'Grand Prize! 'How French police release a crypto hostage whose finger is cut off for ransom

Paris (AP) – Fearing that the kidnapper might cut another finger from the hostage, or worse, the French police commander ordered his police officer (via the broadcast commander “Go”) to raid his house, suspected of being the father of a wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneur.

Fabrice Gardon, the chief of the Paris Judiciary Police, then anxiously awaited the code words they used to release the hostages at the unit headquarters in the northern part of the French capital.

Finally, it comes: “Accumulate!”

Seven suspects were detained on Monday, and police commanders conducted 58 hours of dramatic, dismemberment and final relief in a radio interview, marking France's latest kidnap cryptocurrency business.

The prosecutor's office said the victim was the father of a man who made a fortune in cryptocurrency.

Garden said last Thursday morning, he was wearing Balaclaf's attackers tied him up in a van, walking the dog. He said bystanders warned the police.

He said on RTL radio that he confirmed French media reports that the kidnappers cut off one of the hostage's fingers. He said they sent a video to his son and kidnapped other videos of his father and demanded a ransom of millions of euros (dollars).

Police tracked the gang to a house in the Essenn area south of Paris on Saturday night, where investigators believe the man was held.

“We got there a few minutes before a new final atum and the victims may have suffered again,” Galton said.

He was approved by the attacks of the police search and intervention brigade, which is famous for its French abbreviation BRI. He then followed its progress from the broadcast at the Judiciary Police Headquarters.

“A moment later, the head of the BRI said on the radio – what is using our code – 'Grand Prize!” In our terminology, it means “everything is good. We have released the hostages,” he said in the French information broadcast.

“Obviously, it's a great relief,” he said.

The prosecutor's office said police detained four people or approached the house in the captured house, while the fifth person believed to be used for the car that was kidnapped.

It said two other suspects were detained on Sunday.

It said the police investigation is examining a range of possible criminal charges, including kidnapping “torture or barbarism.”

In January, police said David Balland, a co-founder of French cryptocurrency company David Balland, was also kidnapped by his wife from her home in the Cher area in central France.

Police said they made 10 arrests, with the alleged kidnapper asking another co-founder of Ledger to redeem cryptocurrency.

Police said the next day, a raid by the French-Eliminated British Genocide Intervention Team specialized in hostage situations, released Bolland, and the next day afterwards, was liberated by his wife Gign, and found his wife tied to a car.