The 43-year-old woman was arrested in Mexico after a “romance scam on steroids,” an F.B.I. agent said.
A 43-year-old Las Vegas woman has been arrested in Mexico on charges that she lured at least four older men on dating websites, drugged them and tried to steal millions of dollars from them in a deadly scheme, the authorities said Friday.
The woman, Aurora Phelps, was charged with one count of kidnapping resulting in death in the scheme, which the F.B.I. said had led to at least three deaths.
Spencer L. Evans, the top F.B.I. agent in Las Vegas, said Friday that the investigation was “ongoing” and that Ms. Phelps might face more charges in the United States and Mexico.
In one case, Ms. Phelps drugged a man in Las Vegas after meeting him online, took him to Mexico City and used his credit card to rent a hotel room, where he died, according to a 21-count indictment unsealed this month.
Ms. Phelps pushed the man, who was “zonked out of his mind” on drugs, in a wheelchair as they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at a pedestrian crossing, Mr. Evans said in an interview on Friday.
She took her daughter on the trip to Mexico City, in November 2022, according to the authorities. She had drugged the man during a lunch in Las Vegas one day after meeting him on an online dating service, according to the indictment, filed in federal court in Nevada.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
