French authorities have detained 24 people suspected of being involved in a string of kidnappings for ransom targeting cryptocurrency investors and their families.
At least two of the suspects are children, while the majority are under the age of twenty.
According to local media sources, judicial police apprehended approximately ten people in a large-scale raid on Monday after the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB) foiled an attempted kidnapping of a crypto businessman whose identity has not been revealed.
On Tuesday, another ten people were arrested in connection with the attempted abduction of a crypto investor’s daughter.
The arrests were made in connection with two separate investigations into recent kidnapping attempts. The suspects have been charged with “kidnapping and sequestration by an organised gang with acts of torture and barbarity,” “criminal conspiracy,” and “attempted kidnapping by an organized gang,” according to local media.
The suspects, including several minors, are accused of being the logisticians and operatives who carried out the crimes.
An analysis of the ransom transactions from one of the kidnappings reportedly revealed that the suspected mastermind behind them is a 40-year-old French-Moroccan, currently residing in Morocco.
The first case occurred on May 1, when kidnappers abducted the father of a crypto millionaire in an attempt to force the son to pay a ransom between five and seven million euro.
On May 13, the 34-year-old daughter of Pierre Noizat, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange platform Paymium, narrowly escaped being kidnapped in broad daylight in Paris.
Earlier this year, in a similar case to the kidnapped father, French police arrested ten individuals for kidnapping David Balland, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Ledger, and his wife.
The couple was rescued within 48 hours of being kidnapped from their home, after which the kidnappers took them to two separate addresses.
