TWO British men, aged 37 and 51, have been arrested in Benidorm by the Policia Nacional for staging a fake kidnapping to extract €830.
A video of the victim was created where he appeared to be covered in blood and being threatened with a knife.
The footage was sent to a family member in the UK who notified British authorities about the threat.
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They demanded that €830 be immediately deposited into the victim’s bank account or else he would die.
Police in Britain contacted the Policia Nacional via Interpol who last month launched an operation in Benidorm to track down the perpetrators, which included getting information from the British Consulate.
Specialist officers from Kidnapping and Extortion Unit in Madrid were also drafted in.
The Madrid officers contacted the relative of the kidnapped person, who provided a photo of the alleged captor and details of the death threat.
A large number of police officers were mobilised in Benidorm to try to find the kidnapper and his victim, to prevent a fatal assault.
The Policia Nacional said that all other investigations were suspended as a matter of urgency because of the apparent threat to life.
Exhaustive inquiries led officers to an undisclosed Benidorm hotel at which the kidnapped man had stayed for a few days before being joined by another British national.
Officers established a surveillance operation as plans were put together to rescue the victim.
Then to their surprise, they saw both captor and victim leaving the hotel, chatting in a friendly manner.
The two men were intercepted and their identities confirmed.
Questioning revealed that it was a staged kidnapping to obtain money quickly and the Brits were arrested for simulating a crime and fraud
It was subsequently discovered that the fake kidnapper had given a false name when registering at the hotel as a guest and when identifying himself to the police.
He was then handed down an additional charge of identity theft.
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