Col. Roger T. McDuffie, Maj. Andrew L. Mueller, and Maj. Mauricio Saenz may have fallen victim to a "burundanga poisoning" a type of crime where victims are slipped a drug so they can be robbed or kidnapped.
According to a Marine investigation, the men started the night of February 3 by going to two bars with a larger group of Marines.
After the rest of the group went back to their hotels, the three Marines in question went off on their own, apparently meeting four local women and eventually ending up a working-class section of Bogota that Pentagon personnel are not allowed to enter.
At some point during the evening, the three officers drank a highly intoxicating Colombian liquor called aguardiente and were slipped a drug called benzodiazepine.
Security cameras at the hotel filmed the officers walking the women through the lobby to their hotel rooms at 4:30 a.m., past other Marines who were gathering to catch a ride to the airport. They broke a 1 a.m. curfew in the process.
At least two of the Marines blacked out in their rooms while with two of the women, according to a report. Another officer withdrew money from his government travel card and brought two women to his room.
(Sgt. Maj. Scott T. Pile speaks to 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit Marines and sailors embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island, parked pierside at Naval Base San Diego August 9.US Marine Corps)
Mueller's work laptop and iPhone 6 were stolen, as were his personal iPad and iPhone. McDuffie's work iPhone 6, as well as his personal iPhone, iPod, and cash, were also stolen.
This isn't the first time US military personnel have gotten in trouble in Colombia.
In 2012, two Marines and 11 US Secret Service officers were caught paying at least two strippers to go back to their hotel rooms with them.
The three officers could face "appropriate administrative or judicial proceedings,” according to the Herald, which means they could be charged with conduct unbecoming an officer.
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