That seductive girl in a bar ended up costing two foreign men far more than they expected.

Instead of a drink back in his hotel room, the men found themselves drugged and robbed, victims of a scheme targeting male foreigners in high-end downtown lounges in Shanghai.

Two young couples from a South Asian country have been arrested in connection with the robberies, which netted cash and goods worth about 100,000 yuan (US$14,600), local media reported yesterday.

The city's local procuratorate said that on July 22, one of the female suspects began talking with a man from the Netherlands at a bar in the city.

She then asked whether she could continue the conversation over a drink at his hotel.

On the way she persuaded him to eat a chocolate containing the powerful sedative Valium.

The victim then fell unconscious around 3:30 am, soon after entering his hotel room.

His cash, credit cards, laptop, mobile phone and other properties, along with his passport, were stolen.

The suspects later used the credit cards to buy gold and Longines watches valued at 30,000 yuan, according to the procuratorate.

The couples also robbed a Frenchman of 28,000 yuan worth of property the next day using the same technique. Later they used his credit cards to buy two luxury watches valued at more than 40,000 yuan.

Police seized all four suspects, including two brothers from the South Asian country and their wives, at the hotel where they resided.

Both the local police and procuratorate declined to reveal the suspects' names and nationalities yesterday.

(China Daily September 22, 2009)