Monniky Fraga, who claimed she and her husband Lucas were ambushed by three armed men outside their home, has now been arrested for allegedly trying to stage her own kidnapping
An influencer has been arrested over claims she staged her own kidnapping – all to boost her followers online.
Monniky Fraga, 27, claimed she and her husband Lucas were ambushed by three armed men outside their home in Igarassu, Brazil, last April. But now, almost a year since the incident, she has been arrested in a dawn raid by cops – who have said her husband, who was beaten and robbed, was unaware of the plot.
At the time, Fraga told her 48,000-plus followers it was a terrifying ordeal. In a video she said the gang threatened to torture them unless a ransom was paid and that Lucas was assaulted as they handed over their belongings. The pair were allegedly dragged to a wooded area, held for hours and only freed once cash was handed over.
Police now believe she staged the kidnapping to gain media attention. She secured coverage in several outlets to tell her story. Detective Cley Anderson told local media: “As the investigation progressed, it found indications that the alleged kidnap-for-ransom was in fact nothing more than a plot between the supposed victim and one of the perpetrators.”
Thirty police officers took part in the operation, dubbed ‘Smokescreen of Likes’. Officers said three people, in addition to Fraga, were involved in the fake kidnapping.
Detective Anderson said: “The investigation suggests she not only knew about it, but agreed things in advance and stayed in contact with one of those involved afterwards.”
In a bizarre twist, Fraga’s husband, Lucas – who was also kidnapped, assaulted and robbed – was reportedly unaware of the plot. Detective Anderson said her husband knew nothing of the plot: “At all times, he has maintained that he genuinely believed it was a real kidnapping.”
Fraga’s lawyers have requested she be released from custody and placed under house arrest, citing that she has young children. She maintains she was genuinely kidnapped.
She is expected to face charges of blackmail, perverting the course of justice and wasting police time. At the time in an online video she said: “I spent hours in the woods.
She add: “I didn’t know if I’d make it back. There was a river there, and the whole time I thought they were going to kill me and throw me in here, and I’d never see anyone again.
“All I could think about was my children. They beat up Lucas. They were after some gold chains I had posted about. And I said, ‘Those gold chains weren’t mine’.”
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