ABC News is reporting that the Secret Service officials accused of misconduct in Colombia revealed their identities by boasting at a Cartagena brothel that they worked for President Obama.
Partying at the “Pley Club” Wednesday night, eleven members of the president’s advance team allegedly bragged “we work for Obama” and “we’re here to protect him.”
The officials spent the night throwing back expensive whiskey and enlisting the services of the club’s prostitutes, according to a bouncer at the club and a police source.
Sources tell ABC News several of the men agreed to pay for, and received, services from the “highest category” prostitutes available at the club, who charge upwards of $200.
The men paid for the sexual services in advance but when it came time to settle the bill, there was a dispute over the charges.
The group became belligerent and the police were called. The argument between the officials and the bouncers from the club escalated and ultimately spilled onto the street, according to several eye witness accounts.
The police have since been directed by U.S. authorities not to comment on that night or the scandal surrounding the Secret Service, according to a senior police official in Cartagena.
Prostitution is legal in Colombia and the women who work at the Pley Club live on the premises.
The club, located on a dusty street in the industrial Bosque neighborhood, just blocks from the port, has a rough exterior but boasts plush “pley rooms” inside.
The Pley Club is a well-known brothel in this historic city. Some taxi drivers in the resort-town are paid a commission for recommending the club and its prostitutes to tourists.
The officials were in Cartagena on assignment ahead of the president’s visit for the Summit of the Americas last weekend.
The controversy surrounding the officials’ misconduct, however, overshadowed the summit last week and local residents are questioning why the city put so many resources into the international event only to be left with a tarnished reputation.
“Cartagena didn’t benefit one cent from President Obama’s visit. All people remember are that the Secret Service agents slept with our prostitutes,” said a man who works in the neighborhood.
Cedar's Take: This story is just going to get bigger. Much like the GSA extravagant government conference in Las Vegas once the ball gets rolling, all hell is going to break out. The trouble is there are hundreds of Secret Service personnel who are hard working public servants, who do their job 24/7 and are of the highest moral fiber. But as they say "one bad apple" or in this case a dozen.
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