Casablanca Police Arrest Three in Bitcoin-Related Kidnapping and Extortion Scheme

"The Prefectural Judicial Police Service of Casablanca proceeded, on Friday evening, to the arrest of three people, aged 30 to 34, for their alleged involvement in a case of attempted kidnapping and sequestration with theft, in addition to the possession of a large sum of money in national currency the origin of which is unknown," says the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) in a press release.

It is thus a question of the kidnapping of a man by two individuals "in order to take money from him," specifies the same source according to which it is the intervention of the police which made it possible "to thwart this criminal plan and to arrest the accused at the beginning of the kidnapping operation."

During the search of the victim’s house, the police seized the sum of 2 million dirhams, which was in a cardboard box. This money would come from "cryptocurrency, ’Bitcoin’, trafficking operations by one of the victim’s acquaintances in Europe who is responsible for cashing in its value in Morocco," according to the initial findings of the investigation.

All the accused have been taken into custody while the sums found have been seized to determine their exact origin, we are also informed.