A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting President Barack Obama in the Netherlands was reportedly found passed out drunk in a hallway of an Dutch hotel, one of three agents sent home for "disciplinary reasons".
The Washington Post reported that one of the men had been so inebriated he had been unable to make it back to his hotel room. He was found unconscious by the staff at the Huis Ter Duin Hotel in Noordwijk, a resort close to the Hague.
The other two are believed to have been disciplined for not intervening. Agents are forbidden to drink alcohol in the 10 hours leading up to an assignment.
President Barack Obama Obama at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Netherlands
WaPo said the trio belonged to the Counter Assault Team, tasked with the personal protection of the president, and said one had been a team leader.
A Secret Service spokesman told the BBC the three had been put on administrative leave, and an investigation was pending.
Spokesman Ed Donovan said the latest incident happened before the US president arrived in the Netherlands for a nuclear security summit, and that his security had never been compromised.
The scandal follows a damaging story from April 2012 when several agents were dismissed for hiring prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia in the days before the President's arrival there.