The Ugandan Criminal Investigations Directorate said the gangs use the women to draw in potential male victims and then steal their possessions after they fall unconscious from inhaling the chemical sedative on the chests of the women, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

"We have found victims in an unconscious state," said Fred Enanga, spokesman for the Criminal Investigations Directorate. "You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him. And the victim doesn't remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing."

Enanga said investigators have not determined how the thieves obtained the chloroform to use in their crimes.

"We don't know exactly how they get these materials," he said. "That is something that our investigations must crack."