The female leader of a gang specializing in the drugging and robbery of foreign tourists in Medellin was recently arrested.
The 27-year-old woman, known as the “la reina de la escopolamina” (the queen of scopolamine), was arrested in the municipality of Itagui, just south of Medellin in the Aburra Valley Metropolitan Area.
She is believed have led the La Marina (The Marinade) gang comprised of women who targeted foreigners in Medellin’s most popular districts, mainly in the racy entertainment district of Parque Lleras in the upscale neighborhood of El Poblado.
She is reportedly linked to at least eight incidents in which foreigners were unknowingly drugged and then stripped of their valuables.
The women would typically approach tourists out on the town, strike up a conversation with them, and persuade the marks to invite them back to their rental apartment or hotel room.
The ladies spiked the visitor’s drinks with scopolamine, known locally as burundanga, causing them to lose consciousness. The women fled, taking anything of value.
The queen of scopolamine’s arrest came just days after the lifeless body of a 37-year-old Ecuadoran man was found inside a hotel room in downtown Medellin.
The victim, Javier Vasquez, was last seen alive at 2100 on Sunday after going to a bar in El Poblado accompanied by a woman he had met through an online dating app.
After not returning that night, family members reported his disappearance to the police.
Concern grew when the victim’s phone was turned off and 7.8 million pesos ($2,000) worth of purchases were charged to Vasquez’s credit card in the wee hours of Monday morning.
When Vasquez’s body was found, there was a large amount of blood coming out of his mouth and nose, indicating a drug overdose.
Police reviewed security cameras at the hotel, which showed two women and man at 0300 Monday morning helping Vasquez back to the hotel. The three individuals reportedly paid for the room, as well as some beer that was consumed that evening. They left well before Vasquez’s body was found.
Vasquez was almost certainly drugged prior to being taken back to the hotel.
He had traveled with his family to Medellin for Christmas.
Vasquez’s death is eerily similar to the 8 December death of an American tourist found dead in a high-rise apartment in the municipality of Sabaneta, a city also just south of Medellin.
The 52-year-old man was last seen at 1900 the day before entering the apartment building accompanied by two local women.
At 0300, a building doorman received a package believed to be for the victim’s apartment.
An hour later, the two women were seen leaving the apartment without the American.
The man was found dead lying in his bed at 1100 when he failed to meet a scheduled shuttle pickup for his return flight to the US.
He was almost certainly drugged by the two women as prelude to a robbery, with his death likely due to an overdose.
The package taken up to his apartment most likely was a drug delivery, possibly arranged by the two women.
Authorities in all of Colombia’s major cities have reported an increase in robberies in which unsuspecting victims are drugged, usually by entertainment establishment employees or new acquaintances.
Foreigners are prime targets.
Visitors run serious risks when they seek out chance acquaintances in hotels, bars and nightclubs across Colombia.
Some victims are hustled out of bars or nightclubs to confederates waiting in a taxi or private car who rob them and dump them in poor, dangerous neighborhoods. In other cases, prostitutes take victims to hotel rooms or residences, drug them, rob them and leave them to sleep it off.
Often, victims are drugged by women they met through online dating apps.
In some cases, visitors to Colombia who partake in recreational drug use unknowingly ingest burundanga when it is cut into cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and other narcotics, often by drug dealers or prostitutes.
Burundanga can render a victim unconscious for 24 hours or more and in large doses can be fatal.
A Polish tourist was drugged and robbed recently in the coastal city of Santa Marta in the northern department of Magdalena.
The incident occurred in the popular El Rodadero beach district, home to trendy hotels.
The victim was drugged and rendered unconscious after bringing a prostitute back to his hotel room.
The woman absconded with his valuables.
The Pole came to his senses after stumbling onto the street, handcuffed and half-dressed.
He has no memory of the incident.
Police believe the woman is a member of a local gang which specializes in the drugging and robbery of tourists.
Three American men and a Venezuelan woman were drugged and robbed in the early morning on 7 October in the Laureles neighborhood of Medellin.
The victims had been drinking at bar in the trendy La 70 nightlife district when they met a group of five women, whom they invited back to their hostel.
After downing more drinks at the hostel, all four of victims lost consciousness.
They awoke several hours later to discover the women had fled with their cell phones, credit cards and $2,000 in cash.
The four were treated at a local hospital.
In the early morning on 11 August, two Norwegian tourists were drugged and robbed in Medellin by two women they met in a bar and two other women summoned by the first two to join the party at the men’s rental apartment.
The men were robbed of 15 credit cards as well as cash, cell phones and other valuables at hand.
An Italian tourist was drugged and robbed the evening of 26 April after visiting a discotheque in the historic center of the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena.
He met two casual acquaintances who apparently put scopolamine in his beer.
He remembered leaving the club with them and visiting a tobacco shop in the Bocagrande tourist zone but had little recollection as to what happened after that. He awoke in the street after several hours with bruises on his face and without his watch, jewelry and cash.
Police and hospitals in Colombia report thousands of cases of scopolamine poisoning each year.
Personnel should patronize only bars recommended by trusted local associates. Even then, they should not go alone, should not leave food or drinks unattended, should not accept food, drinks, cigarettes or gum from strangers, and, most importantly, should not leave with strangers.
Personnel should be wary of meeting women through social media sites and of chance acquaintances, especially those encountered in bars.
Bars and restaurants in reputable luxury or business-class hotels offer improved security and are better able to screen patrons, helping to prevent drugging.
Taxis should never be hailed on the street. Personnel lacking access to corporate transportation should use hotel cabs or summon registered taxis through the cell phone application Easy Taxi (available for download). Easy Taxi provides a photo of the driver and the license-plate number of the taxi and alerts the user when the taxi has arrived.
