Colombian authorities have opened a preliminary investigation into the US Secret Service prostitution scandal out of concern that underage women might have been involved.
Investigators from the Colombian attorney general's office have talked with employees of the hotel where the Secret Service agents were staying, a government official said. Theyhave also questioned the taxi driver who drove home the woman whose complaint about not being adequately paid triggered the scandal. The official was not authorised to discuss the investigation and asked not to be identified by name.
Police also went to at least one of the adult entertainment clubs linked to the scandal to verify the ages of the women who worked there, a club employee said.
The Colombian probe into the ages of the women for the first time raises the possibility that some of the 21 Americans tied to the scandal - 11 Secret Service agents and 10 members of the US military - could face criminal charges in Colombia, and not just ethics complaints within their agencies in the United States. While sex for pay is legal between adults in Colombia, inducing a minor to engage in prostitution is illegal, the official said. As many as 21 women may have provided sexual services to the visiting Americans.
In the wake of the scandal, six Secret Service officers no longer work for the agency. The men had been in Cartagena as an advance team preparing for President Barack Obama's attendance at a summit of Western Hemisphere leaders last week.
Neither the club employee nor the attorney general's office would comment on the record about the investigation or the police operation at the Pleyclub, one of the late-night clubs linked to the scandal.
"Prostitution that involves adults is not a crime in Colombia, but inducing minors to engage in prostitution is a crime, and this is the reason why the government is trying to verify whether underage women participated in this," the official said.
So far, she added, officials have not found any evidence of any minors involved in the incident. One of the ways investigators have verified the women's ages was by examining information the hotel gathered from their identification cards, which women staying overnight at the hotel are required to leave at the reception desk.
Hotel executives and workers have refused to talk about the case.
The Colombian official denied reports that investigators had raided the nightclubs where young women work, but an employee at the Pleyclub said police officers had entered the club late Thursday to check women's ages.
In Colombia, a person aged 18-years and older is considered an adult.
