Don't drink that juice]: 'Mogadon muggers' are spiking the joys of European rail travel, warns Shaun Smith

TRAVELLERS abroad have long been wary of drinking the local water, but a new danger has now emerged - orange juice. If you were travelling through Europe by train and a stranger offered you a can of orange juice, would you accept it or politely decline the offering?

Unfortunately, the question is not concerned so much with etiquette as with self-preservation. While refusing such generosity may render you liable to charges of antisocial behaviour, acceptance could result in an unusually long siesta.

The phenomenon of 'Mogadon mugging' or 'tranquilliser theft', in which the victim is rendered unconscious, is raising its ugly head on some European trains.

The technique is straightforward - persuade a traveller to accept a soft drink laced with a mixture of drugs, and alleviate them of their possessions after they have entered the land of nod. Experienced travellers may be sufficiently wary of unsolicited acts of generosity to avoid unsealed drinks, but the Mogadon muggers are sophisticated enough to re-seal containers after introducing their unorthodox additives.

Eric Lee, an American student studying at St Andrew's University, was travelling through Europe during his Easter break. He awoke in a French hospital after drinking a can of juice given him by a fellow traveller who had been sharing his carriage on a train journey between Barcelona and France.

The casually dressed, middle-aged stranger declared his intention to buy some refreshments and enquired whether Eric would care to have something brought back. He declined, but was offered a can of juice upon the stranger's return and felt it would be ungracious to decline. Twelve hours later Eric awoke in Perpignan with a doctor slapping his face and warning him not to move his arms - to avoid injury from his intravenous drip. He suffered no permanent injury, and his only loss was of travellers' cheques, but, clearly, the situation could have been far more serious.

The container had displayed no signs of having been tampered with, but it contained a cocktail of four drugs. With hindsight Mr Lee considers certain indicators should have alerted him to the danger - his companion toasted him in Arabic despite claiming to be Spanish, gritty particles remained at the bottom of the container after he finished the drink, and his companion displayed considerable anxiety as Mr Lee left to use the lavatory.

The railway robbery ruse is far from uncommon and lone travellers are not the only victims. Whole groups can be simultaneously relieved of their trinkets by gangs flooding entire compartments with ether, rendering all its occupants unconscious.

It would take a particularly jaundiced view of human nature to suspect an ulterior motive behind every act of kindness. But people need to protect themselves. Such crimes are particularly insidious because they lead to a breakdown of trust and result in the avoidance of the normal social interactions that make travelling pleasant.

Would-be travellers are advised to treat all refreshments offered by strangers with a degree of suspicion, seek assistance if foul play is suspected, and if a carriage smells unusual bear in mind it could be an unofficial sleeper compartment.