A kidnapping service for other criminal networks
Spain's National Police, in a joint operation with Europol and authorities in the Netherlands, have dismantled a criminal organization that specialized in carrying out kidnappings on commission for other criminal networks in the Netherlands and Belgium, the force said in a statement. The group had abducted a Spanish citizen in Antwerp, Belgium, and held him captive for a week and a half under severe torture until he managed to escape by jumping from a moving car.[S1][S2]
Ten people have been arrested in total, seven in the Netherlands and three in Spain, as suspected members of a criminal organization and suspected kidnappers. Nine have been sent to prison, and the investigation remains open, so further arrests have not been ruled out.[S1]
Encrypted calls and a ransom demand
The inquiry began after the victim's relatives filed a complaint. The man had been seized on 15 February in Antwerp. His family said they had received calls and videos through encrypted platforms in which the captive tried to reassure them and told them they would soon be together once he had finished sorting out some matters.[S1]
Investigators established that he had been taken because he was allegedly responsible for the loss of 500 kilograms of cocaine being transported in a van from Spain to the Netherlands, and that his captors were demanding 600,000 euros for his release.[S1]
Storage units used as torture rooms
The abduction took place as the victim was walking along a street in Antwerp. He was taken to an industrial building where the network ran a storage-unit rental business used to house captives. Each captive was watched by a person carrying a weapon described as a weapon of war.[S1]
There the Spanish man was subjected to severe torture and physical assault. According to his own account, he also saw another victim he did not know have three finger bones amputated from one hand, and saw a further captive in a state of extreme unconsciousness.[S1]
Escape and two-phase operation
After several days at the industrial site he was moved to a flat belonging to the organization in the Netherlands, where he met another kidnapped person, and according to his account the assaults continued until the group decided to take him back to Belgium by vehicle. Fearing for his life, he threw himself from the moving car during the journey and fell down a ravine before reaching a petrol station to ask for help.[S1]
Police said the facts show the organization had a solid professional structure, offering kidnappings on commission to other criminal networks, with properties for captivity in the Netherlands and Belgium and salaried workers in different roles, including torturers, security guards and drivers.[S1]
The operation unfolded in two phases. The first, on 24 February in the Netherlands, ended with seven arrests, among them the tenant of the flat rented by the network and the owner of the storage units. The second, on 24 September in Spain, led to three more arrests: the leader and ideologue of the organization, his right-hand man and the head of the drug-trafficking structure for which the victim worked.[S1]
Traces of blood and DNA from the victim and from other people not yet identified were found in the properties, so the investigation continues and the authorities have not ruled out further arrests.[S1]
