Kidnappings and extortion SA, salary criminals to adjust accounts | Spain

A family that fears for the life of his loved one, a call and a lot of stress. The cases of kidnapping They usually start with very high doses of anxiety. However, to solve them successfully, police experts require serene spirit and cold thought. « From the first moment, time goes against you. Everyone wants to help and know, and you have to keep calm and control, » says Inspector Ana, responsible for one of the National Police groups specialized in these cases. An excess of precipitation can end the dead kidnapped, or that there is an accident and is injured. And the family, the inspector emphasizes, has a very bad time.

The « 24 hours » of the kidnapping and extortion section of this police force, which turns one group every week, sounds every time a new case opens. Upon entering the office of this group of investigators, in the Canillas Police Complex, in Madrid, he draws his attention his “Fame Wall”, as defined by Agent Borja, the most veteran. Under different posters with the name of each operation – Aportuna, Soccer, Covi – have arranged about 20 photographs that can summarize the best and worst moments of their last cases: the emotion for having released a 70 -year -old kidnapped that spent 23 days detained on the Costa del Sol, the torture that another victim suffered to which bullets emptied bullet chargers next to the ear to leave him deaf, or details of other investigations.

His office, who ask that he not be photographed, is part of the General Judicial Police Police Station, so they investigate both national and international cases and also support the units of other provinces with their operations.

The dependencies are narrow and has about eight jobs. Inspector Ana is sitting at her table, at the bottom right. From there he talks to two of his agents who consult him while working on his computers. They exchange phone information, efforts related to vehicles and investigated people.

Behind the kidnappings there are usually adjustments of accounts related to debts for drug trafficking and scams with cryptocurrencies, they explain. Rescues today are always claimed in cryptocurrencies, and the places where they develop, especially Málaga or Barcelona, ​​are usually repeated. Agents have been noticing an increase in cases in recent years. The official figures show ups and downs. In 2023, the Ministry of Interior accounted for 122 cases, but in 2024 they dropped to 104.

They never know what will happen with a kidnapping. They can pull sensations or police smell, but the result is always full of uncertainty. They can last « days or hours », and resolve with the release of the hostage, but they have also had to see deaths. In 2024 they had two deaths.

One of those happy outcomes, occurred in 2024 with the timely operation, in which they managed to free a successful 70 -year -old cryptocurrency investor, which the magician nicknamed, and that had been kidnapped with the intention of recovering 500,000 euros of an investment that went wrong. In this case, neither the person who commissioned the kidnapping nor the kidnapped had anything to do with Spain. « It occurred in Malaga, because kidnappers had been good, » they detail. « They convinced the victim to travel to Malaga, » they say. As soon as they arrived, they picked up and took it in a rented car.

The investigation, carried out in collaboration with agents of the Judicial Police of Alcorcón (Madrid) and Malaga, began with a complaint of a nephew in the Madrid municipality. He told the agents that he had begun to receive audios in which he gave the feeling that they were drowning with water and claimed 500,000 euros to see him again.

« Here we have the figure of the good/bad, » describes agent Borja. « It is the one that is located on the side of the victim or family members, but that is actually collecting information for the kidnappers, » he explains. In this case, he was a man who also assured that the same people had kidnapped his son and that he was going to collaborate to pay the reward.

Despite the « good/bad » espionage, they managed to have a good outcome. The culmen point was the liberation of the captive, a day in which the kidnappers had been left with a relative to make an exchange: they charged the rescue and handed them the hostage. The appointment was in a McDonald’s in Fuengirola that ended up taken by police officers. Two of the kidnappers ended up detained and the victim survived.

« It was a great joy, very emotional the moment in which he called the relatives to tell them that everything was fine, » recalls Borja. But the story did not end here. They had a third kidnapper to arrest. The victim went through the hospital, to examine a doctor, and then he was transferred to the police station, where he had to declare. « We like to take a statement as soon as possible for your testimony to be as contaminated as possible, » argues the inspector.

Locator in the shoe

Then, at the police headquarters, the magician began to receive messages from that third involved. In his texts it seemed that he knew in the places he had been. There was something that didn’t square them. After Cachear, they discovered that they had hidden a locator among the clothes. « It is a way of acting that we have already seen on more than one occasion, » they add. The magician had a locator in the shoe.

« Technologies do not help as much as they think, because the investigated also use them, » they conclude. The kidnappers communicate by encrypted platforms or virtual numbers that simulate that they are calling from another country, so that the call is not known. They also use those tracking devices.

A large percentage of cases that enter for 24 hours end are simulated kidnappings. However, the way of addressing them is the same, specifies Inspector Ana.

And how do you know if they are facing a false one? « Especially for security measures. » They have had cases in which they asked that the rescue money be entered in Bizum or a checking account, something that is not common. « The first thing we do is examine the context of the kidnapped person. If you have drug or game problems, » says the police officer. They remember that a husband pretended a kidnapping for his wife to pay the rescue or a video with the kidnapped alleged by making the voices of the kidnappers « as if it were a ventriloquist. »

In these simulations, the radius of action is extended and have reached them from very different points such as Madrid, Murcia, Cádiz or Barcelona. One of them was from a girl who called a friend on the phone and during the call told her that three people were approaching her and cut the communication suddenly. “I thought I was telling the movie of Revenge De Liam Neeson, ”says Agent Borja. They found the alleged kidnapped sleeping in a hotel and was charged with a crime simulation.