French-Moroccan Crypto Kidnapper Nabbed in Morocco!

Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou Caught Red-Handed in Tangier

Holy smokes! Moroccan authorities just nabbed Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, a French-Moroccan dude accused of masterminding a series of wild kidnappings targeting crypto bigwigs and their families back in France. This guy was taken down on Wednesday, June 4, right in the heart of Tangier, Morocco's bustling northern city.

Here's the scoop: Moroccan cops, tipped off by a 2023 Interpol red notice from the French, teamed up with the National Brigade of the Judicial Police and the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance. They launched a slick operation that led straight to Bajjou's arrest in Tangier.

This 24-year-old, originally from Le Chesnay near Paris, was caught with a stash of knives, a bunch of mobile phones, and other communication gadgets. Talk about a criminal's toolkit!

But wait, there's more! Moroccan police also seized a wad of cash they think is tied to his dirty deeds. Those electronics? They're now under the microscope for a deep tech analysis.

French prosecutors are pointing the finger at Bajjou for being the brains behind several brutal kidnappings. Remember the January snatching of David Balland, co-founder of Ledger, the big French crypto wallet company? Yeah, Bajjou's suspected of pulling the strings on that one.

Get this: during Balland's nightmare, the kidnappers chopped off one of his fingers, trying to squeeze a multimillion-euro crypto ransom out of him. Brutal!

Bajjou's arrest is a huge win for the ongoing investigation into a wave of crypto-targeted kidnappings rocking France.

Just on May 13, masked thugs tried to snatch the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, CEO of the crypto exchange Paymium, right in the middle of Paris in broad daylight. Bystanders caught the whole thing on video, and their quick thinking scared the attackers off, forcing them to speed away in a van.

And ten days before that, on May 3, cops rescued the dad of a rich crypto entrepreneur, who'd been held captive for days. The kidnappers used a stolen van tricked out with a fake courier logo and demanded a whopping €7 million ransom in cryptocurrency.

After these crazy incidents, French officials kicked into high gear with countermeasures like beefed-up surveillance, emergency police hotlines, and home security checks for crypto execs and their families.

The game-changer came on May 27 when cops raided spots across Île-de-France and Loire-Atlantique, rounding up over a dozen suspects. These raids were led by the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme, France's top anti-gang unit. They uncovered a loose but tight-knit network that allegedly used social media to recruit young guns.

By May 31, French prosecutors had slapped charges on 25 people, some as young as 16, linked to these attempted kidnappings. Most of them were foot soldiers or logistics guys, but the big bosses were still out there—until Bajjou got caught this week.

Investigators say these charged folks were part of coordinated attacks using stolen rides, fake courier branding, and pre-planned stalking. A lot of them are from the Paris area, but others come from places like Senegal, Angola, and Russia.