ARCHIVED - Malaga Police probe after reports French tourist was injected with date rape drug

Cases of clubbers and the elderly being pricked with needles have reportedly grown in Malaga city, Andalusia

The National Police in Malaga are investigating a possible case of a woman being injected with a date rape or other drug after a French tourist came forward to say she suspected she had been attacked.

The 22-year-old reported leaving a Malaga city nightclub with a "foreign" man, and together they headed to her apartment on July 8.

The next morning, the young woman woke up feeling disoriented and dizzy and noticed two puncture marks on one of her arms, according to police sources. She had little moemmory of what had happened.

Laboratory results are still pending to determine if the young woman was indeed injected with a drug against her will, and could take between four and five weeks. In the meantime, police are still trying to piece together exactly what happened that night and trace the unknown male.

Experts say drugs such liquid ecstasy or GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid) are usually used as the substance of choice as they quickly disappears without a trace. They are generally administered by diluting the drug in the unsuspecting victim's drink, although the dangerous craze of pricking with needles is becoming more widespread across Spain.

Apparently young women and the elderly are most at risk of being targeted; the former with a sexual motive and the latter more often than not to render them helpless during a robbery.

Forensic expert and author of a guide for the prevention of this type of dangerous practice, Esperanza López, warned that "the number of complaints is on the rise".

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However, she added: "We don't know if there are actually more cases or whether more people are reporting the incidents and whether or not in all cases analyses and the investigations confirm it later".

According to data from the Clínico health facility, 12 sexual assaults on women were attended at the hospital between January and June of this year. Five of them involved chemical injection.

All of the dozen victims were aged between 20 and 45 years old; eight were Spanish and the rest were foreign.

In addition, during this same period, the hospital treated four other patients who were pricked with a drug during a robbery.

Forensic expert López explained that most of the crimes committed under chemical submission are usually of a sexual nature, such as abuse or assault, but not exclusively.

"Most of the victims are young women but chemical submission is not exclusive to one type of crime, nor to a specific sex. It can also be used with the elderly to rob them or swindle them.

However, in most cases the profile of the victim is that of a young woman, who remembers being at a party or club and waking up "in a different place, often naked, dazed and with the feeling that something has happened, without knowing exactly what," added the author.

Image: Wikimedia Commons