The woman was “beautiful”. Probably too much, in fact… It’s practically the only thing that the Israeli Omer Bloch remembers about a date on Tinder in the Colombian city of Medellin, where the “handsome” in question met him, robbed after making him sleep with a powerful local medicine.
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After dinner Mr. Bloch returned home with his one-night companion and cracked open a beer. He woke up the next day at noon with his pockets empty, his belongings missing and his head upside down.
“I just remember wanting to kiss his neck. And then clack, big black hole. “I woke up” with no memory, the 28-year-old businessman told AFP. “I had trouble getting out of bed. It was like I was drunk.”
He looked around his apartment and discovered that “his iPad was missing,” as were his “wallet and credit cards.”
AFP
According to the results of medical tests, Omer Bloch was drugged with scopolamine, a powerful alkaloid used as a “thieves’ drug” against naive tourists visiting the famous Colombian city.
Sexpats
Already known in the 90s for violence linked to drug trafficking, Medellin, the “city of eternal spring” with 2.6 million inhabitants, is today an essential stop for trendy tourism and “digital nomads”.
With its lively reggaeton-based nightlife and legal prostitution, it is also a hot spot for global sex tourism.
In early January, the US Embassy issued an alert, following the “suspicious” deaths of eight Americans in Medellin between November and December 2023, and recommended against using dating applications in Colombia.
“Circumstances indicate possible drug use, theft and overdose. Many cases involve the use of dating applications,” the diplomatic mission explained.
AFP
In one of the most notable incidents, American comedian Tou Ger Xiong was kidnapped and found dead on December 11 after meeting a woman he met online.
“It could easily have been me,” comments Mr. Bloch, still ensconced in one of the luxury residential towers that rise along the steep avenues of El Poblado, the neighborhood favored by foreigners. «I think that there is a girl like the others, a rendezvous like the others», deplore-t-il, qualifiant de «sexpats» ceux qui «viennent ici pour faire la fête, s’amuser et faire l’ Love”.
The number of foreigners visiting Medellin increased from 212,000 in 2015 to 1.4 million in 2022. Violent deaths “increase with the number of visitors,” notes William Vivas, the municipality’s human rights ombudsman.
While waiting for the data for 2023, the local prosecutor’s office reports that it handled 82 cases of foreign victims of “theft with a toxic substance” in 2022. This official data does not give a precise idea of the phenomenon, while many victims do. Don’t file a complaint.
In Medellin as in Bogotá, every weekend, Tinder flirtations fall like flies by the handful, confides a diplomatic source. Some are sometimes held captive for several days, only to be released in exchange for a ransom.
The “drunkard” tree
Scopolamine is extracted from the Brugmansia tree, recognizable by its elegant white or yellow bell-shaped flowers. Known as “borrachero” (drunkard) for its psychotropic effects, it is very common in Colombia.
AFP
Criminals extract scopolamine (the use of which is banned in Colombia) from the black seeds of the fruit and secretly dilute it in their victims’ drinks, or sometimes throw the powder in their faces.
The effect is immediate and causes an almost total loss of willpower, a form of torpor that makes you a malleable vegetable at will.
AFP
“Some people can fall asleep. Others may have amnesia (…). Tachycardia, hypertension and convulsions are also found,” warns Diana Pava, toxicologist from the research group on psychoactive substances at the National University.
In high doses and combined with alcohol, scopolamine can be fatal. Furthermore, the biologist warns, it is difficult to detect it in the blood or urine because the body eliminates it quickly.
After the incident, Mr Bloch shared his story on social media and was surprised to see how little sympathy there was from local people. Likewise, when these types of incidents are published in the press, comments often praise these flights against foreigners practicing sex tourism as “revenge.”
“There are gringos (foreigners) who are bastards and take advantage of women, but what happens when it’s the good guys who fall for scopolamine?” the businessman asks.
2024-01-25 14:28:23
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