MIAMI — A 48-year-old woman is facing charges after Miami police said she extorted two boys.
Investigators said it all began last March when one of the boys bought a BB gun off Amazon and gave it to his brother, who then took it to school and subsequently got caught and suspended.
Poice said school staffers called the student’s emergency contact, Valeda Suarez. The arrest report doesn’t state how she otherwise knows the two children.
Authorities said she later “offered to have him stay at her residence in the mornings during school hours so that he would not get (in) trouble with his mother.”
The report states that the younger boy told officers that Suarez, of northwest Miami-Dade, “began extorting both” of them, saying she “threatened to report them to the police for possession of a firearm and told them they would go to jail if they did not give her money.”
“Out of fear of being arrested, both victims complied and paid (Suarez) in cash and via Cash App using money provided by their mother,” it states. “The amount of demand varied depending on (her) requests.”
Police said Suarez “also threatened to inform (their) mother about their grades if they failed to comply.”
Investigators said they called Suarez on Wednesday and asked if she’d be willing to meet with them, eventually agreeing to meet at a Taco Bell in North Miami Beach.
Police said there, Suarez “admitted (to) taking advantage of the victims and extorting them, stating that she was going through a difficult time and needed the money.”
Suarez turned herself in at Miami police headquarters on Thursday and was arrested on a felony extortion charge and a municipal ordinance violation for child neglect or abuse.
She faced a judge on Friday morning, who ordered that she be held on a $3,000 bond and to stay away from both children.
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