Sex parties with prostitutes in Columbia.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The under-fire head of the Drug Enforcement Administration Michele Leonhart will resign next month, announced Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday.
Aside from taking a hard-line stance and butting heads with the Obama administration over drug policy, she was also the focal point of a slew of bipartisan criticism regarding the disciplining of DEA agents who participated in “sex parties” with prostitutes in Columbia. Agents were also found to have had sex parties with women hired by drug cartels, according to The Washington Post.
Politicians from both sides of the party aisle have castigated Leonhart after it was revealed that none of the DEA agents involved in the so-called sex parties were fired or even significantly punished after the Department of Justice released its report last month.
“The misconduct occurred for several years while these special agents held Top Secret clearances,” the report states. “Many of these agents were alleged to have engaged in this high-risk sexual behavior while at their government-leased quarters, raising the possibility that DEA equipment and information also may have been compromised as a result of the agents’ conduct.”
The DEA inspector told the Inspector General that it was “common for prostitutes to be present at business meetings involving cartel members and foreign officers.” The report also indicates DEA officials stonewalled the DOJ investigators looking into the issue.
Conversely, in an interview with the Huffington Post, former agency chief Peter Bensinger opined the sexual misconduct allegations did not serve as the true catalyst for Leonhart’s departure.
“This was an incident that was used as a rallying point by the people who were opposed to her positions,” Bensinger claimed. “It’s about marijuana which is illegal in all 50 states under federal law, it’s about our International Treaty obligations, it’s about the Asset Forfeiture Law, and minimum sentencing for serious drug offenses.”
At the other end of the spectrum — in a statement to Bloomberg, Mason Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project, said that Leonhart’s abdication “is a sign that the ‘Reefer Madness’ era is coming to an end at the DEA,” elaborating that she “maintained an opinion about marijuana akin to the opinion people had back in the ’30s.”