The post French Police Arrest Six After Magistrate Kidnapped in Crypto Ransom Case appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In brief Authorities detained six suspects, including a minor, after a magistrate and her mother were abducted and later escaped. Prosecutors said kidnappers demanded crypto as a ransom and threatened mutilation, but no payment was made. The case adds to a rise in crypto-linked “wrench attacks,” with France emerging as a focal point, Decrypt was told. French police have arrested six people after a magistrate was kidnapped and held for several hours in a case authorities say involved a crypto ransom demand. The arrests followed the discovery of the 35-year-old magistrate and her 67-year-old mother on Friday morning, when they were found injured in a garage in the southeastern Drôme region, according to a report from Agence France-Presse syndicated on local media. Prosecutors said the magistrate’s partner, who was not home when the abduction took place overnight from Wednesday to Thursday last week, was targeted after the kidnappers sent her a message and a photo of the two women demanding a crypto ransom. Authorities then launched a large-scale search involving 160 officers, according to prosecutor Thierry Dran, who described her as “an associate in a startup with cryptocurrency activities” at a press conference on Friday.  The latest case in France is “quite typical patterns in past wrench-type incidents” involving kidnapping and extortion, though cases “involving as many as five abductors are relatively rare,” and suggest that “such a pattern is developing into organized crime,” a representative at blockchain security firm CertiK told Decrypt. The captors reportedly threatened to mutilate the victims if payment was not made quickly, though prosecutors did not disclose the amount demanded. “Alerted by the noise, a neighbor intervened. He was able to open the door and thus allow our two victims to escape,” a translation of the conference statement reads. Dran confirmed that no ransom…

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Filed under: News - @ February 9, 2026 5:24 am