French Cops Crack Down on Crypto Kidnapping Crew

Masked Men, Severed Fingers, and a High-Stakes Manhunt

Holy smokes, the French police are on a roll! They've just nabbed more shady characters tied to a terrifying wave of violent abductions aimed at crypto big shots and their loved ones. Talk about a nightmare!

Word on the street is that these latest busts went down on Tuesday, as part of a no-holds-barred investigation into a full-blown kidnapping-for-ransom racket. You can bet the cops ain't messing around!

The exact headcount of the suspects they've cuffed is still under wraps, but insiders spill that these punks are being grilled under France's hardcore anti-organized crime laws. We're talking up to 96 hours of lockup without even a charge. Yikes!

These arrests are all tied to that brutal May 1 snatch-and-grab of a wealthy crypto entrepreneur's old man, right out of Paris's 14th arrondissement in the middle of the damn day! Four masked goons, posing as delivery dudes, shoved the poor guy into a van while people just stood there, mouths hanging open.

And get this—these heartless crooks even chopped off one of the victim's fingers, trying to extort millions in crypto! But the cops swooped in, guns blazing, and a tactical unit rescued him after days of hell in some sketchy house on the outskirts of Paris.

After that, the authorities kicked off a massive manhunt to take down what they're calling a slick extortion network that's got its sights set on anyone with a fat crypto wallet.

And just when you thought it couldn't get wilder, Moroccan police cuffed a 24-year-old named Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou in Tangier, just days ago.

This dual French-Moroccan dude is accused of being the mastermind behind a bunch of these twisted abduction plots, including the January kidnapping of David Balland, the co-founder of French crypto wallet provider Ledger. Talk about a real-life villain!

Acting on a French-issued Interpol red notice, Moroccan cops nabbed Bajjou along with a stash of weapons, gadgets, and what they think is dirty money. And you bet the French want him back on their turf, pronto.

The word is that Bajjou was pulling the strings of this whole sinister web, recruiting young guns via social media and chat apps. Can you believe it?

By May 31, French prosecutors had thrown the book at 25 people, aged 16 to 23, linked to these attempted snatch jobs. Most of these punks were from the Paris area, but others hailed from places like Senegal, Angola, and Russia. They were lured in with promises of cash and used as cannon fodder in these high-risk heists.

One of the cases connected to this gang was the botched May 13 abduction of the daughter and grandson of Paymium CEO Pierre Noizat, right in the heart of Paris. The whole thing was caught on camera by bystanders. The attackers bailed, but the cops later traced it back to the same crew.