CARTAGENA, Colombia - ABC News has learned exclusively 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.
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