He kidnapped two U.S. soldiers in a Bogotá bar. Now he faces life in prison in Miami
Jeffersson Arango Castellanos, charged with kidnapping and robbing two U.S. soldiers after allegedly drugging them at a bar in Bogotá — and whose nickname is “Harry Potter” — was not able to cast the Expecto Patronum spell and ward off his prosecutors in a federal Miami court.
On Friday, Arango, a Colombian national, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assaulting two U.S. Army soldiers who were on temporary duty in Bogotá in March 2020.
Arango, 36, who pleaded guilty to the four counts in the indictment, including conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person, faced formidable odds to beat the prosecution team.
According to a factual proffer filed to the court on Friday and signed by Arango and his attorney MaeAnn Dunker, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertila Fernandez, and trial attorney Clayton O’Connor, the statement reflects what prosecutors would have been able to prove if the case had gone to trial.
Arango was extradited to the U.S. in May 2023. His co-conspirators — his partner, Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, and a getaway driver, Pedro Jose Silva Ochoa — remain at large.
What prosecutors learned
According to court documents, the unnamed soldiers were at the Colombian Pub, a sports bar in the upscale Zona T area around 11 p.m. on March 5, 2020, just around the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Silva, driving a green Renault 9, dropped Arango and Uribe off at Colombian Pub and drove off and waited.
At the bar, the couple found their targets — the U.S. soldiers.
According to Colombian National Police, video surveillance showed Arango and Uribe approaching the two soldiers several times at Colombian Pub.
“At some point, [Arango] approached the victims in the pub and, without their knowledge, incapacitated, intoxicated, and otherwise rendered the victims defenseless by putting drugs in their drinks,” according to the courtroom proffer. In a statement to law enforcement, Arango “explained that he used drugs in a paste or liquid form to put into his victims’ drinks.”
Toxicology screenings found that the two soldiers had benzodiazepines in their system.
Identifying the drugs
Benzodiazepines are depressants that produce sedation and hypnosis, relieve anxiety and muscle spasms, and reduce seizures, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Benzodiazepines slow down the central nervous system and may cause sleepiness and a relaxed mood, but if overdosed it can cause extreme drowsiness, confusion, impaired coordination, decreased reflexes, respiratory depression, coma and possible death, according to the DEA.
“The victims recounted buying a couple of beers, listening to music, and dancing by themselves,” according to an FBI affidavit. One of the victims “remembered seeing two women taking ‘selfies,’ and that he offered to take photos for them. He recalled asking if he could place his beer on their table to take the photos. Neither victim could remember what happened after that encounter.”
A long car ride
Around 2:30 a.m. on March 6, the soldiers, and the couple, left Colombian Pub together. The drugged soldiers stumbled and had difficulty keeping their balance, the court proffer read. Uribe put her arm around the waist of one of the soldiers and he had his arm on her shoulder. Arango and Uribe steered their victims to Silva’s awaiting Renault 9 and they drove off with the soldiers inside the car.
There, according to prosecutors, the trio took the soldier’s wallets, debit and credit cards, and cellphones. Uribe “further manipulated” one of the soldiers to reveal his debit card’s PIN code.
For the next few hours, the trio drove the intoxicated soldiers around Bogotá and used the purloined credit and ATM cards at numerous locations where they extracted cash — $350 from two transactions and another total $250 from two other transactions of about $125 apiece. The credit card was used later that morning at a meat store and a tire store.
Around 6:45 a.m. the trio dropped one of the victims off on the street marked Calle 25. Video footage shows the soldier stumbling and falling down on the street and Uribe lifting him off the street and guiding him to a sidewalk where he was left. A passerby saw the victim staggering and called the police, who then took the soldier to a hospital where he was treated and released. He eventually made his way back to his apartment where he was met by U.S. Embassy personnel, according to the proffer.
The second soldier was also dropped off in the same neighborhood and was found by a taxi driver who helped him get to his apartment, where video footage showed him stumbling on the way to his apartment.
The charges
Arango pleaded guilty to kidnapping an internationally protected person, conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person, assaulting an internationally protected person, and conspiracy to assault an internationally protected person.
What happens next
Arango, who passed himself off as the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter popularized in British author J.K. Rowling’s series and subsequent films, faces up to life in prison. A federal district court judge will pronounce his sentence at a date yet to be announced.
Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this story.
