A Salisbury Township man was sentenced to six to 23 months in prison after he pleaded guilty earlier this month to faking his own kidnapping by the Mafia in an attempt to acquire the ransom money, prompting responses from local, state, federal and international law enforcement agencies.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Dennis Reinaker sentenced Joshua B. Fernando, of the 5700 block of Glen Oaks Drive, to two years of probation after he pleaded guilty Feb. 10 to a single felony count of theft by deception.

Fernando, 27, told the victims he traveled to Europe in May 2024 for what he claimed was a business trip, but once abroad he told the victims he had been captured by the Mafia and would be killed if his captors didn’t receive a large ransom.

The victims told investigators that Fernando had first called them claiming he was involved in a car crash in the United Kingdom with an expensive, bullet-proof vehicle owned by a Mafia boss. Fernando asked the victims for a large sum of money to pay the Mafia boss off, they said.

Fernando later called the victims again, they told police, saying the Mafia was following him and threatening to kill him if he didn’t give them more money. The scheme continued to escalate over the coming days, with Fernando claiming that the Mafia had taken him hostage and were beating him.

When the victims asked Fernando to confirm his whereabouts he would create a VPN to mask his true location. Fernando also sent the victims pictures of his bruised and swollen face and created videos of himself being assaulted and abused by his supposed captors in order to keep up the ruse. One such video depicted Fernando on his knees with a masked male behind him holding what appeared to be a gun to his head.

The victims sent a total of $126,500 to Fernando under the false pretense of his abduction by the Mafia. Fernando’s repeated requests for more ransom money became so frequent that the victims grew suspicious of his activity and contacted the London Metropolitan Police and the United States Embassy in the United Kingdom.

After being released by his supposed captors Fernando told the victims he flew back to the United States, where he claimed he was again threatened by the Mafia that he would be a “dead man” if he called the police. The victims contacted Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI to report these threats, to which the FBI informed the victims that they were being scammed.

Police eventually found Fernando in Lancaster County attempting to withdraw $130,000 from a bank account.

A search of Fernando’s cellphone uncovered multiple conversations with his supposed captor discussing how to make his ransom videos appear real.

Fernando admitted to police that he fabricated the events in order to gain money from the victims.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Lingousky prosecuted the case.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Michael Reynolds filed the charges.