Whitey Ford
03-11-2024, 09:11 PM
‘500 now or buenas noches:’ Man accused of extorting wife with cartel abduction ruse
https://i.imgur.com/A6sbV1p.jpg
A man whose wife reported him missing to the Indian Harbour Beach Police Department last year — amid a saga of what she believed were ransom payments she was making to a cartel that abducted him — now faces charges in the “secret life” investigators say he was really living.
Eric Johnson, 29, is accused of bilking his wife out of more than $50,000 by texting her while pretending to be other people and lying about his so-called involvement in a nondescript cartel.
Investigators noted no signs of foul play at the couple’s shared residence. Police learned that the two had been wed for 11 months at the time, a span in which Johnson had begun to pile stories onto his wife about a “large quantity of cocaine” he said he lost while running it for a drug cartel. This was the backstory that police say Johnson fabricated in order to convince his wife that he owed a cartel some $60,000 in drug money.
His wife apparently sent money but Johnson never came home on Dec. 14. Over three months she sent money over 50 times until she only had “$1.71 to her name,” the affidavit said. That’s when she decided to go to police for help. She told cops she didn’t go to authorities before because she was scared for his safety.
In an interview with detectives, he admitted the whole kidnapping was a ruse to get his wife to send him money. He said he used the money his wife gave him to buy cocaine. Officers found a small amount of cocaine and a crack pipe in the car, the affidavit said.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/03/09/500-now-or-buenas-noches-man-accused-of-extorting-wife-with-cartel-abduction-ruse/
https://i.imgur.com/A6sbV1p.jpg
A man whose wife reported him missing to the Indian Harbour Beach Police Department last year — amid a saga of what she believed were ransom payments she was making to a cartel that abducted him — now faces charges in the “secret life” investigators say he was really living.
Eric Johnson, 29, is accused of bilking his wife out of more than $50,000 by texting her while pretending to be other people and lying about his so-called involvement in a nondescript cartel.
Investigators noted no signs of foul play at the couple’s shared residence. Police learned that the two had been wed for 11 months at the time, a span in which Johnson had begun to pile stories onto his wife about a “large quantity of cocaine” he said he lost while running it for a drug cartel. This was the backstory that police say Johnson fabricated in order to convince his wife that he owed a cartel some $60,000 in drug money.
His wife apparently sent money but Johnson never came home on Dec. 14. Over three months she sent money over 50 times until she only had “$1.71 to her name,” the affidavit said. That’s when she decided to go to police for help. She told cops she didn’t go to authorities before because she was scared for his safety.
In an interview with detectives, he admitted the whole kidnapping was a ruse to get his wife to send him money. He said he used the money his wife gave him to buy cocaine. Officers found a small amount of cocaine and a crack pipe in the car, the affidavit said.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/03/09/500-now-or-buenas-noches-man-accused-of-extorting-wife-with-cartel-abduction-ruse/