Secret Service agents sent to Colombia forward of President Barack Obama were relieved of duty and returned native soil amid allegations of bad behavior, a spokesman held.
The confrontation -- supposedly connected to involvement with prostitutes in Cartagena -- overshadowed the start of the sixth Summit of the Americas, everyplace the president was to focus on trade, energy and regional security.
Before the president's arrival, an undisclosed integer of Secret Service agents were relieved of duty and replaced, held Edwin Donovan, an agency spokesman.
"There produce been allegations of bad behavior made hostile to the Secret Service in Cartagena, Colombia, past to the president's fall," Donovan held in a statement.
"Because of this, folks personnel are being relieved of their assignments, returned to their place of duty, and are being replaced by other Secret Service personnel. The Secret Service takes all allegations of bad behavior acutely."
The allegations involved prostitution, according to Ronald Kessler, a previous Washington Post reporter and author of "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect."
"One of the agents did not wage solitary of the prostitutes, and she complained to the supervise," Kessler held.
Calling it "clearly the biggest scandal in Secret Service history," Kessler held 12 agents are accused of involvement in the confrontation "in solitary degree or an alternative," from allegedly interfering in the investigation to participating in other alleged bad behavior.
Kessler did not identify to CNN who provided him with details of the investigation, and CNN may perhaps not the minute confirm the assertion.
The Washington Post, which was the paramount to description the story, held it was alerted to the investigation by Kessler.
Donovan declined to identify the nature of the alleged bad behavior, maxim just to the concern was being crooked on to the agency's in-house affairs specialty.
Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, told The Washington Post to the accusations relate to next to slightest solitary agent having involvement with prostitutes in Cartagena.
A spokesman pro Colombia's National Police declined to comment, referring questions to the Secret Service.
The president here in the Colombian coastal resort city Friday, a visit to will mark the a good number spell a U.S. President has spent in to nation, everyplace security concerns had imperfect preceding presidential trips.
Amid the reports to Secret Service agents were being replaced, two small blasts occurred just about back-to-back in Cartagena.
The explosions, solitary bordering on a truck station and an alternative bordering on a shopping shopping mall, occurred well away from everyplace the the human race leaders were gathering pro the start of the summit, held Alberto Cantihho Toncell, a spokesman pro the Colombia National Police.
There were refusal casualties, and just minor injury was reported, Toncell held.
The explosions came on the heels of a related solitary earlier in the daylight bordering on the U.S. Embassy in the investment city of Bogota, the system held.
The blasts were a reminder of the violence to has gripped Colombia as it battled powerful cocaine drug cartels. Violence has significantly fallen sour in latest years as the Bogota government, aided by U.S. Banishment labors, has successfully chosen apart the cartels.
Added than 7,600 supervise officers and thousands more troops produce been deployed in the walled majestic city of Cartagena as part of stepped up security pro the summit.
Submarines are patrolling in the coastal waters bordering on the city, armed helicopters are balanced next to the lay out and snipers in strategic locations are watching pro suspicious leisure interest, officials held sooner than the summit's start. Anti-explosive robots and radiation detectors are additionally part of the security particularize.
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