Two U.S. soldiers were drugged at Colombian bar, feds say. Now, suspect is held in Miami
In early March 2020, a couple of U.S. Army soldiers on assignment in Bogota, Colombia, took a break from their duties and went to a local pub to watch a soccer game on TV.
What they didn’t know was that their drinks were being laced with a tranquilizer by a Colombian couple who were preying on customers in the capital city’s entertainment district, according to U.S. authorities.
The couple took the two off-duty soldiers, who lost consciousness, to a getaway car, authorities say, and then robbed them of their personal valuables along with credit and debit cards, before leaving them in two different locations the following day. Toxicology tests showed the soldiers had benzodiazepines in their systems — the powerful sedative that left them incapacitated at the Bogata bar.
Now, one of three Colombian defendants charged in a kidnapping and assault indictment is in custody at the federal detention center in Miami after making his first appearance in federal court on Friday. Jeffersson Arango Castellanos was extradited from Colombia to South Florida last week. His partner, Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, and the getaway driver, Pedro Jose Silva Ochoa, remain at large.
Arango’s arraignment and detention hearing are set for Thursday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami. His lawyers at the Federal Public Defender’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
According to an indictment and FBI affidavit, the Colombian trio had history of targeting customers in Bogota’s entertainment district, but were starting to see their illicit opportunities vanish with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.
That’s when the two soldiers on assignment with the U.S. Army in Bogota entered the picture.
On the evening of March 5, 2020, the unnamed soldiers went to a bar called El Pub in the upscale Zona T area, but after being drugged both remembered very little of their experience.
“The victims recounted buying a couple of beers, listening to music, and dancing by themselves,” according to the 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.”
According to Colombian National Police, here’s what happened: Video surveillance showed that Arango and Uribe arrived at the pub after 11 p.m., when the two U.S. soldiers were already there. The Colombian couple approached two soldiers a few times inside the bar, the footage showed. After 2 a.m., they all left together — but the soldiers were feeling the effects of the tranquilizers slipped into their drinks.
They “were stumbling and having difficulty keeping their balance,” according to the FBI affidavit. The Colombian couple dragged them into an awaiting Renault, and they took their wallets, money and cell phones, obtaining the pin number for one of the victim’s debit card and the other’s credit card. After making a few ATM and card transactions, one of the soldiers was left stranded on the street and the other somehow returned to his apartment in Bogota. U.S. officials came to their aid.
Meanwhile, with help from a confidential informant, the Colombian National Police were able to identify Arango in the video surveillance footage. The national police then used phone intercepts to learn more about his allegedly illicit activity of drugging people’s drinks, described in Colombian slang as “tomaseas,” the FBI affidavit says.
In late December 2020, the national police arrested Arango and Uribe on charges unrelated to the alleged drugging of the two U.S. soldiers at the bar.
While Arango was in custody, an FBI special agent questioned Arango while advising him of his rights under U.S. and international law, the affidavit says.
“During the interview, Arango admitted to drugging and robbing” the two U.S. soldiers, the affidavit says. “Arango [said] that on the night of the incident, he was working with Silva and Uribe. ... He stated that they selected their targets based on höw the individuals dressed and acted, and by analyzing who will generate income for them.”
During the interview, Arango also lied about using cocaine with the U.S. soldiers. No traces of the drug were found in their systems, according to the FBI.
