expedition members must have been when they saw themselves already on their way to Cuba.”

The first days of the journey were the most difficult ones. The Argentine doctor Ernesto (Che) Guevara, in his “Pasajes de la Guerra” (Passages of the war), related what happened onboard the yacht once it reached the turbulent waters of the gulf.

“The instability of the waters made most of the crew sick. The whole ship looked ridiculously tragic: men with anguish on their faces, clutching their stomachs. Some had their heads stuck in a bucket, and others were lying in the strangest positions, immobile and with their clothes soiled by vomit. Except for two or three sailors and four or five others, the rest of the eighty-two crewmen were seasick,” he described.

While this was happening, the lower cabins began to fill with water due to a malfunction in the vessel. Raul wrote in his diary: “The yacht was about to sink, as it was taking on a lot of water and the turbine was unable to drain it. We were bailing it out with buckets. The helmsman told Fidel that we had to go ashore. Fidel said we had to continue even though we were sinking. The swells were higher than the ship.”

Years later, Fidel recalled those hours of despair, “We were not going to stop because of a storm nor by the risk of sinking. Nothing would hold us back or turn our course away from Cuba. We could sink on the way. But we were not going to turn back.”

After a frantic hours-long battle, they noticed that the water had begun to recede little by little because humidity expanded the wood and allowed the water to stop coming in.

The last of the challenges they had to face was the moment when a man fell into the water, just as they were sighting Cuban land from the southern waters of the Caribbean Sea.

At the cry of “Man overboard!” Fidel gave orders to stop the stop the course and maneuver to rescue the comrade. One of the expedition members, Pedro Sotto Alba, wrote in his diary: “At about one o’clock in the morning, Roque was holding on to the yacht’s antenna, and in a moment of swell he fell into the sea, antenna and all. No matter how fast he got afloat, he was already far away”.

The boat didn’t go anywhere until their comrade was rescued. It was about three-quarters of an hour of going in circles trying to find him. They managed to scan him through the choppy waves by the faint light of a flashlight.

Shortly after the rescue, the disembarkation would begin, which happened two days later than planned. The arrival of the 82 revolutionaries on the eastern side of Cuba changed the course of the island forever. That December 2, the words Fidel said shortly before setting sail on that small yacht full of men from a dock in Tuxpan were fulfilled: “If I leave Mexico, I will arrive in Cuba; If I arrive, I’ll enter; If I enter, I’ll triumph.” And so he did.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

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Granma - Granma Memorial

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All the displays were located outdoors except for the yacht, Granma, which is housed in... read more

Granma is the yacht that was used to transport the fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to... read more

After you go through the Museum of the Revolution, this area has many boats, cars, planes that you can walk around and get really close to. You can see much of it from outside the gates as you're walking through the city, but if you want an up close view, it's worth it to pay admission to the museum so you can walk over to the Granma memorial area.

In the space behind the Museum of the Revolution, you'll find the Pavillón Granma, containing a replica of the 18m yacht that carried Fidel Castro and 81 other revolutionaries from Tuxpán, Mexico, to Cuba in December 1956. The boat is encased in glass and guarded 24/7. The pavilion is surrounded by other vehicles associated with the revolution, including planes, rockets and an old postal van used as a getaway car during the 1957 attack.

This memorial has many important Cuban Historical artifacts. Inside the glass walls is Fidel Castros boat (Granma). There are a lot of military artifacts on display

if you want to learn more about Cuba's history, then go to this museum. you can see some of the Cuban revolution artefacts from the outside, but it's a good idea to pay the fee and see them in more detail. the museum is quite big but it's signposted in a way that you can see all the exhibitions. the exhibitions however are not easy to read. Also, they ask you to leave your bags at the reception.

A glass enclosure behind the Museo de la Revolucion house the Granma, the yatch that transported Castro and 81 guerrillas back to Cuba from exi6in Mexico. It nearly foundered during the week long crossing it eventually ran aground at Oriente Province in Eastern Cuba. The park around the yatch is filled with military tanks,jeeps, and delivery trucks used in the 1957 assault on the Palacio Presidencial.

Castro's boat - called the Granma- which took him and his fellow revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba is enclosed in a glass building in a small park opposite the Museum of Revolution. The boat still looks pristine white but appears on the small side - more like a fishing vessel than a yacht. Difficult to get a good photo of it due to reflections in the glass. To get a close up view of this boat and a sample of 15 military vehicles used in Cuba's revolution pay the price of admission to the museum - 8CUC. The park which displays the boat and the military vehicles is fenced with a chest high picket type fence which allows passerbys on the surrounding sidewalk to view these vehicles, but only at a distance. There is quite a contrast of military vehicles on display from a bullet holed panel delivery truck used in the assassination attempt of Baptista to a small rudimentary tank welded together in a sugar plantation. Castro's tank is included in the display along with a couple of jeeps, small airplanes, and pieces of a crashed US plane. Seeing a missile on display was a surprise. Information boards beside each vehicle provided basic information explaining its use or why it was on display. The young guards stationed in the park do not speak English. Visitors can walk around these vehicles, take photos, but not climb into or ontop of them. To exit the park visitors must return inside the museum. Entrance to this park is only through the museum. This museum and park are only a 17 minute walk from the cruise ship pier. After showing customs our Cuba Visa (necessary for passengers arriving on a ship leaving from US), we wandered around old Havana visiting attractions of our choice without difficulty. There was no need to stay in a group. Cuban exchange kiosks are available in the terminal - very convenient, as CUCs are needed to pay for anything in the city.

