Spanish woman faked kidnapping in Dominican Republic

Madrid.-Spanish police have detained a 22-year old Spanish woman for faking her ownkidnapping in the Dominican Republic in order to obtain money from her fatherfor funding a musical production.

A policecommuniqué says she was arrested on Thursday at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez airport.

Her father,who lives in Barcelona, received a phone call from theDominican Republic on August 15th in which he could hear hisdaughter crying and a man with a Latin American accent threatening him that hisdaughter’s life was in danger.

Three dayslater he received another call demanding a ransom payment of 6,000 euros(almost US$8,000).

The youngwoman had traveled to Santo Domingo on August 14th without tellingher family and with no return ticket, to meet a young man she had met onlineand formed a romantic relationship.

The police identifiedher companion and suspected kidnapper and provided the information to the DominicanNational Police via Interpol, and they were able to locate the couple at hishome.

The youngSpanish woman confessed that it had all been staged to obtain money from herfather in order to finance a musical production, as she wanted to be a singer.

Dominicanpolice detained the couple. The man, a 23-year old Dominican citizen, is underarrest in Santo Domingo, while the woman was sent back to Spain for arrest upon her arrival in Madrid.