text: Most of the Secret Service agents embroiled in a prostitution scandal brought women back to their Colombia hotel rooms before President Obama arrived in town for an international summit, Rep. Pete King said Saturday. 
   
   King said the raunchy rendezvous involved 11 agents and went sour when an agent refused to pay one of the women, who were presumed to be hookers. 
   
   “The agent said, ‘I don't owe you anything,’ but gave the woman some money,” said King (R-L.I.),the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the matter. “I don't know how much, and it was settled right there.” 
   
   IN COLOMBIA, THE SEX BUSINESS IS SO BIG THAT SOME CALL IT THE 'THAILAND OF LATIN AMERICA' 
   
   As it turned out, the agents’ troubles were just beginning. Local cops were called to the hotel in Cartagena and, because the matter involved foreigners, a report was written up and sent to the U.S. Embassy, King said. 
   
   Embassy officials in turn notified the Secret Service, which immediately launched an investigation. 
   
   At least one supervisor was among the agents involved, King said. He was not certain exactly how many women were involved. 
   
   The scandal — a black eye for the United States’ reputation abroad — was revealed Friday just hours before President Obama arrived in Cartagena. 
   
   The 11 agents were part of an advance team assigned to secure a local hotel before the summit began, yet their attention apparently turned to taking advantage of Colombia’s policy of legal prostitution. 
   
   Five American service members were also accused of misconduct stemming from the scandalous incident at the hotel, according to the U.S. military. 
   
   “They had arranged to have a bunch of prostitutes come by and one of the agents refused to pay a prostitute,” said author Ronald Kessler, one of the leading experts on the Secret Service. “Yes, doubly good judgment there.” 
   
   Fernando Vergara/AP 
   
   Kessler, who was briefed on the investigation by his sources within the agency, told the Daily News Saturday that the spurned hooker told police about the lack of payment. 
   
   The 11 agents were immediately recalled to Washington. 
   
   “Their careers are over,” said Kessler. 
   
   “Number one, it is against basic ethics to go to a prostitute,” he continued. “Number two, it is incredibly embarrassing to the White House.” 
   
   “And number three,” he continued. “It could leave them open to blackmail and a possible assassination attempt.” 
   
   Obama still has “full confidence” in the Secret Service, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, who declared late Saturday that the incident “has been more of a distraction for the press” than the President. 
   
   Kessler said two of the agents were supervisors who attempted to cover up the mortifying incident. 
   
   The agents were staying at the beachfront Hotel Caribe, which is also hosting the White House staff and the traveling press team. 
   
   Guests at the swanky hotel told reporters that several of the agents had been spotted drinking heavily during their weeklong stay. 
   
   Details of the incident remain murky, but U.S. officials believe one agent took a woman back to his room Wednesday night and threw her out in a dispute over money. 
   
   The woman caused a commotion in the hallway, getting the attention of local cops and other Secret Service agents, a senior official told The New York Times. 
   
   Though it was not known if all 11 members of the Secret Service team are suspected of wrongdoing, they were all recalled as part of the investigation. Several of the agents are married, according to reports. 
   
   Prostitution is legal in Colombia, as long as it is conducted in so-called “tolerance zones.” 
   
   Though the exact boundaries of the zones frequently change and are rarely enforced by police, the coastal city of Cartagena is a popular destination for prostitution and sex tourism. 
   
   Hookers can easily be procured online or in bars or hotels in much of the city. It was not clear how the agents met the women involved in the incident. 
   
   The scandal threatened to overshadow President Obama’s visit to the important summit. He landed in Cartagena Friday night and attended a formal dinner with the other world leaders at Castillo San Felipe de Barajasajas, an historic Spanish fortress. 
   
   The President, who had a full day of summit events Saturday, has not addressed the Secret Service scandal. He is not staying at the Hotel Caribe. 
   
   The Secret Service did not elaborate on the allegations Saturday. The night before, the agency — which is charged with protecting the President — simply confirmed that the officers were pulled back to Washington. 
   
   All of the agents are based in Washington, D.C., according to Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.” 
   
   The matter was turned over to the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles the Secret Services’ internal affairs. 
   
   With Mark Morales 
   
   jlemire@nydailynews.com 
   
   
   
   Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| An embarrassing scandal involving prostitutes and Secret Service agents deepened Saturday as 11 agents were placed on leave, and the agency designed to protect President Barack Obama had to offer regret for the mess overshadowing his diplomatic mission to Latin America. 
   
   President Barack Obama sits in front of a large video screen displaying an image of a U.S. national flag during a three-way conversation with Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and Colombia's President... (Associated Press) 
   
   People walk past Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, Saturday April 14, 2012. The Secret Service sent home some of its agents for misconduct that occurred at the hotel before President Barack Obama's... (Associated Press) 
   
   President Barack Obama applauds as Colombian singer Shakira arrives, below, as Uruguay's President Jose Mujica stands behind during the arrival ceremony at the sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena,... (Associated Press) 
   
   President Barack Obama smiles to people in the audience taking his picture during the arrival ceremony at the sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, Saturday April 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn... (Associated Press) 
   
   The controversy also expanded to the U.S. military, which announced five service members staying at the same hotel as the agents in Colombia may have been involved in misconduct as well. They were confined to their quarters in Colombia and ordered not to have contact with others. 
   
