Two TSA agents allegedly changed the screening system at the Denver International Airport in order to grope male passengers. The agency has since removed the two officers, Mashable confirmed.

"These alleged acts are egregious and intolerable," TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein said.

Denver's CBS affiliate, which first reported the incident, said passengers were targeted about a dozen times.

The behavior first came to light because a male TSA employee told a female employee that he "gropes" male passengers.

“He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female," the female TSA employee said, according to police reports obtained by CBS4. "When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows [the male TSA screener] to conduct a pat-down search of that area.”

A TSA official who was investigating the case witnessed the pattern, when a male passenger entered the scanner and the screening agent pressed the button for female. The scanner indicated an "anomaly" in the groin area.

The male screener then took the passenger aside, and patted him down in the groin area with the palm of his hands. TSA guidelines mandate that screening be conducted with the back of the hands.

Although the first accusation was made on Nov. 18, 2014, TSA officials didn't observe the agents until Feb. 9, 2015, according to police reports.

“All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency," said Feinstein. "And when substantiated, employees are held accountable.”

The agency did not release the names of the accused employees.

CBS4 spoke to the Denver District Attorney's Office, which did not press charges "because there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction and no victim had been identified."

UPDATE: Apr. 16, 2015

TSA Acting Administrator Melvin Carraway called the actions of the two agents "egregiously inappropriate behavior" in a post on the TSA blog on Thursday.

"The lone bright spot in this dark and disturbing behavior is that another employee saw what was going on and did not allow it to continue," he wrote.

In addition to confirming that the agents in question were no longer with the agency, Carraway said they could face local criminal charges as well.