Illegal Immigrant from Mexico Pleads Guilty to Staging Fake Kidnapping Last Year Purportedly Committed by Federal Agents

LOS ANGELES - An illegal alien from Mexico pleaded guilty today to orchestrating a phony kidnapping last year that she blamed on federal agents or people working with federal agents.

Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón, 43, of South Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to impede, obstruct, impair, and defeat the lawful function of Homeland Security Investigations within federal jurisdiction.

According to her plea agreement, in June 2025, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was engaged in carrying out lawful government functions, including credible threats to public safety such as kidnapping. In June and July of 2025, Calderón faked her apprehension by federal agents or surrogates acting on behalf of federal agents.

On June 25, 2025, Calderón falsely told an individual that "immigration" was taking her while in or near a fast-food restaurant and that immigration officials had "turned the lights on," "threatened to break her window" and were taking her into custody, according to court documents.

Two days later, Calderón called another individual, who was a member of a tenants' rights group, using the caller ID blocking feature on her telephone and falsely claimed she had been taken by "authorities" to San Ysidro where Calderón and others were pressured to sign voluntary removal documents.

That same day, Calderón called a third individual, again using the caller ID blocking feature on her phone, and falsely claimed that she had been moved to a warehouse in an unknown location where she was being held with other detainees.

On June 28, 2025, Calderón made another phone call to the second individual she contacted, using her caller ID blocking phone feature, and said she was being held with someone from "B-18" (an immigration facility in Los Angeles) and another person who had been "picked up at a gas station in Bakersfield."

As a result of Calderón's intentional lies, false information was reported to the media and law enforcement that Calderón had been "kidnapped" by masked men in plain clothes driving an unmarked vehicle, who were acting as federal agents or as surrogates of federal agents.

On June 30, 2025, in Los Angeles, community organizers held a press conference where other individuals repeated Calderón's lies and demanded her "release" from custody. Meanwhile, Calderón knew about the false media coverage and chose to stay hidden in Bakersfield.

On July 3, 2025, Calderón used the caller ID blocking feature on her phone again called an individual and falsely claimed she would be released soon because of all the media coverage. That same day, she traveled from Bakersfield to Tulare County to stage her release from custody.

She then approached an individual in Tulare County and lied that she had just been dropped off by "Border Patrol." She then asked this individual to be a witness in her "case" against "Border Patrol" because she planned to sue that agency.

Calderón also altered her appearance to make it appear that she had been mistreated while in custody. A co-conspirator took photographs of Calderón's altered appearance.

From July 3, 2025, to July 5, 2025, Calderón turned off her phones and refused to return the phone calls of law enforcement officials, and caused others to do the same, when she knew law enforcement was looking for her.

Calderón knew or had reason to know that law enforcement would expend resources looking for her because of her false kidnapping claims.

United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson scheduled a February 8, 2027, sentencing hearing, at which time Calderón will face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

HSI's El Camino Real Financial Crimes Division, a multi-agency division of HSI Los Angeles that includes federal and state investigators, investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Lana Morton Owens of the National Security Division and Matthew J. Tako of the Transnational Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case.