Suspected Crypto Kidnapping Mastermind Arrested in Morocco

The young man is believed to be involved in several kidnappings of cryptocurrency-related personalities since 2023. In late August of that year, a man posing as an Amazon delivery driver showed up at a couple’s home in a residential area in the heart of Sarthe. The homeowner, father of a wealthy YouTuber, went outside and was kidnapped by two other masked men. Later, the kidnappers sent a video to the victim’s son, who was on vacation abroad, demanding a ransom in cryptocurrency. According to investigators, Badiss Bajjou, then 22 years old, was behind this abduction.

The father was released after the ransom was paid. In connection with another kidnapping case dating from July 2023, investigators from the Versailles BRB had bugged the vehicle used by the criminals to transport the victim, which belonged to an associate of Badiss Bajjou, allowing the Angers Research Section investigators to trace it back to him. Investigators intercepted phone conversations of the Franco-Moroccan in which he discussed the ransom, stolen watches, and an exchange with the victim’s son who "thanked me because I had kept my word and his father had been found."

The Franco-Moroccan was also wanted by the Versailles criminal brigade for an attempted murder by firearm, committed on the night of July 22-23, 2023, in the Yvelines. Subsequently, he fled to Morocco, where he was arrested last week. Badiss Bajjou’s name is also mentioned in the Ledger case and the kidnapping of David Balland and his partner, as well as in the two kidnapping and attempted kidnapping cases from last May, in the heart of Paris.

"The search conducted at his home led to the seizure of a set of bladed weapons of various sizes, a sum of money likely related to his criminal activities, as well as about ten mobile phones," a Moroccan judicial source told BFMTV. It remains to be seen whether Badiss Bajjou will be extradited to France, given that he holds dual Moroccan and French nationality.