Kathmandu. French police have freed a man who was kidnapped in Paris to collect ransom from the son of a crypto millionaire. Prosecutors said police raided the weekend to find the man who was kidnapped last week.
“The identity of the man has not been revealed, but he was freed on Saturday night in a raid in the Paris suburb of Essonne,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. He was kidnapped in the southern 14th arrondissement of Paris at midnight on Thursday. A police officer speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said he was kidnapped by four men wearing ski masks in a delivery van.
“The victim is initially believed to be the father of a cryptocurrency trader,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of between 5 million and 7 million euros ($5.7 million and $7.9 million), Le Parisien newspaper reported.
A source involved in the investigation told AFP that one of the kidnapped man’s fingers had been severed. “If the police had not raided the place, there was a risk that other parts of his body would have been mutilated,” the source said. Prosecutors have increased the number of people arrested from four to five after a suspect was detained driving a vehicle that they believe was used by criminals, all aged over 20.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau praised the “decisive” operation by police to free the man in a message on Twitter. The victim’s wife told investigators that her husband and wealthy son, who own a crypto marketing firm in Malta, had been the target of threats in the past. This is the latest kidnapping since the January 21 kidnapping of a French crypto tycoon and his friend. The victim, David Baland, co-founded crypto firm Ledger, which was worth more than $1 billion. The kidnappers are understood to have cut off Baland’s finger and demanded a large ransom.
The kidnapped man was found tied up in the boot of a car in the Paris suburb of Essonne, where Baland’s girlfriend was. Nine suspects are under criminal investigation in the case, including a 26-year-old notorious suspect who has previously been charged with kidnapping.
Earlier in January, a 56-year-old man was found dead in the boot of a car near the city of Mainz. He was the father of a crypto-influencer operating from Dubai. Who was kidnapped and later held for ransom after boasting about his profits online.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्