Five suspects aged 18–20 have been arrested after a 35-year-old French magistrate and her 67-year-old mother were kidnapped from their home near Grenoble and held in a garage for about 30 hours. The captors reportedly demanded €1.6m in cryptocurrency and threatened mutilation; no ransom was paid. The victims freed themselves and were rescued by a passer-by; both were hospitalised for injuries and shock. Authorities say this is the third crypto-linked extortion attempt in the region this year.
Five Arrested After French Magistrate and Mother Kidnapped in Crypto Ransom Plot
The women were imprisoned in a garage in Bourg-les-Valence for 30 hours before being rescued - Alex Martin/AFP
Five people have been arrested after a 35-year-old French magistrate and her 67-year-old mother were abducted from their home near Grenoble and held for about 30 hours in what authorities describe as a cryptocurrency-related ransom plot.
At around 3am on Thursday, masked assailants forced entry into the magistrate’s house in Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux, a small commune near Grenoble in south-eastern France. The magistrate’s partner, who was not at the property at the time, works for a start-up active in the cryptocurrency sector.
The attackers forced the magistrate and her mother into the boot of a car and drove them roughly 60 miles to Bourg-lès-Valence, where they were tied up and held inside a garage.
Masked kidnappers broke into the magistrate’s home in Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux on Thursday
While about 160 police officers conducted searches for the missing pair, the two women managed to free themselves and at about 8am on Friday attracted the attention of a passer-by by pounding on the garage door and shouting for help.
“I heard them banging, banging, screaming, I heard 'help', I opened the garage gate and there are two women who came out,” a witness who assisted the victims told France Inter.
According to Thierry Dran, the public prosecutor in Lyon, the magistrate’s partner later received a ransom demand and threats that the captors would mutilate the victims. French newspaper Le Figaro reported the kidnappers sought €1.6m (£1.4m) in cryptocurrency. Authorities said no ransom was paid.
Mr Dran said the magistrate sustained several head wounds. Both women were taken to hospital and treated for injuries and shock.
Thierry Dran, the public prosecutor in Lyon, said that the kidnappers threatened to mutilate the women
Police arrested five suspects, aged between 18 and 20 and including one woman, in the suburbs of Lyon and around Chambéry on Saturday and Sunday. Officials said the group had been preparing to flee to Spain.
Authorities described this incident as the third crypto-linked extortion attempt in the region since the start of the year. Recent related cases include the abduction of a retired couple in Haute-Savoie reportedly held for an €8m ransom, the seizure of a 74-year-old man in Voiron with a €3m demand, and last January’s high-profile kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland, in which a captor severed a finger and a €10m demand was reported.
Police continue to investigate the motives and any connections between the recent cases as they step up efforts to counter a worrying trend of crypto-linked kidnappings in France.
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