Ashes of Italian expeditionary of Granma yacht to be taken to Cuba (+Photo)

• November 25, 2023

Papacci told Prensa Latina that he would fulfill Doné’s last wish that his remains be buried in Cuba.

The ashes of the Italian expedition member are expected to be placed in the Pantheon to the Fighters of the Cuban Revolution at Havana’s Colón Cemetery on December 2, on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of the landing of the Granma yacht, he said.

The Italian delegation will also consist of former ANAIC President Irma Dioli, other directors of the group, including Marco Fantechi and Alma Masé, and Gino Done’s great-grandson, Ivan Cadamuro.

Other members of the group will be former Senators Vito Petroccelli, from the Five-Star Movement and president of the Italy-Bricks Institute; Emanuele Dessi, from the Communist Party and head of the Association for the New International Order; and Mattia Crucioli, from the Alternative Party and leader of the Association United for the Constitution.

Doné was born in Monastier on May 18, 1924, and died in San Dona di Piave municipality in Venice on March 22, 2008. He fought as a partisan against Nazi fascism during World War II and moved to Cuba in the 1950s, where he joined the revolutionary struggle.

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• # ashes # Cuba # expeditionary # Gino Doné # Granma yacht # italy

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Bianca censori looks completely naked under condom-style dress with kanye, bianca censori latest 'fit rubber-stamped by ye ... 'condom'-style dress 😅.

Bianca Censori seems to be telegraphing a positive message about safe sex -- that is, if you see what we see with her latest outfit ... which looks very latex-y, if you catch our drift.

The ex-architect was out with Kanye West Sunday -- grabbing dinner at Bacari in Silver Lake, CA ... and stepping out afterward in this little number, which once again made a bold fashion statement. As you can see, she's in a see-through dress -- and yes, she appears to be naked underneath.

Nothing new there, per se, but what is eye-popping this time around is what exactly she's wrapped in -- on its face, it resembles a plastic shower curtain ... or, realistically, a condom.

Indeed ... BC is looking like a walking ad for Trojan -- and you gotta wonder if it's intentional, or just a coincidence. In any case -- there's certainly a provocative image being projected.

Ye let his lady steal the scene, per usual ... covering up in a full black outfit as they strolled hand-in-hand. His outfit was more of the same ... it's Bianca who always stands out here.

Definitely no kids around either of them this time around -- and like we said, Bianca is straight up baring it all these days. Kinda makes ya wonder about the indecent exposure laws that exist -- and whether anyone thinks she's violating them by wearing this in public.

On the surface, it doesn't seem like anyone's making a fuss whenever she's out and about. So ... keep on keeping on, we suppose!

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs' son accused of sex assault in lawsuit that also names music mogul as defendant

LOS ANGELES — Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is a subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation , has been named as a defendant in a new lawsuit that alleges his son sexually assaulted a woman while she was working on a yacht the music mogul had chartered for a trip at the end of 2022. 

The allegation is the latest in a wave of lawsuits accusing Combs , 54, of sexual assault, sexual trafficking and engaging in other criminal activity. He has denied all the allegations, calling them sickening.

In the suit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Grace O’Marcaigh alleges that Christian Combs, 26, sexually assaulted her in late December 2022 while she was working on a boat charter that had been “sold as a wholesome family excursion” but turned into a “hedonistic environment.” 

The alleged assault happened just days before Sean Combs hosted a New Year’s Eve yacht party with a long list of celebrity guests . 

Christian Combs is accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment and infliction of emotional distress in the lawsuit. Sean Combs is being sued for premises liability as the person who chartered the yacht and for aiding and abetting his son in the alleged assault. 

A lawyer for the father and son called Thursday's suit "lewd and meritless" and said it was "filled with the same kind of manufactured lies and irrelevant facts we’ve come to expect" from O’Marcaigh's lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn.

The lawyer, Aaron Dyer, said his legal team plans on filing a motion to dismiss the suit.

 “Like father, like son," Blackburn said Thursday night after the suit was filed. "It gives us no joy or pleasure in filing this suit against Christian Combs who has clearly adopted his father’s pattern and practice of depravity."

In the yacht studio

In her suit, O’Marcaigh alleges that Christian Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her. She included transcriptions of audio clips that she states are evidence of her denying his advances as he gropes her. The suit states that the clips were recorded by a producer in the studio. 

O’Marcaigh, who was 25 at the time of the alleged assault, worked as a steward providing dinner and drink service on the yacht from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and witnessed partying and drug use between a “constant rotation of suspected sex workers” and celebrities, the suit states. She also alleges in the complaint that she suspected bottles of alcohol were laced with drugs because women began to fall over themselves, panic or pass out after just one drink. 

