Drug Enforcement Administration agents weren’t always hard at work in Colombia — rather, they were enjoying “sex parties.”
Ten DEA agents admitted to attending the “sex parties” with prostitutes hired by drug cartels in Columbia, according to a new Justice Department Inspector General report. Columbian policemen were even put on guard to provide “protection for the DEA agents’ weapons and property” during the parties, the report reveals.
The report was released Thursday after an investigation from 2009 to 2012 into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct within the DEA, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service.
The “sex parties” — by far the worst allegations in the report — took place between 2005 and 2008, but the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility only became aware of them in 2010 after an anonymous complaint.
The parties took place at the DEA agents’ government-leased quarters, the report revealed.
In addition to soliciting prostitutes, three DEA agents were “provided money, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members,” the IG found.
The IG also found the DEA, ATF and Marshals’ Service failed to report any allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment to their respective headquarters internal affairs offices.
“The gross misconduct of DEA agents follows a disturbing pattern of risky and improper behavior afflicting Homeland Security and the Department of Justice,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said in a statement. “The IG has prepared a remarkable report and the Oversight Committee will pursue this vigorously.”
