France has been plagued by migrant gangs kidnapping wealthy people for years and participating in home invasions, including targeting high-profile celebrities. Now, the latest victim is David Balland, the co-founder of the popular cryptocurrency platform Ledger, who police have already saved from his captives, but not before the criminals cut off his finger to obtain a ransom.
Balland was kidnapped along with his wife on Jan. 21 at their home in Méreau, which is seven kilometers from Vierzon. Both victims were stuffed into vehicles and then separated. Media reports indicate that the kidnappers switched the victims’ location multiple times.
Special police force units were able to secure the release of the husband and wife, but Balland is currently in the hospital, where he is being treated for his severed finger. The kidnapping team was demanding a ransom of €1 million from the other founder of the company.
According to local residents, GIGN special forces police raided a house on Wednesday, Jan. 22, located at Berry Canal, in the city center of Vierzon. They also reported a helicopter crisscrossing the area at low altitude.
Balland was released outside during a massive police operation. According to General Ghislain Réty, the head of the special police force unit GIGN, the co-founder of Ledger was “extremely shocked” when he was taken in. However, the rescue operation was carried out “smoothly” and no one was injured by the police.
Using data from phones, police were then able to locate the wife, who was found on Jan. 23.
“She was tied up in a vehicle in Étampes (Essonne),” added the Paris public prosecutor. The victim had no injuries but is under medical supervision “due to the trauma she suffered.”
In total, 10 people were arrested, made up of nine men and one woman, all aged between 20 and 40. BFMTV reports that they are all previously known to the police for various crimes.
During the operation, part of the ransom was paid, but all the cryptocurrency paid out was traced, frozen and seized by authorities. Investigations are ongoing to identify additional perpetrators by Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco).
The courts are investigating charges of “kidnapping and sequestration by an organized gang with an order to fulfill a condition accompanied by acts of torture or barbarity” and “extortion with a weapon.”
The identities of the kidnappers have not yet been released, but in such previous instances, almost all of these kidnapping gangs have turned out to be foreigners, most from North Africa or the Middle East, many of them even young teens recruited on social media by older criminals. However, in previous decades, left-wing radicals and separatist movements in France also participated in conducting kidnappings and ransoms of wealthier individuals.
As Remix News has previously reported in an in-depth article, France has seen a wave of sophisticated home invasions in recent years, many of which have targeted athletes, television hosts, and other high-profile celebrities such as well-known French figures, such as Vitaa, Bruno Guillon, Jean-François Piège, Anne-Sophie Lapix, and Nikos Aliagas.