   All the alleged activities took place before Obama arrived Friday in this Colombian port city for meetings with 33 other regional leaders. 
   
   Put together, the allegations were an embarrassment for an American president on foreign soil and threatened to upend White House efforts to keep his trip focused squarely on boosting economic ties with fast-growing Latin America. Obama was holding two days of meetings at the Summit of the Americas with leaders from across the vast region before heading back to Washington Sunday night. 
   
   The Secret Service did not disclose the nature of the misconduct. The Associated Press confirmed on Friday that it involved prostitutes. 
   
   The White House said Obama had been briefed about the incidents but would not comment on his reaction. 
   
   "The president does have full confidence in the United States Secret Service," presidential spokesman Jay Carney said when asked. 
   
   Carney insisted the matter was more a distraction for the media than Obama. But Secret Service assistant director Paul Morrissey said in a statement: "We regret any distraction from the Summit of the Americas this situation has caused." 
   
   Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the AP after he was briefed on the investigation on Saturday that "close to" all 11 of the agents involved had brought women back to their rooms at a hotel separate from where Obama is now staying. 
   
   The New York Republican said the women were "presumed to be prostitutes" but investigators were interviewing the agents. 
   
   The lawmaker also offered new details about the controversy. 
   
   King said he was told that anyone visiting the hotel overnight was required to leave identification at the front desk and leave the hotel by 7 a.m. When a woman failed to do so, it raised questions among hotel staff and police, who investigated. They found the woman with the agent in the hotel room and a dispute arose over whether the agent should have paid her. 
   
   King said he was told that the agent did eventually pay the woman. 
   
   The incident was reported to the U.S. embassy, prompting further investigation, King said 
   
   The 11 employees in question were special agents and Uniformed Division Officers. None were assigned to directly protect Obama. All were sent home and replaced, Morrissey said, given "the nature of the allegations" and a zero tolerance policy on personal misconduct. 
   
   The Secret Service says the incidents have had no bearing on its ability to provide security for Obama's stay in Colombia. 
   
   Another jolt came Saturday when the U.S. Southern Command said five service members assigned to support the Secret Service violated their curfew and may have been involved in inappropriate conduct. Carney said it was part of the same incident involving the Secret Service. 
   
   As for the apparent misconduct by the military members, Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said he was "disappointed by the entire incident" and said the behavior was "not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military." 
   
   Col. Scott Malcom, chief of public affairs for Southern Command, said of the five service members: "The only misconduct I can confirm is that they were violating the curfew established. He said he had seen the news reports about the Secret Service agents involved in alleged prostitution at the hotel but could not confirm whether the service members also were involved. 
   
   The military is investigating. 
   
   The Secret Service agents at the center of the allegations had stayed at Cartagena's five-star Hotel Caribe. Several members of the White House staff and press corps subsequently stayed at the hotel. 
   
   King credited the Secret Service director for acting quickly to remove the agents in question and replace them before Obama's arrival. 
   
   A hotel employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said the agents arrived at the beachfront hotel about a week ago and said the agents left the hotel Thursday, a day before Obama and other regional leaders arrived for the weekend summit. 
   
   Three waiters interviewed by the AP at the hotel described the agents as drinking heavily during their stay. 
   
   On Friday, the hotel began filling up with the delegations of some of the more than 30 countries whose leaders are convening for the weekend Summit of the Americas. 
   
   The hotel's public relations director, Ana Beatriz Angel, refused to comment on the incident, which she said "concerns only and exclusively the U.S. government." 
   
   On the steamy streets of Cartagena, a resort city with a teeming prostitution trade, there was condemnation for the Secret Service agents for what residents saw as abusing their station and dishonoring their country. 
   
   Edwin Yepes, a souvenir vendor, said "they are supposed to come here and set an example. We are an inferior culture, and so it's better if they don't come than if they damage our image of them." 
   
   ___ 
   
   Associated Press writers Ken Thomas and Ben Feller in Washington, Frank Bajak and Pedro Mendoza in Cartagena and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this story.
target: – The Secret Service prostitution scandal that's threatening to overshadow the Summit of the Americas came to light after one agent refused to pay one of the women involved, reports the New York Daily News. “The agent said, ‘I don't owe you anything,’ but gave the woman some money,” says Rep. Peter King, who as head of the House Homeland Security Committee, has been briefed. The agents, part of an advance team that was supposed to secure President Obama's hotel, were caught with prostitutes in their hotel rooms, and the dispute caused a disturbance that got local police involved. “Number one, it is against basic ethics to go to a prostitute. Number two, it is incredibly embarrassing to the White House,” says one insider, who added that the agents' careers are probably over. “Yes, doubly good judgment there.” Eleven agents have been placed on leave in the incident, notes the AP, and another five military personnel have been accused of similar misconduct after violating curfew. None of the Secret Service agents involved were directly responsible for Obama's protection. A Secret Service rep has apologized "for any distraction."