13-Year Old Boy Kidnapped In South Africa, Criminals Demand Bitcoin Ransom

According to the South Africa Times report reaching into our bitcoin news today, two people have been arrested by the police in Mpumalanga, South Africa for the kidnapping of a 13-year-old boy whose family was forced to pay a bitcoin ransom of $120,000.

The boy was kidnapped in May 2018 and the South African Police Service immediately created a special task team to find the boy and arrest the criminals. The SAPS official Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said:

‘’These cases were the first of their kind in Mpumalanga and a task team comprising of different units within the South African Police Service was immediately established by police management to investigate this matter.’’

The victim was kidnapped on his way from the store with his friend. The criminals forced him into silver Toyota Corolla in the middle of the day but a neighbour’s CCTV camera captured the entire thing. The boy’s parents were told to pay approximately 1.5 million rands or about 32 BTC.

The first suspect was caught in November and the second one in December and both were aged 30 and had the same plan to demand ransom in bitcoin. They both appeared in court and bail has been set for them at 1,000 rands each.

Another incident such as this one happened in Cape Town when the popular, local businessman Liqayat Parker was kidnapped on his way to work and the kidnappers demanded over 50 BTC for his release. Parker was released after two months of being locked up but it is still unknown whether his family paid the ransom.