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CASE 235  |  Crypto Entrepreneur  |  May 26, 2025  |  France
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DATABASE RECORD
  id                  235
  date                May 26, 2025
  original_date       nan
  year                2025
  month               5
  quarter             2025-Q2
  victim              Crypto Entrepreneur
  location            Nantes
  country             France
  scenario            Dodged Attack
  description         Police arrest 10 men in balaclavas, foiling their attempted kidnapping of a crypto entrepreneur. Ringleader was later arrested.
  kidnappings         0
  violence_torture    0
  drugs_alcohol       0
  weapons             0
  theft               0
  life_taken          0
  money_wanted        (null)
  coin_type           (null)
  reports             TF1 INFO
  notes               Kidnapping attempt was foiled by police
  has_processed_date  1
  created_at          2025-11-13 05:44:45
  (flag legend: 'kidnappings' is the DETENTION flag — 1 when the victim was held against
   their will at any point, tied, locked in, held at gunpoint or taken away; it is NOT the
   same as the 'Kidnapping' scenario, which means taken away and held. See README, Definitions.)

AI SUMMARY  [revised on review, verified against the sources in this file. Live DB still holds the shorter bulk-import summary — apply this to it.]
  **Victims:** A cryptocurrency entrepreneur near Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), France, targeted for the fortune he had made in crypto.
  
  **Attackers:** A ten-man commando — hooded, gloved and dressed in black — waiting in two vehicles; all were arrested. The suspected mastermind, 24-year-old Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou (subject of an Interpol red notice), was later arrested in Tangier, Morocco.
  
  **Attack Method:** On a Monday morning in late May 2025 near Nantes, the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB) of the Paris judicial police had the two parked vehicles under surveillance and identified the men as a commando preparing to kidnap the entrepreneur.
  
  **Violence Used:** No detention — the plot was foiled before any attack; no one was harmed.
  
  **Crypto Demanded/Stolen:** None; the kidnapping was prevented before it began.
  
  **Status:** Police arrested the ten men at the scene. The suspected ringleader was later arrested in Morocco; French authorities charged 25 people, including six minors, over the wider series of crypto kidnappings and attempts.

LINKED SOURCES
  [url]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N41nuB0LPU

NOTES ON THIS FILE
  * matched to sheet row 236: exact match on victim + year, unique on both sides

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ARTICLE 1
  Source   TF1 INFO
  URL      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N41nuB0LPU
  Origin   reported_K&R sheet, row 236, column "Articles"
  Length   552 chars
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The project was foiled within minutes. Monday morning, somewhere around Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), investigators from the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB) of the Paris judicial police are on surveillance.

In their crosshairs: two vehicles, inside which are ten men, hooded, gloved and dressed in black. The police officers who discreetly observe them are convinced: the commando who waits in these two vans parked on the public highway is preparing to commit a kidnapping. Their target is an entrepreneur, who got rich in the world of cryptocurrency.

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ARTICLE 2
  Source   TF1 INFO
  URL      (no URL recorded for this column)
  Origin   reported_K&R sheet, row 236, column "Article 2"
  Length   2,976 chars
  Trimmed  site furniture removed on review; kept text is verbatim. Full original (3,291 chars) archived, sha256 2f6f45b1a601cd64cec99b911ac2a74f6e23feb010b91fac018df09ce43ef3f6
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Suspect in French crypto sector kidnappings arrested in Morocco, justice minister says
The suspected mastermind of a slew of kidnappings in France's cryptocurrency sector has been arrested in Morocco, French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said Wednesday. 


French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday thanked Morocco for helping in the arrest of man suspected of being behind recent kidnappings in the cyptocurrency sector in France.
Darmanin linked his post on social platform X to an article in French daily Le Parisien reporting that a suspect had been arrested in Morocco.
"I sincerely thank Morocco for this arrest, which demonstrates excellent judicial cooperation between our two countries, particularly in the fight against organised crime," Darmanin said on X.
The suspect, 24-year-old Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, had been wanted by French authorities and was also the subject of an Interpol red notice for “arrest, kidnapping, false imprisonment or arbitrary detention of a hostage".
The suspect was arrested in the northern Moroccan city of Tangier, according to a statement from the country’s General Directorate for National Security carried by Moroccan state news agency MAP.
A native of Le Chesnay west of Paris, Bajjou is suspected of being one of the masterminds behind the high-profile kidnapping in January of French crypto boss David Balland and his partner, according to French daily Le Parisien.
Balland co-founded the crypto firm Ledger, valued at the time at more than $1 billion. Balland’s finger was cut off by his kidnappers, who demanded a hefty ransom.
Second key suspect still at large
French authorities are also probing Bajjou’s possible involvement in the series of kidnappings or attempted kidnappings in May, Le Parisien said.
In footage that went viral on social media, several masked men attacked a pregnant daughter of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Pierre Noizat, her husband and their child in broad daylight in the French capital’s hip 11th district in mid-May.
The attackers fled after the family put up resistance and a local attacked the men with a fire extinguisher.
 
In early May, attackers also abducted a crypto-millionaire’s father, who was later rescued by police.         
According to Le Parisien, another Franco-Moroccan man in his 40s believed to be behind the kidnapping plots. He remains at large.
The Morocco-based men are thought to have been recruiting youngsters online to carry out criminal offenses in France. 
Last week French authorities charged 25 people, including six minors, over the series of kidnappings and attempted abductions.
The crimes have become a major embarrassment for the French government and have sparked concern about the security of wealthy crypto tycoons, who have notched up immense fortunes from the booming business.
In May, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau held an emergency meeting with cryptocurrency leaders, with the ministry announcing plans to bolster their security.

OTHER LINKED SOURCES
  [NOT AN ARTICLE]  url  None — video or social post; recorded as a source reference, not transcribed
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N41nuB0LPU

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generated from attacks-export-Gart-website.json + reported_K&R  |  case 235
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