A CANADIAN cryptocurrency millionaire was bundled into a van on one of Madrid’s most exclusive streets in a brazen kidnap attempt.
The victim was leaving the Lobito del Mar restaurant on Calle Claudio Coello in the capital’s Salamanca district when he was beaten, pepper-sprayed and forced into a van by his attackers, Okdiario reports.
In the van, he was tied up with zip-ties and sedated.
The attack occurred at 11pm and was witnessed by an array of onlookers who alerted the authorities.
Police tracked and intercepted the van on Ronda de Toledo, a 15 minute drive from the scene of the abduction.
According to Okdiario two Serbian men, aged 33 and 45, with no prior criminal records were arrested at the scene.
The third suspect escaped the scene and is on the run.
The abduction was carefully orchestrated: the suspects tracked the man from Barcelona to Madrid, where he was finalising a business deal, and rented a Ford transit van and swapped its licence plate to avoid detection.
The Serbians intended to transport the man to Petrer in Alicante – the Costa Blanca town was entered into the van’s GPS system.
Authorities suspect they planned to torture the man in order to obtain his online passwords and cryptocurrency fortune.
When authorities arrived at the scene, the victim was left alone in the van as police focussed on arresting the perpetrators.
The Canadian managed to free himself from the zip ties, hailed a taxi, and was taken to La Princesa Hospital, where he was treated for the serious injuries he suffered after being forced into the van.
The primary aim of the abduction was to seize the businessman’s cryptocurrency assets, although they also attempted to take the €100,000 watch on his wrist.
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