PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

Drug Turns Crime Victims Into Zombies

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - The last thing Andrea Fernandez recalls before being drugged is holding her newborn baby on a Bogota city bus.

Police found her three days later, muttering to herself and wandering topless along the median strip of a busy highway. Her face was badly beaten and her son was gone.

Fernandez is just one of hundreds of victims every month who, according to Colombian hospitals, are temporarily turned into zombies by a home-grown drug called scopolamine which has been embraced by thieves and rapists.

"When I woke up in the hospital, I asked for my baby and nobody said anything. They just looked at me," Fernandez said, weeping. Police believe her son Diego was taken by a gang which traffics in infants.

Colorless, odorless and tasteless, scopolamine is slipped into drinks and sprinkled onto food. Victims become so docile that they have been known to help thieves rob their homes and empty their bank accounts. Women have been drugged repeatedly over days and gang-raped or rented out as prostitutes.

In the case of Fernandez, the mother of three was rendered submissive enough to surrender her youngest child.

Most troubling for police is the way the drug acts on the brain. Since scopolamine completely blocks the formation of memories, unlike most date-rape drugs used in the United States and elsewhere, it is usually impossible for victims to ever identify their aggressors.

"When a patient (of U.S. date-rape drugs) is under hypnosis, he or she usually recalls what happened. But with scopolamine, this isn't possible because the memory was never recorded," said Dr. Camilo Uribe, the world's leading expert on the drug.

Scopolamine has a long, dark history in Colombia dating back to before the Spanish conquest.

Legend has it that Colombian Indian tribes used the drug to bury alive the wives and slaves of fallen chiefs, so that they would quietly accompany their masters into the afterworld.

Nazi "angel of death" Joseph Mengele experimented on scopolamine as an interrogation drug. And scopolamine's sedative and amnesia-producing qualities were used by mothers in the early 20th century to help them through childbirth.

Finding the drug in Colombia these days is not hard.

The tree which naturally produces scopolamine grows wild around the capital and is so famous in the countryside that mothers warn their children not to fall asleep below its yellow and white flowers. The tree is popularly known as the "borrachero," or "get-you-drunk," and the pollen alone is said to conjure up strange dreams.

"We probably should put some sort of fence up," jokes biologist Gustavo Morales at Bogota's botanical gardens, eyeing children playing with borrachero seeds everywhere.

"If you ate a few of those, it would kill you."

Although scopolamine can be easily extracted from the seeds, experienced criminals hardly ever bother with them, police say.

Pure, cheap scopolamine is brought across the border from neighboring Ecuador, where the borrachero tree is harvested for medical purposes, Uribe said. The alkaloid is used legally in medicines across the world to treat everything from motion sickness to the tremors of Parkinson's disease.

The use of scopolamine by criminals appears to be confined to Colombia, at least for now, and it's not clear why the drug is such a rampant problem in Colombia. Some analysts blame it on a culture of crime in the Andean nation, home to the world's largest kidnapping and cocaine industries, not to mention Latin America's longest-running guerrilla war.

There are so many scopolamine cases that they usually don't make the news unless particularly bizarre. One such incident involved three young Bogota women who preyed on men by smearing the drug on their breasts and luring their victims to take a lick.

Losing all willpower, the men readily gave up their bank access codes. The breast-temptress thieves then held them hostage for days while draining their accounts.

The U.S. Embassy in Bogota takes scopolamine very seriously and offers staff tips on how avoid being drugged. One piece of advice may seem obvious: Don't let your drinks out of your sight when at a Bogota bar or nightclub.

Still, at least three visiting U.S. government employees here have been drugged and robbed over the past two years. Other American victims from time to time appear at the embassy seeking help, still shaking off a scopolamine hangover.

"I remember one case, an American reported being drugged," an embassy official said. "He says to his doorman 'Why did you let them walk out with my stuff.' The doorman says, 'Because you told me to.'"

By arthur brode on Apr 16, 2007, 10:03 in Friendly Talkzone.

Strobers says on Apr 16, 2007, 12:57:

Scary Stuff Just goes to show you how important it is to be careful and have eyes on either side of your head.

"Life is too serious to be taken seriously"

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Mr. Hollywood says on Apr 16, 2007, 12:57:

Curiously A quick search of Reuters doesn't actually turn up that story.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

nick b. says on Apr 16, 2007, 13:08:

very scary stuff you don't taste anything'bitter',nothing..?

