One of the suspects in the organization of a series of kidnappings and torture of people in France, people associated with cryptocurrency trading, was detained in Morocco on June 3. The day before, it was reported that 25 suspects have already been charged, many of whom are minors.
For a long time, 24-year-old French-Moroccan citizen Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou was wanted by France through Interpol for several crimes, including armed assault and extortion, kidnapping. At the time of his arrest, Bajjou was in possession of a number of weapons, smartphones and other means of communication. He is allegedly linked to a series of violent cryptocurrency-related crimes that began earlier this year.
Minister of Justice of France Gérald Darmanin thanked the Moroccan authorities for the detention of the man, noting the excellent judicial cooperation between the two countries.
In January of this year, David Balland, co-founder of the French hardware wallet company Ledger, and his wife were kidnapped in France. The attackers cut off his finger to demand a ransom of 10 million euros from business associates. The couple was released by elite French police officers.
Bajjou is also suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of another man in May. One of his fingers was also cut off and a ransom was demanded in cryptocurrency.
Later that month, the daughter and granddaughter of the CEO of the French cryptocurrency platform Paymium were rescued by passersby from an attempted kidnapping in broad daylight in Paris.
Bajjou may be behind the organization of all these crimes.
In general, the international media saw a tendency to increase in the number of physical crimes related to theft of cryptocurrencies.
Source: Le Parisien
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