One of the most serious threats to tourists and locals in Colombia is scopolamine, known as “devil’s breath.” This powerful substance suppresses willpower, leaving the victim helpless and controllable. It is used in robberies and other crimes tied to dating and nightlife.
What scopolamine is
Scopolamine is an alkaloid used in medicine against nausea, motion sickness, and dizziness. In Colombia’s criminal world it is known for strong effects on the central nervous system.
It causes amnesia, suppresses will, and makes people suggestible. Under scopolamine a victim may follow orders - hand over money, cards, valuables - and remember nothing afterward.
In crimes it is slipped into drinks or food, blown into the face on the street, or applied to skin on contact. Even a small dose can have severe consequences.
How criminals use it
Targets are often tourists unfamiliar with local realities. Spiked drinks: in a bar or club the drug goes into a cocktail - on app dates or chance meetings. The victim loses control and is at the criminals’ mercy.
Street attack: someone approaches and blows powder into the face. The effect is fast; the person stops controlling their actions. In taxis: the driver or an accomplice may offer a “refreshing” drink with scopolamine, drive to a remote spot, and rob them.
Consequences
Victims lose cash, cards, phones, documents. In severe cases - access to accounts, safes, housing. Physical effects: nausea, severe headaches, memory gaps, sometimes breathing difficulty, heart rhythm issues, loss of coordination.
Psychologically - long stress and anxiety from being unable to reconstruct events, helplessness, loss of control, sometimes PTSD.
Documented case patterns
Bar in Medellín: a US tourist met a woman in a club; after several cocktails he lost all memory of the night. In the morning his accounts were empty and valuables gone. Police said scopolamine was in the drinks.
Taxi in Bogotá: an elderly European tourist accepted a drink from the driver; it was drugged. She lost consciousness; her card was drained.
Hotel: a US tourist spent the evening with a sex worker; in the morning he was found dead and robbed. The woman overdosed the drug - he never woke. A friend found him too late; timely hospital care might have saved him.
Kidnapping for ransom: a tourist met a Colombian woman online and invited her on a date - after the meeting he was abducted. Extortionists demanded ransom from his family; authorities investigated but could not save him; he was thrown from a cliff.