Skip to content
Colombia scopolamine deaths rising in 2026

Noscopo has your back

Built by a survivor who lived through this exact situation and was given a second chance. If Noscopo helps prevent even one tragedy, it will have been worth building.

Noscopo verifies your guest's cédula against Colombia's national registry, tracks your exact check-in location, and automatically alerts your emergency contact — then the authorities — if you ever go quiet.

No credit card. Just your name and phone number to get started.

Without Noscopo
Guest's real identity: unknown
No one knows your location
No one notified if you go silent
With Noscopo
Cédula verified against national registry
Exact check-in location logged
Emergency contact texted if overdue
After 24 hours, authorities get your last known location and who you were with
Check-in timer 3h 42m left
~50,000
estimated scopolamine incidents per year nationwide
80+
documented foreigner deaths in Medellín since 2022
1,409
poisoning cases reported in Bogotá in a single year
304
Medellín cases in just the first 5 months of 2026
The problem

An epidemic hiding behind a "great trip."

Scopolamine — nicknamed "Devil's Breath" — is an odorless, tasteless drug that can be slipped into a drink, food, or a cigarette. In large doses it can cause total amnesia, respiratory failure, and death. Colombian and international outlets have documented a rising pattern: tourists meet someone at a bar or on a dating app, are invited back to an apartment, and are drugged and robbed while incapacitated — sometimes for a full day.

Medellín's own drug-facilitated theft database recorded 133 cases in 2026 year-to-date, including 11 against foreign tourists — already outpacing the same period of scopolamine-specific robberies from the prior year by 10 cases. Bogotá logged 1,409 poisoning episodes in a single year, a decade record, concentrated in the Chapinero and Zona T nightlife districts.

In late 2023, the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá warned that eight American citizens had died in Medellín in a matter of weeks under circumstances linked to drugging and dating-app meetups — part of a quarter in which robberies of foreign visitors rose roughly 200% and deaths rose 29%.

The U.S. State Department maintains a Level 3 "Reconsider Travel" advisory for Colombia, reissued in March 2026, citing crime and kidnapping risk alongside specific Level 4 "Do Not Travel" zones. Most survivors never file a report — out of embarrassment or because the drug clears the body within about 12 hours — so researchers believe the true incident count is significantly higher than what's officially recorded.

40

Foreigners died under mysterious circumstances in Medellín in a single year (2023) — a pattern investigators tied to drink-spiking and drug-facilitated robbery.

Source: Rolling Stone
443

Scopolamine cases reported to Medellín police in 2025 alone, with 304 more logged in just the first five months of 2026 — a pace suggesting a sharp year-over-year spike.

Source: Rolling Stone
29

Violent tourist deaths recorded in Medellín by mid-2024 out of roughly 359,000 visitors — over one per week, on a pace projected to reach 61 for the year.

Source: EL PAÍS English
Old way vs. new way

Trust shouldn't be a guess.

Meeting someone new and inviting them into your space is common — the danger is doing it with zero record of who they are or where you are.

Inviting a stranger over, unprotected

  • No way to confirm their real identity
  • Nobody knows where you are tonight
  • If you're drugged, hours can pass unnoticed
  • Police have no lead if something goes wrong

Hosting with Noscopo

  • Cédula scanned and verified in seconds
  • Your exact check-in location is on record
  • A timer you set — miss it, and your contact is alerted
  • After 24 hours, authorities get your last known location and who you were with, along with their identity
How it works

Four steps between you and a very different outcome.

01

Create your profile

Just your name, phone number, and an emergency contact. Takes under a minute — no card required.

02

Scan your guest's cédula

Snap a photo of their Colombian ID. We verify it's real and unexpired against the national civil registry.

03

Check in & set a timer

Once your guest arrives, tap check-in to log your exact location, then set how long until you check in again.

04

We watch the clock — you don't have to

Check back in and it's a non-event. Miss it, and Noscopo starts working through the escalation below automatically.

If you don't check back in

Escalation happens automatically — no app-opening required.

This all runs by SMS as well as WhatsApp simultaneously, so it works even if your phone is locked, stolen, dead-battery-adjacent, or you can't safely reach for it. You set a PIN number so the perpetrator can't check in for you to subvert the system.

T+0:00

Check-in timer expires

Your emergency contact gets an immediate text: you've listed them as your emergency contact and haven't checked back in — possible emergency situation requiring attention.

Every hour after

You get a reminder text

Noscopo texts you directly, hourly, letting you know that if you don't check in within 24 hours of your last check-in time, your location will be shared with authorities.

T+24:00

Authorities are notified

If you still haven't checked in after 24 hours, Noscopo notifies local authorities and shares your last known check-in location and who you were with, along with their identity, to support a welfare check.

Verification & privacy

Real ID checks. Minimal data. Nothing sold.

Registry-backed ID checks

Cédula scans are validated through third-party providers that connect directly to Colombia's Registraduría Nacional — the same civil registry used for official identity checks — confirming the document is real, current, and not reported deceased or invalid.

Only what's needed, encrypted

We store your contact info, your guest's verification result, and check-in timestamps and location — nothing more. Data is encrypted at rest and never sold or used for advertising. It will only be shared with your emergency contact and the authorities to ensure your safety within the parameters that you've set.

SMS+WhatsApp, works offline

Check-in reminders, emergency-contact alerts, and escalation warnings all run over SMS+WhatsApp — so safety doesn't depend on Wi-Fi, data, or you actively holding the app open.

Your next guest doesn't have to be a gamble.

Create your free profile in under a minute. Verify your first guest's cédula tonight.