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Mayor Accused of Faking Her Own Kidnapping

Her brother-in-law and husband are now on the run.

A mayor is suspected of faking her own kidnapping.

Nancy Napoles is the municipal president of the Mexican town of Tenancingo and is accused of carrying out an elaborate plot to collect $2 million in embezzled public funds disguised as a ransom.

Prosecutors said she was forced out of a car at gunpoint, with three people now arrested and her husband and brother-in-law on the run. No warrant had been issued for her arrest at the time of writing.

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Napoles is a member of the same Morena political party as President Claudia Sheinbaum and, in a social media video, insisted that the allegations are “politicized” and that she is innocent.

Combating corruption has been a key tenet of Sheinbaum’s presidency.

Napoles has been asked to give evidence on July 9 for the alleged “simulation of a kidnapping” by prosecutors, CBS News reports.

The case against Napoles comes following testimony from the three arrested suspects.

Her captors demanded “40 million pesos in exchange for her freedom”—around $2.3 million—prosecutors said, adding that they had threatened to kill her and her family.

Prosecutors also released images of what they allege is the fake kidnapping.

CBS reports that a witness to the incident tipped off the police, who launched an investigation that they say revealed inconsistencies in her story.

They say her husband and brother-in-law plotted to use cash that “was already embezzled, creating a justification for the money.”

Professing her innocence, Napoles said she will cooperate with investigators to ensure “the guilty actors are punished.”

In a statement translated from Spanish, prosecutors Fiscalía Edoméx said, “The #FiscalíaEdoméx has detained three individuals identified as Karla Valeria ‘N,’ Víctor Manuel ‘N’ and Christian ‘N.’”

It said it “has also requested a Hearing for the Formulation of Imputation against a municipal public servant and holds a valid judicial warrant for the capture of two additional males, all of them allegedly related to the ‘kidnapping’ of a female with initials N.N.P., who serves as the municipal president of #Tenancingo, events that occurred on May 31 of this year.

“These individuals would have simulated the kidnapping of the president to obtain a payment of 40 million pesos in exchange for the ‘freedom of the victim.’”

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