The French police have detained seven people in relation to the kidnapping of a 20-year-old Swiss man. A special operation involving 150 military personnel of the elite National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) unit was successful in rescuing the abductee from the southeastern city of Valence.
According to a local report, the operation by the GIGN squad took place in a snack bar on Rue d’Asti in Valence’s Fontbarlettes neighborhood. The victim was reportedly found tied up in a house in the neighborhood near the city’s high-speed TGV train station.
The French authorities arrested seven men believed to be involved in the crime. On September 4, they were taken before the Lyon Interregional Specialized Jurisdiction (JIRS).
“On August 31, an operation was launched under the authority of the Lyon Inter-Regional Specialized Jurisdiction (JIRS) prosecutor’s office, leading to the arrest of the main suspect and two other individuals,” The Lyon prosecutor’s office added, “Seven people in custody are being brought before an investigating judge today as part of a judicial investigation opened by the Lyon JIRS prosecutor’s office on charges of arrest, kidnapping, false imprisonment or arbitrary detention of a hostage to obtain the execution of an order or condition committed by an organized gang, extortion by an organized gang with a weapon and participation in a criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing a crime aggravated by the commission of an organized gang.”
Rising crypto kidnappings
This case marks a latest addition in the emerging cryptocurrency-related abductions around the world.
In June this year, a 23-year-old man was kidnapped in Maisons-Alfort near Paris. The kidnappers held the victim for hours and wanted 5,000 euros in cash and access to his Ledger wallet. However, cryptocurrency-related kidnappings are not exclusive to France.
Similar attacks have happened in places like New York, India, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the UK, and Spain over the last few years. Additionally, last week, an Indian court sentenced a former parliamentarian and senior police officers to life imprisonment in connection to a 2018 Bitcoin extortion and kidnapping case.