TAMPA- U .S. Attorney Paul I. Perez and Special Agent-in-Charge Frank Figueroa, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced today the arrests of seven individuals for conspiracy to transport individuals for sexual activity. An additional 43 individuals were administratively arrested for being illegal aliens. The arrests were made late Saturday afternoon. Search warrants were executed simultaneously in Orange, Polk and Hillsborough counties. More than $32,000 in cash was seized, as well as jewelry and two luxury vehicles, a 2000 Jaguar and a 2003 Mercedes Benz.

Tens days later, on October 25th, Special Agent-in-Charge Frank Figueroa was arrested in an Orlando shopping mall.

Back on Valentine's Day the Tampa Tribune reported on the disturbing incident:

When an Orlando mall security officer responded to a complaint about a man exposing himself to a girl in the food court, the suspect hurried out of the mall and ran through the parking lot.

The suspect was Frank Figueroa, then one of Florida's highest-ranking federal law enforcement officers and the former head of a national program formed to target child sex predators.

In her statement, the girl said Figueroa pulled up a leg of his shorts, exposed himself and masturbated for about 10 minutes. "I glanced once because he seemed very strange, and I caught a look of his penis," she said. "I was shocked, so I sat and thought of what I should do."

Oh, but it gets worse. Tampa Tribune:

Before coming to Tampa, Figueroa headed Operation Predator - created to find and deport non-citizens who committed sex crimes against children.

Back on January 9, 2003, the Department of Homeland Security made the following announcement about Operation Predator:

Operation Predator is a new initiative developed by the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protect children world-wide. As the President has made clear anyone who harms a child will be a priority target of law enforcement in this Administration. This comprehensive DHS program will identify child predators and remove them from the United States (if subject to deportation). Operation Predator will also work to identify children depicted in child pornography to help rescue them, and to assist in prosecuting the people responsible for making and distributing the pornographic material.

So, the Bush administration had a public masturbator heading up the unit in charge of protecting children from sexual predators. But it gets worse:

Pamela J. Turner, assistant secretary for legislative affairs [for the Department of Homeland Security]...said Figueroa had been arrested "for similar behavior" in Amherst, N.Y., in 1977.

That's right folks. Figueroa had a record. The DHS claims they didn't know about it, but those facts are in dispute.

yesterday, reliable sources in the know told us that, in fact, ICE and then-Customs knew all along about Frank Figueroa's prior sex crime arrest. They say that Figueroa declared the arrest on various federal forms and applications required from federal agents for background checks and security clearance renewal. They say ICE and then-Customs officials knew all along of Frank Figueroa's record, but promoted him anyway, including to the national directorship of "Operation Predator" and Special Agent in Charge in Tampa.

I'm not all that confident in that source, but take it for what it is. There is something seriously wrong with this administration.

Department of Homeland Security Frank Figueroa