French police arrest five over crypto-linked magistrate kidnapping

French authorities have arrested five suspects after a magistrate and her mother were held captive last week for about 30 hours in a cryptocurrency ransom plot.Four men and one woman were detained, three overnight and two on Sunday morning, the Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told Agence France-Presse.The individuals were taken into custody after the discovery of the 35-year-old magistrate and her 67-year-old mother in a garage in the south-east Drôme department on Friday morning. Both women were found injured.Two of those arrested overnight were detained as they attempted to take a bus to Spain, said a source close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.Authorities were continuing to search for further suspects, a second source close to the case said, adding that the woman in custody was the partner of one of the four male suspects.A massive police search involving 160 officers was launched after he received a message and a photo of his partner from the kidnappers demanding a ransom to be paid in cryptocurrency.The captors threatened to mutilate their victims if the transfer was not made quickly, Dran told reporters, declining to specify the amount demanded.The two women managed to free themselves and call for help, banging on the garage door. “Alerted by the noise, a neighbour intervened. He was able to open the door and allow our two victims to escape,” Dran said. They were rescued on Friday morning in Bourg-lès-Valence without any ransom being paid, according to the prosecutor.French authorities have been dealing with a string of kidnappings and extortion attempts targeting the families of wealthy individuals dealing in cryptocurrencies.In January 2025, kidnappers seized the French crypto boss David Balland and his partner. Balland co-founded a crypto firm called Ledger, valued at the time at more than $1bn. The kidnappers cut off his finger and demanded a hefty ransom. He was freed the next day, and his partner was found tied up in the boot of a car outside Paris.In May, the father of a man who ran a Malta-based cryptocurrency company was kidnapped by four hooded men in Paris. The victim, whose finger was also severed by the kidnappers and for whom a ransom of several million euros was demanded, was released 58 hours later in a raid by the security forces.