Gay Bar Patron Claims To Be Victim of Drug-Induced Robbery
NBC News, the previously unreported incident occurred days before six suspects allegedly involved in the scheme were arrested and indicted on charges of grand larceny, first-degree robbery, and conspiracy to drug and rob at least a dozen victims at various clubs and bars.Three of the men also face murder charges related to the deaths of D.C. political consultant John Umberger and Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez, who both died from overdoses of a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol, and other drugs.The suspects in the criminal ring allegedly drugged their victims to incapacitate and rob them, often using facial recognition technology to access their phones, between September 2021 and August 2022. The most recent victim, a 30-year-old gay man known as “Michael” — whose full name is being kept confidential — said he went out on March 25 to The Eagle NYC, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, where at least three other drugging victims claimed to have gone prior to being robbed. According to Michael, he was intoxicated when three men approached him and his friends after leaving the bar around 3:45 a.m.From what he could recall, he entered a taxi with the men, while his friends went home in a separate taxi.Michael remembers being in an unknown apartment before regaining consciousness several hours later without his cell phone.