DEA Agents Accused of Attending Cartel-Sponsored 'Sex Parties'
A congressional committee is promising to look into allegation surrounding the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 10 of whose agents the Justice Department accuses of having attended "sex parties" organized by drug cartels in Colombia, Politico reported.
The department's inspector general claimed in a report that local police officers provided "protection for the DEA agents' weapons and property during the parties" with prostitutes. Some of the officers admitted their involvement and received suspensions of two to 10 days, the Washington publication detailed.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said there should have been no doubt as to who arranged and paid for the events, according to the Washington Post.
"Although some of the DEA agents participating in these parties denied it, the information in the case file suggested they should have known the prostitutes in attendance were paid with cartel funds," Horowitz wrote in his 131-page report, which looked into claims of sexual harassment and misconduct within DEA; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Horowitz accused both the DEA and the FBI of hampering his efforts; the inspector general's investigation was "significantly impacted and unnecessarily delayed" by difficulties he had in obtaining relevant information, and when he did receive data, it "was still incomplete," he charged.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz urged the agencies to immediately fire the agents involved and promised that his panel would look into the allegations, Politico noted.
"We have to understand issue by issue what is happening. We need to understand how these people are being held accountable. There should be no question about the severity of the punishment," the congressman said. "I don't care how senior the person is, they are going to have to let these people go."
The Utah Republican said he was especially troubled by the events that allegedly took place in Colombia.
"This is terribly embarrassing and fundamentally not right," the Utah Republican said. "We need to understand what's happening with the culture ... anytime you bring a foreign national into your room, you're asking for trouble."
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