More than 12 suspects, including minors, were custody by the French police in connection with recent crypto-related abduction cases in Paris.
A report from local media claims That the arrests were performed on the morning of 27 May by the Brigade de Répression du Banditism (BRB), the specialized anti-gang unit of France.
The suspects, including different minors, were held in coordinated operations in Île-de-France and Loire-Atlantique with the help of other police units.
Authorities believe that the two controversial abduction attempts, one in which the father of a crypto entrepreneur and another focuses on the daughter of a CEO of Crypto Exchange.
Researchers suspect that the involvement of a larger criminal organization that reportedly would have been recruited through social media platforms to carry out the abductions.
The first case, which took place on May 1, concerned the kidnapping of the father of a rich poker streamer and cryptocurrency investor. The victim was abducted by four masked men with the help of a stolen van disguised with a fake -up logo.
The abductors reportedly demanded a ransom of € 5 to € 7 million in cryptocurrency. To put pressure on the son of the victim, they mutilated the father by breaking a finger and filming the act. He was finally saved By the police during a raid in Palaiseau, south of Paris.
In the second incident, on 13 May, three masked men tried to kidnap a 34-year-old woman in broad daylight in the 11th district of Paris.
The woman, later identified as the daughter of Pierre Noizat, CEO and co-founder of Crypto Exchange Paymium, managed to escape with the help of bystanders, including her partner, who was physically attacked during the fight.
The attackers fled the stage in a van with chronopost markings.
So far, six people have been charged and in provisional detention in connection with the first case. The arrested people are reportedly young and were specifically recruited for the operation. In the second case, arrests were only made in this last sweep.
As previously reported by crypto.news, the French Ministry of the Interior has since performed protection measures for prominent crypto leaders and their families.
France has become the epicenter of a growing wave of crypto-oriented violence, with at least six of such incidents only this year. The trend follows on the January abduction of co-founder David Balland, who was tortured during a ransom attempt with € 10 million in Crypto.
