Woman pleads guilty to fake Guatemala kidnapping

WASHINGTON–A woman pleaded guilty on Thursday to faking her own kidnapping in Guatemala in an attempt to extort money from her family in Virginia, US authorities said.

Sheena Flores, 34, was living in Guatemala with a child in July 2010 when she contacted family members in Virginia to say that she and the child had been kidnapped, the Justice Department said.

She said they would be killed if the kidnappers’ did not receive $5,000 in two hours. The phone call was followed by a wave of text messages from Flores’ cellphone upping the ransom demand to $10,000, to be paid by the next day.

“Believing that Flores and the child had in fact been kidnapped, a family member wired $3,000 from the eastern district of Virginia to Guatemala,” the Justice Department said.

Flores faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for October 21.