A Panamanian friend who lives in Boquete was drugged and robbed in David on Friday. Some years back there were reports of robberies in Chiriqui by people using a white powder (scopolamine) to drug victims. Although this sounds like an urban legend, it unfortunately is not. The effects are the same, and experienced by my friend. The victim is handed something with the powder on it, or it is blown in the face or put in a drink. It is not difficult to inflict a person with this drug. The victim experiences a total loss of memory for the time the drug is in effect. But he is lucid and functioning. My friend was taken to an ATM where he willingly withdrew money. They left him who knows where and took his car and all the groceries he had just bought at Price Mart. He was found by the police 2 days later wandering in David. He was completely disoriented, had no memory of anything, and had clearly been roughed up. The police later found his car (stripped of anything of value) in San Pablo. The last place he can remember is being in Price Mart. Clearly it was after shopping there.
This drug comes from the very common variety of datura that grows in Boquete. The angel trumpet flower can be seen almost everywhere here. The tall shrub produces those lovely pink or white trumpet shaped flowers. The problem of scopolamine robbery (and worse) has been a scourge in Colombia for many years, but aside from a few cases (made public) it has not been in much use here up to now. PLEASE be aware of this method of victimization and be vigilant. Here is one link to information about it; there are many more (Borrachero tree, Devil's Breath) on the internet. https://www.biopsychiatry.com/scopolamine/borrachero.html
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Back in the day, around 1998 in San Jose, Costa Rica, an acquaintance of mine ingested this type of drug administered to him via a drink. He had encountered a beauty on the street who enticed him to go for a drink. He didn't remember anything after that. They went to an ATM and he took out the max for the day and then went to the Mall San Pedro where she rang up over $3,000. in cloths and merchandise. He was found the following day in his apartment by his house cleaner all beat up and disheveled. He called the police and he showed them the receipts of his credit card and they went to the Mall San Pedro and got the store videos of his purchases. The police viewed the videos and informed him that she was a he as he was well known to the police. Told him that he was lucky just to get beat up and robbed. This type of crime does occur.
I would like to ask you a question. Did you speak directly to the victim or just heard this from a friend?
exactly....this sounds a lot like scaremongering. We keep hearing these stories every couple of years on the forums.
They are never substantiated or corroborated with details, or media stories.
I read they are somewhat common in Bogota and other locations, but I have never spoken to an actual victim. Apparently, the "hangover" after this type of drugging is extremely unpleasant and requires hospitalization.
I'm not saying this didn't happen, I'm just extremely skeptical.