Scopolamine: my story and how I was robbed of 60 million pesos ($15,000) in Cartagena, Colombia.

My name is Kevin Mc Caffrey. I have been living as an immigrant in the tropical city of Cali for over 11 years and Colombia will always have a special place in my heart. Please do not let the following video deter you from visiting and travelling around one of the most magnificent countries in the world. It is a place of stunning scenery and nature, extremely friendly people and wonderfully rich culture. My deep love for Colombia has not changed from this experience and I will always recommend it as a tourist destination and a place to live. However, due to this, I feel compelled to tell my story to help Colombians and other foreigners so we can hopefully create a better change for the future.

In the following testimony I describe exactly what happened on Wednesday 7th October in Cartagena, and how I was a victim of an organised crime. After being robbed, 17 separate transactions of almost 60 million pesos were made with my bank card in just over two hours and taken from my account.

The likelihood is that it is the result of a sophisticated operation including one of Colombia's major banks, the police and local businesses. Due to legal reasons however, I cannot give the specifics of said establishments but I eventually hope to share that information in the future.

I want to use my story to create awareness about the drug through different social media campaigns (using the hashtags #nomasescoplamina and #nomorescopolamine) and also to encourage people to be as vigilant as possible when travelling to Cartagena. Additionally, I hope to shed light on the level of organised crime that is happening in Colombia's most important tourist destination.

About Scopolamine

According to the US State Department there are approximately 50,000 cases of scopolamine in Colombia each year. It is used most commonly to commit various crimes such as fraud and rape, with men between 30-45 being the most likely target. However, this affects many Colombians and other nationalities of many different backgrounds on a a daily basis.

When administered the drug, the victim loses all control and is at the total mercy of their aggressor. It acts within minutes and lasts approximately 6 hours where the person will lose all memory about what has happened. Due to these properties and the fact that it has such a short lifespan of 9-12 hours it is extremely difficult to investigate these crimes and bring the criminals to justice.

(source: https://medellinguru.com/scopolamine/)