Around Dec. 28, 2022, O’Marcaigh was informed that Christian Combs would be joining the party to record with music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones in the yacht’s makeshift studio, the suit states. 

Christian Combs had been staying on shore at a villa, but often joined his father in the evenings, according to the suit. The woman’s suit alleges that he arrived “heavily intoxicated” and that he paid an inappropriate amount of attention to her. 

Christian then pressured O’Marcaigh to take shots of tequila that she believes he brought onboard, according to the suit.

After she took the shot, O’Marcaigh states in the lawsuit, Christian Combs became aggressive and insisted she drink more. 

O’Marcaigh became fearful and began to feel the effect of the tequila, which she “quickly suspected” had been spiked, the suit states. 

The situation “escalated” as Christian Combs groped O’Marcaigh’s legs, breast, anus and vagina, the suit states. The suit details audio recordings in which it states O’Marcaigh can be heard declining alcohol, saying she had to leave, and telling Christian Combs to stop touching her with what sounds like kissing noises in the background.

The audio was recorded by Jones, the producer who was in the studio during the alleged assault and who has alleged in his own lawsuit that he was required to record Sean Combs “constantly” and had hours of footage in which the music mogul and his staff allegedly engaged in criminal conduct. 

NBC News has heard two clips of audio transcribed in the suit purportedly from the night of Dec. 28, 2022, but has not verified who was recorded. 

“Excuse me, you don’t touch my legs like that. I’ll move my legs where I want to,” O’Marcaigh is heard saying in the recording detailed in the suit. “If I want to do this, then I will. You don’t touch my legs like that.” 

“Listen, you and everybody in the crew,” Christian Combs allegedly replies. 

“I can’t, I have to go down,” O’Marcaigh says. “I have to go down.”

Christian Combs then insists that O’Marcaigh stay with him, but she responds that she cannot unless he makes that request to a crew leader, the suit states, citing the audio recording. 

O’Marcaigh answered this way because she knew “anyone of authority” who could approve the request would be asleep and Christian Combs would not be able to contact them, the suit states. 

“Who can I talk to? I’m going to say I requested you right now,” Christian Combs said, according to the suit.  

“Well, you can take your hand off my ass for the first thing,” O’Marcaigh responded. 

O’Marcaigh then attempted to resume her duties and finish her shift once she was able to leave the studio, the suit states. Christian Combs allegedly found her a short time later and insisted she find him a place to sleep.

She directed him to the yacht cinema, which was used as an extra sleeping area, where he blocked her in, the suit states. 

Christian Combs allegedly began to grope her and took off his clothes. 

“His penis was erect, and he grabbed her arms and was trying to force PLAINTIFF to perform oral sex on him,” the suit states. 

The suit includes photos of bruising on O’Marcaigh’s forearm and alleges it was caused when Christian Combs grabbed her. 

O’Marcaigh fought him off until someone else walked in, according to the suit. 

Since the alleged attack

The alleged assault had a deep impact on O’Marcaigh’s mental health as well as her professional and personal lives, the suit said. When O’Marcaigh complained to the yacht captain the next day, the suit alleges, the captain did not believe her and failed to investigate.

She alleges that the captain retaliated against her until she was terminated in May 2023. 

Her mental health deteriorated, and the woman had anxiety and panic attacks as well as severe suicidal ideations, the suit said. O’Marcaigh alleges that the emotional strain affected her physical health and that she developed an eating disorder and seizures following the assault. 

She is seeking unspecified damages. 

"I am here to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves and I applaud Grace for being so brave to come forward with her truth," attorney Rodney S. Diggs said of his client. "Hopefully her story will inspire others to come forward."

Allegations and investigation 

O’Marcaigh’s suit is the first to accuse Christian Combs of sexual assault. Since November, his father, Sean Combs, has been accused in lawsuits of sexual assault by four women, which he has repeatedly denied. 

One of those suits has been settled , and the others have not been resolved.  

Jones, a producer who worked for Sean Combs from September 2022 to November 2023, alleged the rapper sexually harassed him, pressured him to engage in sexual acts and forced him to procure sex workers. He said he witnessed Sean Combs giving drinks laced with drugs to people at parties. 

An attorney for Combs said Jones’ “reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines.”

On March 25, agents with Homeland Security Investigations searched Sean Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami. A source familiar with the investigation told NBC News that a federal investigation began before this year and that authorities were aware of the layout of Combs’ properties before the raids. 

During the searches last month, federal agents discovered guns and seized his phones as part of a warrant issued from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, law enforcement sources have said. Christian Combs was detained at his father’s Los Angeles home last month when Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant, but he was not arrested. 

Investigators are also looking into allegations of statutory rape against Sean Combs, the source said. 

NBC News previously reported that at least three women and one man have been interviewed by federal investigators in relation to allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms. 

Aaron Dyer, one of Combs’ attorneys, issued a statement following last month’s property searches and said that Combs “was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities.” He described the search as an ambush, saying there’s been a rush to judgment based on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”

“There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations,” Dyer said. “Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”

Diana Dasrath reported from Los Angeles and Doha Madani reported from New York.

Diana Dasrath is entertainment producer and senior reporter for NBC News covering all platforms.

Doha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.