French police arrest 12 as probe into spate of violent crypto kidnappings widens

Police in France are closing the net on a spate of crypto kidnappings, with officers in Lyon arresting 12 people accused of orchestrating an August attack.

The arrests come after a daring police raid freed a 22-year-old Swiss man from a four-day ordeal at the hands of a gang that demanded a ransom paid in crypto, the French media outlet France Info reported.

“The arrests are the result of several months of investigations,” police said in a statement on Wednesday. “These have helped us to identify and implicate, to varying degrees, around 20 additional individuals.”

The development comes amid a sharp rise in crypto kidnappings in France.

Detectives in Versailles are this week hunting a gang of three people suspected of posing as police officers before pulling a knife on a couple and forcing them to send them $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Experts warn that crypto kidnappings and other types of wrench attacks are on the rise everywhere in the world, with at least 55 cases reported globally last year.

‘Mistreated and injured’

Police have withheld many of the details of the kidnapping as they continue their investigations. An unnamed source close to the probe told the media outlet that the Swiss man was known to have crypto holdings, though no details have been revealed about their value.

The victim, a resident of the Swiss canton of Vaud, was “seriously mistreated and injured” during his four-day ordeal, a Swiss police spokesperson said.

The operation to free the man was orchestrated by the Lyon prosecutor’s office in late August.

The raid saw around 150 heavily armed military personnel storm a building near Valence train station in the Drôme region on August 31.

Officers arrested one of the kidnapping’s masterminds at the scene, as well as two other individuals.

In early September, police made seven further arrests. All seven suspects hail from Valence, and one was under 18. The remainder were all aged between 24 and 30 years and were all “known to the police,” officers said.

Prosecutors have indicted all of these individuals on charges of kidnapping, confinement, organised crime, extortion, illegal possession of weapons, and conspiracy to commit an aggravated crime.

Police followed up with another large-scale operation conducted on March 2, which resulted in the arrest of 18 people, three of whom were remanded in custody.

French police handled 40 cases of crypto-related kidnapping between July 2023 and the end of 2025. Detectives say many of these attacks were organised by overseas-based criminal groups.

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.