Police Seize $5M In Assets In Prostitution Sting.
Secret Service Arrests 8 Alleged Ring Leaders.

This story is another great reason to stay away from agencies. And, if you do choose to use them, never ever use a credit card.  It will be of interest if LE decides to act against any of the customers.
While tax dollars used to set up sting operations against providers & hobbyists is, in my opinion, an outrageous waste of our LE resources & $$, I can understand this.  Obviously, these folks were bilking the Gov't. out of millions of dollars in owed taxes which sounds like the major motivation for the bust.

Secret Service?  Why would they be involved in this type of bust?  The FBI maybe, but the Secret Service?  Was there counterfeiting involved?

Just the mention, continually, of the Secret Service involvement in this makes it suspect to me.

-- Modified on 8/15/2006 7:07:06 PM

From the article:
"As detectives learned the scope of the ring, they called in the U.S. Secret Service’s Inland Empire Financial Crime Task Force and other state and federal agencies to aid in the investigation."

The Feds are getting more involved these days. On 9/11/2001 the FBI was watching a brothel in New Orleans instead of protecting our nation.

The Secret Service is part of the Treasury department. They have the power to come in with guns and take stuff and investigate for the IRS. If these guys had paid their taxes they would not be in so much trouble. The government needs all the money it can find for the war.

Pay the taxes. Doesn't matter what else you do, pay the taxes.

Secret Service was originally an investigating arm of Treasury. Especially famous for running down bootleggers during prohibition. Unless Homeland Security absorbed Secret Service - which IMHO would be a disaster-in-waiting. BTW the Coast Guard was originally in Treasury (mission: catch smugglers, i.e. import duty evaders).

Today the Coast Guard is a part of the Department of Transportation (not the Defense Dept as some people think.)

It is one of three public, non-defensse agencies whose members must wear a uniform.

The Postal Service is another.

Who can guess the third?  (hint: it's headed by a kind of general.)

The TSA is non-defense and wear a uniform, but report to a Secretary - not a general.

There is also the U.S. Customs and Border Protection - a non-defense agency and another branch of Homeland Security, who wear uniforms but report to a Commisioner - not a general.

Which agency did you have in mind?

http://www.tsa.gov/graphics/images/TSA_Org_Chart.jpg
http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/organization/orgcha1.ctt/orgcha1.pdf

I got this as a trivia question but it was well before 9/11 and the whole Dept. of Homeland Security business.

In any case, the agency I was thinking of is the Office of the Surgeon General.

Remember C. Everett Koop?