Paraguayan police arrest man for faking kidnapping by guerrillas

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Paraguayan police arrested Juan Carlos Olmedo on Friday for having faked his kidnapping at the hands of a guerrilla group to request ransom money from his brother.

The fake kidnapping took place at the end of July. After his release, without payment of ransom, Olmedo told his relatives that he had been captured by people wearing clothes of the Agrupación Campesina Armada Ejército del Pueblo (ACA-EP), a split of the guerrilla group Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP), which operates in the north of the country.

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According to prosecutor Arnaldo Arguello of the Public Prosecutor’s Specialized Anti-Kidnapping Unit, prosecutors determined that Olmedo and four others masterminded the alleged kidnapping to solicit US$200,000 from his brother.

Olmedo and the other four men were arrested for simulation of a criminal act.

Olmedo’s “release” took place three days after his “kidnapping”, without payment of ransom and without investigators determining who was responsible for the kidnapping.