3 Colombians Charged with Drugging and Attempting to Rob U.S. Soldiers

A Colombian national was extradited last week to the United States and charged with kidnapping and assault after allegedly drugging two U.S. soldiers with the intention of robbing them of their credit and debit cards.

Jeffersson Arango Castellanos and his two Colombian co-conspirators, Kenneth Uribe and Pedro Silva, have been formally charged by the U.S Department of Justice with 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.

Arango and Uribe were both arrested by authorities in December. (As of press time, it is unclear if Silva has been arrested by authorities.)

According to court documents, the three men reportedly drugged and kidnapped the soldiers, who were in a Bogotá bar during temporary duty in the nation on the eve of the pandemic shutdowns in March 2020. While watching a soccer match, the two reportedly lost consciousness and were found later without their wallets and phones. One of the soldiers was found in a street in Bogotá while the other arrived in his apartment.

A drug test showed that there were benzodiazepines in their systems.

The Colombian National Police and the U.S. FBI opened a joint investigation and found surveillance footage of three men escorting the two U.S. soldiers out of the bar, as well as footage that allegedly shows Arango using the debit and credit cards in different places.

Arango has admitted that he took the two soldiers to a hotel room and convinced one of them to give them the PIN number to one of their debit cards by pretending that his phone was a card reader and having the soldier type it out there. The men then reportedly left the soldiers on the street after committing the theft.

Arango appeared at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on May 5 in his first court appearance. It is unclear if his co-conspirators have also been extradited as of press time.