A 33-year-old man named Mark Ellis staged his own kidnapping by the Sinaloa cartel after suffering significant losses in gambling. He was arrested by police on May 12 in Prescott, Arizona, where he was hiding in the back seat of a car.
In January 2025, Ellis sent messages to his employer demanding a ransom of $17,000, claiming he was being held in a basement by his captors. However, the investigation revealed that he was actually writing these messages from his own home. During his arrest, police also seized drug paraphernalia from his residence.
The court found Ellis guilty of the charges against him, but he went missing after failing to appear at one of the hearings, prompting law enforcement to issue a warrant for his arrest.