French police arrest four men mid-robbery in crypto extortion spree near Marseille

Police in Marseille, France said they arrested four suspects over the weekend after they interrupted what appears to be a crypto robbery that was escalated into a kidnapping attempt as the accused reportedly held two women hostage. News of the arrests, which first appeared in the local French newspaper La Provence, marks the first instance of such an operation targeting crypto holders in the Marseille region. Earlier Cryptopolitan reports have followed the crime wave that the appetite for crypto has unleashed on France, with over 70 such attacks reported across the country this year alone.

Arrested suspects were on a rampage The suspects that Marseille police picked up were involved in a chain of illegal events that reportedly began around 3 a.m. on Saturday, June 14.

The suspects fled and left a license plate number on the scene after a failed attempt to enter the house of a family living in a residential neighborhood in Marseille’s 13th arrondissement. The same group was implicated for at least two more attacks reported across the towns of Gardanne and Gignac-la-Nerthe that same night. Police eventually caught the four men holding two women against their will and demanding access to their digital asset wallets.

Apparently, the victims that the group targeted throughout their one-night campaign had records of crypto gains. The 13th arrondissement victims were reportedly parents of an investor who had exited his holdings more than a year ago. Investigators believe the attackers targeted the household based on outdated information.

Marseille’s Brigade de Répression du Banditisme (BRB), the organized crime unit, has taken over the investigation. Violent crypto crime spreads to the south of France France has experienced a sharp acceleration in physical attacks on crypto holders and their families. Authorities confirmed in April that more than 40 kidnappings or attempted abductions linked to cryptocurrency had been recorded since the start of 2026.

Philippe Chadrys, dep