An incident that occurred in February could cost three U.S. Marine officers their careers, after the three men were allegedly robbed of sensitive equipment by prostitutes they picked up during a night out on the town.
The official spokesman for U.S. Marine Corps Forces South, Zachary Dyer, wrote an email stating that “U.S. Marine Corps Forces South takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, and has thoroughly investigated this incident. The command investigation has been completed and we are going through the process of adjudicating the incident. Marines are expected to uphold high standards of personal conduct and this command will appropriately address substantiated allegations of misconduct.”
The Miami Herald obtained reports from the U.S. Marine Corps that indicate the officers may have been drugged with a substance known as Scopolamine during the incident, a drug favored in Colombia for sexually assaulting women and kidnapping.
One of the many side effects of the drug is that, often times, those exposed to it have no memory what occurred while they were intoxicated.
Three officers – Col. Roger McDuffie, Maj. Andrew Mueller and Maj. Mauricio Saenz – reportedly traveled to an off-limits neighborhood in Bogota, Colombia, and allegedly brought local women back to their hotels.
But before the night concluded, both McDuffie and Mueller reportedly found themselves drugged and a number of their possessions stolen, including a laptop, personal government equipment and cell phones, among other items, according to the report.
Saenz was not drugged, but he faces disciplinary action for reportedly pulling money from a government-issued charge card in order to pay the prostitutes.
At 4:30 A.M. on February 4, while Marine officers located at the same hotel began to muster together for their flights home, the three officers who were allegedly involved in the incident were seen acting semi-coherently, escorting the prostitutes out of the building, according to the report.
Instead of catching their flights with fellow officers, McDuffie and Mueller were taken to the local emergency room.
