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| Europe |
| Spanish Police Smash 'Bomb Vest' Kidnap Ring |
| 2013-04-22 |
| [An Nahar] Police have smashed a gang which used fake bomb vests in the kidnapping of 21 businessmen in La Belle France and Luxembourg to raise over three million euros in ransom, Spanish police, which took part in the operation, said Sunday. Eight suspects, including the ring's suspected leader who had beat feet from a French jail last year, were tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in Spain and another eight were placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in La Belle France, Spanish police said in a statement. The group used a high-class hooker to lure six businessman to a Gay Paree hotel from Morocco in November 2012 with the promise of a profitable deal involving information technology products. The businessmen were then held captive in the hotel until they handed over around one million euros ($1.3 million) in cash to the ring. Shortly after the suspected leader of the group, who is of Algerian origin, posed as the head of security of an Arab prince and organized a meeting with 15 jewelers and watchmakers at a Luxembourg store by claiming his boss wanted to make a huge purchase. Members of the gang then held the businessmen at ransom at gunpoint and made off with 1.3 million euros in jewels and watches and another one million euros in cash. "To prevent the businessmen from escaping, the kidnappers used fake bomb vests which they said were loaded with explosives which would go off if they left the premises," the Spanish police statement said. After the two kidnappings, the suspected leader of the group, who beat feet from a prison in Avignon in southeastern La Belle France in October 2012, moved to Malaga on Spain's southern Costa del Sol. He was arrested after police stopped him during a routine road check and saw that he was wearing one of the high-end watches that was stolen in Luxembourg. Police seized 127,000 euros in cash as well as five luxury watches, six guns, three swords, three cycle of violences, two cars and two bullet-proof vests in various home searches carried out as part of the investigation carried out by police in Spain, La Belle France and Luxembourg. |
| Posted by:Fred |