0 funny, 0 helpful.

toneloc24 says on Apr 16, 2007, 13:09:

Story is dated from 2003 http://www.rense.com/general38/frug.htm

"Don't tase me, bro!!!!"

0 funny, 0 helpful.

KyleHanky says on Apr 16, 2007, 21:42:

I've heard of... I've heard of a similar drug, in a spray used on buses in Bogota. On person I know that lives in the city told me of a story which her friend willing gave up her laptop, and money from her bank account to an old man and woman for 3 days. She thought she lost her laptop, but then began having dreams about an old couple and them taking her laptop. With a little help from the police and a bank, she found out she actually did that. When I was in Bogota last August there were reports of a drug being used where someone stands next to you and smokes, but blows it all on you and doesn't inhale. You then pass out and they take your stuff and go. That drug has some hard, immediate effects, though the smoking drug is probably something different, but related.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Titan says on Apr 17, 2007, 01:14:

It's... It's quite remarkable how many drugs there are out there that most people have no knowledge of. Imagine all the drugs that could be located throughout the rainforests that are gradually being depleted. Imagine the positive effects of certain drugs and their abilities to assist in preventing and curing diseases etc... It doesn't surprise me to learn of the above mentioned drug. It gives you another reason to be all the more careful of who you are with and what you ingest etc... Be careful of such opportunists.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Man Tequila says on Apr 17, 2007, 12:18:

Scopolamine IS tasteless. We use it on patients dying of lung cancer to dry up their throat secretions so they don't sound so raspy or drown in their saliva.

This article is years old, but still worth mentioning. I know nothing about the pharmacology of burundanga, which is allegedly widely available.

Aunque no me creas/ si me lo propongo/ lograre olvidarte/ porque a fin de cuentas/ no soy tan cobarde./ Y termino todo una de estas tardes/ no sera dificil buscar algún sitio donde refugiarme/ donde nunca mas vuelvas a encontrarme. (Polo Montañez)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CaptainHowdy says on Apr 18, 2007, 17:36:

Wow!! And I thought Rohypnol "The date rape drug" was bad...This in some potent stuff!!! Glad I have a friend in Colombia....

Teaching preteens the things they need to know!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

poco says on Apr 18, 2007, 17:56:

It's there A quick search of Reuters doesn't actually turn up that story.

But not the original Reuters Report

Drug Report

"When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy." Quote - General Tommy Franks

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CaptainHowdy says on Apr 19, 2007, 09:20:

Walk away from a drink in Colombia? Heck, I'd be nervous just going INTO a bar in Colombia, much less walking away from a drink and leaving it unattended...But that's just me.....

Teaching preteens the things they need to know!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CaptainHowdy says on Apr 21, 2007, 15:21:

Hhmmmm... I guess some people are just more ballsy than I am...

Teaching preteens the things they need to know!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

quindioman says on Apr 21, 2007, 18:13:

.... it can happen to anyone....it happened to my padre and he sure as hell don't give much papaya

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Man Tequila says on Apr 21, 2007, 18:32:

"Who would be stupid enough to walk away from a drink in a bar ANYWHERE and go back to it. Talk about the ultimate in papaya!"

Not that I disagree, exactly, but you know you're ready to move to Colombia when you start to blame the victim. Really, you'd only have to turn your head for a second, shoot your round of pool, put your bottle by the sink when you pee, leave your table for a second to talk to some cute chica, accept the wrong free beer, have a dicey bartender -- it could happen amazingly easily, and even in front of your eyes. Cuidado.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

caslug says on Apr 21, 2007, 20:10:

the best thing to do.. to avoid this.. is goto a bar w/ friends(ie, chicas).. there's enough chicas in COL that will gladly accompany you to a bar! haha..i dont think i've ever been to a BAR in bar in COL alone. ONLY because i went to a bar, i would invite an amiga and they happily go!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

quindioman says on Apr 21, 2007, 21:59:

do you really smoke diablitos bazuco?

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CaptainHowdy says on Apr 23, 2007, 20:39:

Hmmmm... Does drugging occur outside of a bar also? Say, like in a family restaurant?

Teaching preteens the things they need to know!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

andrew24 says on Apr 24, 2007, 10:46:

"it can happen to anyone....it happened to my padre and he sure as hell don't give much papaya"

Wow, can you please elaborate on this and tell us how it happened so we have some idea what to look for??

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

Mark Twain

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough. Mark Twain

0 funny, 0 helpful.