DEA Employee, Contractor Husband Admit To Faking Kidnapping Plot

WASHINGTON -- An employee of the Drug Enforcement Administration and her contractor husband pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to FBI agents after pretending the husband's children were the target of a kidnapping plot.

Nydia Perez and John Soto, both 44 and residents of Haymarket, Virginia, were working in the United States Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, back in December when they made up a kidnapping plot against Soto's kids. They even had an email sent to the embassy that showed photos of the children "engaged in various everyday activities in order to enhance the seriousness of the threat," according to court documents.

Perez later lied to the FBI and said she thought the would-be kidnapper might have been the family's doorman, while Soto claimed he had no idea who was behind the plot. The court documents don't make clear the couple's motivations for inventing the story in the first place.

Perez is still employed by the DEA, according to a Justice Department press release. Both she and Soto are scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 21.