NEW YORK — Investigators seized drugs, homemade weapons and electronic devices this week during an “interagency operation” aimed at cleaning up the troubled New York City federal prison where Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held, the Bureau of Prisons said Friday.

The contraband was identified and seized during a multi-agency sweep that began Monday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department inspector general and other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies participated in the weeklong operation.

The law enforcement operation was “planned and coordinated in advance to ensure the safety and security” of staff and inmates at the facility, the agency said. This was “part of a larger safety and security initiative and was not in response to any specific threat or intelligence.”

The fact that the sweep was not linked to Combs’ detention increased public interest in the prison. No criminal charges were filed in connection with the sweep.

While Combs’ lawyers have made repeated attempts to release him on bail while he awaits trial on sex trafficking charges next May, they have highlighted a litany of horrors in prison, including deplorable conditions, widespread violence and scores of deaths.

The hip-hop mogul’s arrest and a string of prison-related crimes in recent months have put a spotlight on MDC Brooklyn, leading to increased scrutiny and pressure from the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to address the problems and hold perpetrators accountable.

In September, 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 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.

In October, an inmate was charged in a murder-for-hire conspiracy that led to the death of a 28-year-old woman outside a New York City nightclub last December. According to prosecutors, the inmate used a smuggled cellphone to orchestrate the plot from behind bars while awaiting sentencing for directing a different shooting years earlier.

The charges offered a window into the violence and dysfunction that plagues the prison, which houses about 1,200 people, including Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange. The total number was over 1,600 in January.

The facility, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, is used primarily for post-arrest detention of people 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 violence, horrific 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.

Combs, who has been denied bail twice, is now asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for his release. Debates are scheduled for November 4.

Combs’ attorney, Mark Agnifilo, who had previously requested that he be transferred to a prison in New Jersey, said at the Oct. 10 hearing: “We’re trying MDC. MDC has been very responsive to us.”

Another Combs lawyer, Anthony Ricco, later told reporters outside the courthouse: “He is in good shape. This is a difficult situation. “He’s making the best of the situation.”

But Ricco added: “For now, it’s OK for anyone to stay in prison.”