Out of sight, never far from crime. Three men who gave orders from their cell, and an accomplice responsible for carrying them out outside. This is the setup that the Paris Research Section has just dismantled, between September 8 and 11, at the end of an operation carried out in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with the assistance of the gendarmes of Chambéry, Sathonay-Camp and Dardilly. Four arrests, four police custody, and one indictment for criminal conspiracy and organized extortion with a weapon. The case dates back to a failed attack in Essonne in March, against the backdrop of a wave of cryptorapts which has not spared any French region since January.
Explosives and hoods at dawn: the failed attack that launched the cryptocurrency investigation
Back to March 10, six o'clock in the morning, somewhere in Essonne. A person surprises two individuals with hidden faces trying to enter his home using explosives. The two men fled without taking anything. A flagrant investigation immediately opened under the authority of the Évry prosecutor, entrusted to the Paris Research Section in co-responsibility with the local Research Brigade. First observation by investigators: the victim was allegedly targeted for his supposed possession of cryptocurrencies, a profile that has been constantly recurring in this type of case for months. What follows is a race against time. The suspects' vehicle is identified and located in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Intercepted at midday, barely six hours after the events, in the town of Bourgoin-Jallieu by the Isère gendarmes. Three occupants on board, a man and two teenagers, all arrested on site. The gang behind these two violent attacks was dismantled within hours. The investigation, on the other hand, was only just beginning.
From their cell, they piloted the cryptorapts via social networks
It is by digging into police custody that the case takes on another dimension. The investigators establish a connection with acts of kidnapping and extortion by an organized gang with weapons, committed in Seine-et-Marne as a direct continuation of the Essonne episode. This second file also targets a potential holder of cryptocurrencies. Its perpetrators are indicted, imprisoned or placed under judicial supervision, and a judicial investigation opens for both cases at the same time. The investigation is led by the investigating judge of the Évry judicial court.
It goes back to three alleged sponsors who, according to the press release from the National Gendarmerie published on September 16, acted from their place of detention via social networks. An accomplice would have supported them by providing them with the means to act outside. The searches carried out at the beginning of September led to the seizure of cash and several incriminating elements. The main defendants have been or must be brought before the investigating magistrate following their custody.
A wave of cryptorapts that is not weakening in France
The phenomenon goes far beyond this single file. The National Organized Anti-Crime Prosecutor's Office has recorded more than 70 kidnappings and kidnappings linked to cryptocurrencies over the first eight months of 2026, Franceinfo reported in mid-September. The general public discovered the genre in January 2025, with the kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland, mutilated and held for a ransom in bitcoins.
The cases have continued since then, and remote control is not an isolated case. An alleged sponsor of another wave of crypto kidnappings was arrested in Morocco after orchestrating his operations from abroad. Driving from a French prison takes the same logic a step further.
A phone that has no reason to be there, a social account opened behind bars. And teenagers on the front lines, out there, doing the dirty work. Clandestine cell phones continue to circulate in detention, despite jammers and reinforced searches promised for years.
