French crypto kidnappings suspect arrested in Morocco, source says

By Ahmed Eljechtimi

RABAT (Reuters) -Moroccan authorities have arrested a French-Moroccan man suspected of involvement in recent kidnappings in France targeting individuals with crypto wealth, a source with knowledge of the arrest said on Wednesday.

French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin thanked Morocco for the arrest in a post on X, without giving further details of the charges or incidents.

The 24-year-old man, named by a separate Moroccan police source as Bajjou Badiss Mohamed AmiDe, was subject to an Interpol red notice and wanted by France on charges including participation in organised crime, kidnapping, and extortion.

The police source said that since Bajjou is a dual national, he will not be extradited and will be tried in Morocco on the charges he is facing in France.

French authorities had passed details of the charges to Moroccan counterparts so that the man can face justice in Morocco, the source added.

The Paris prosecutor's office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

France has seen a wave of kidnappings targeting the crypto sector, including one in January of a co-founder of French crypto company Ledger, which left the victim missing a finger.

This month, a botched attempt to kidnap a crypto company CEO's daughter on a busy Paris street left crypto entrepreneurs in France fearing for their safety and was seen by some as a symptom of France's growing problem with organised crime.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Dominique Vidalon, Elizabeth Howcroft, Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Aidan Lewis)