Failed crypto ransom plot ends with arrests in France

According to the Lyon public prosecutor’s office, four men and one woman were taken into custody after investigators traced the case that began when the magistrate and her 67-year-old mother were abducted overnight from Wednesday to Thursday (Feb 4-5, 2026)  and held for roughly 30 hours. The two women were discovered on Friday morning in a garage in Bourg-lès-Valence, in the Drôme department, and were freed after managing to raise the alarm.

Prosecutors said the kidnapping was linked to a demand for a ransom to be paid in cryptocurrency. Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told reporters that the magistrate’s partner, who was not home at the time of the abduction, holds a senior role at a cryptocurrency start-up and became the point of contact for the kidnappers. Dran said the partner received a message and a photograph of the magistrate from the abductors, who demanded a crypto transfer and threatened to mutilate the victims if the money was not sent quickly. The prosecutor did not disclose the amount demanded.

Authorities said a large-scale search was launched as the case unfolded, involving around 160 officers, as police worked to locate the victims and identify suspects. The arrests were announced after the women were recovered and investigators moved to detain those believed to be involved in planning or carrying out the kidnapping. 

The prosecutor’s office framed the incident as part of a broader security concern, noting that France has faced multiple kidnapping and extortion attempts targeting families of people perceived to have substantial crypto-linked wealth. Prosecutors pointed to prior cases in which victims were threatened or harmed to pressure relatives into paying ransoms.

In one earlier case referenced by prosecutors, a prominent figure in the French crypto sector and their partner were kidnapped in January 2025, and the victim was mutilated as part of the extortion attempt before being freed. Prosecutors also cited a separate case in May in which the father of a person running a Malta-based crypto company was abducted in Paris, with a multi-million-euro ransom demand reported and the victim later released after a security-force raid.