The U.S. Embassy in Colombia has issued a warning to American travelers regarding a drugging phenomenon. This alarming trend involves incidents of robbery and overdose and, in some cases, the use of online dating apps, often impacting U.S. citizens.
One example is Steven Valdez, a 31-year-old travel blogger who fell victim to one of these surreptitious assaults, The New York Times reported.
While visiting the South American country he connected with a girl he matched with on Tinder. The young lady offered him a taste of ajiaco, a creamy Colombian soup.
Despite witnessing her bring it from a restaurant counter to their table, he told the Times taking two spoonfuls of the soup was “the last thing I remember.” He realized that she had done something sinister to him when his lunch turned into an unexpected trip to the hospital. According to the doctors, the young man was administered, most likely by the date, a cocktail of sedative drugs, including the potentially deadly scopolamine that is known to make victims blackout, which could have proved fatal.
Colombian officials have a nickname for the odorless substance scopolamine: “Devil’s Breath.”
Scopolamine is commonly found throughout Colombia
“The plant is widely distributed throughout the country. In urban areas, it is common to find it in gardens because it has a very beautiful flower,” toxicologist Diana Pava told AFP News.
Symptoms of the drug can include sleepiness, amnesia, rapid heart rate, or seizures, and can leave one unconscious for up to 24 hours. Medellín reported a growing number of foreign tourists or remote workers who died from overdosing on the drug in 2023, according to The Guardian.
According to the embassy’s press release, based on data from the Tourism Observatory of the District Personnel of Medellin issued on Jan. 10, “The number of thefts committed against foreign visitors (excluding Venezuelans) increased 200 percent in the third trimester of 2023 compared to the previous year and violent deaths of foreign visitors increased 29 percent. Most of the 2023 violent death victims were U.S. citizens.”
Those startling statistics have not stopped those like Valdez who make their way to the South American country in search of love.
@hey.hassan Bad things are happening to #passportbros ♬ original sound – Hassan
The agency’s findings show criminals use dating apps like Tinder and Bumble to lure travelers into public places such as hotels, restaurants, and bars. Victims risk being drugged, robbed, or even killed by local dates. Colombia stands out with a high incidence of such incidents.
“Often, the gangs employ beautiful women with alluring features to lure in men,” Andrés Nieto, a crime and security expert in Bogotá, reveals.
“I matched with a girl on Tinder. Just another girl, I thought. Just another date,” a 28-year-old businessman said about a 2021 trip where he was drugged but luckily made it out alive with just being drugged and robbed.
“She took my iPad, my phone, my wallet, my credit cards, my ID. Everything but my laptop,” he said, according to AFP News.
Minnesota comedian Tou Ger Xiong was one of at least eight Americans killed during November and December 2023 in Medellín.
The 50-year-old, whose romantic pursuit took a tragic turn, was last heard from on Dec. 10, 2023, when he called his family and told them he needed $2,000 to be wired because he was kidnapped. The following day, police discovered his lifeless body, bearing multiple stab wounds and bruises, thrown off a 260-foot cliff by a stream in the country’s largest city.
Americans are not just finding these hookups on dating apps but also on social media sites and internet travel message boards. What’s most attractive, particularly to middle-aged American men, is that prostitution is legal in many of Colombia’s big cities, coupled with the described “libertine” nature of the dating scene.
Between January 2023 and October 2023, Medellín’s tourism observatory documented 32 violent killings of foreigners in the city. This included at least 12 Americans and three from the United Kingdom, marking a 40 percent surge compared to the preceding year. The majority of the victims are men.
Colombian Government Speaks Out Against Sex Tourism
Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez acknowledges the risks for travelers but encourages visits. He emphasizes that individuals seeking romantic encounters with the city’s beautiful women should consider staying in the United States.
“We want more and more foreigners to come, but we want them to take part in tourism that adds value,” Gutiérrez said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Anyone who thinks they can come here for that sex and drugs tourism, we don’t want any of that here.”
Dating apps have also proved to be dangerous in America
In 2022, a 21-year-old Black man in Colorado Springs, Colorado, faced a harrowing ordeal with his Tinder date. Stripped, duct-taped, choked, and sliced with a knife, what he thought was a consensual night of kink turned into a life-threatening ordeal.
His chance for escape came when she paused the torture to order dinner from DoorDash and fell asleep. Discovering the knife, he freed himself, ran out the door, and sought help from nearby cops, leading to the arrest of the 22-year-old woman.
She was arrested and charged with second-degree kidnapping, two counts of assault in the second-degree, menacing, and false imprisonment.
