When police arrived at the family home on February 8 at 2:30 pm, Karim (not his real name), 17, was playing PlayStation in his bedroom. The minor was suspected of being part of a five-person gang involved in the kidnapping of a 35-year-old magistrate and her 67-year-old mother on the night of February 5, near Grenoble, in an attempt to extort a ransom in cryptocurrency.
His alleged accomplices were arrested the same day. Two were apprehended in a Lyon suburb, inside the MG3 used by the group – traces of the victim’s blood were found in the trunk of the stolen car. Two others were caught at a bus station, ready to board a bus for Spain.
Over the course of three days and nights, officers had retraced the movements of this group of young people, aged 17 to 20, who were recruited via social media – through a job offer posted on Telegram – by a mysterious mastermind known as “Hermano” or “M5.”
All from the Lyon suburbs, the alleged perpetrators had profiles of petty offenders, out of step with the seriousness of their crime. “I don’t look like someone who kidnaps people,” Karim told investigators, as if those words could magically erase a crime far bigger than himself.
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