A Manassas woman has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in staging a kidnapping in Guatemala to obtain ransom money.
Court records say that while living in Guatenala, 34-year-old Sheena Flores called a family member in Manassas in July 2010, saying that she and a child she was caring for had been kidnapped. The family had two hours to send $5,000, or Flores and the child would be killed, she told her family.
That day, her husband also received a text message on his cell phone, saying Flores and the child would die unless he sent $10,000. He wired part of the ransom to Guatemala, prosecutors said.
Flores and two men believed to be MS-13 members carried out the hoax kidnapping, court records say.
Flores pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria in August.
