Crime: kidnappings and sequestrations are increasing in France

A young man beaten, brutalized and held at gunpoint, forcibly thrown into the trunk of a car by four masked assailants. The scene takes place in broad daylight, on January 8, in Villeparisis (Seine et Marne). During the investigation, the police find the victim at his home at the other end of the Paris region. She declined to file a complaint. In Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), but also everywhere in France, cases of sequestration have multiplied in recent years. 128 were counted in 2022, i.e. one every three days on average.

Cases often linked to drug trafficking

Abduction is a type of violence often intended to settle conflicts in the middle of drug traffickers. “The motive of a kidnapping is, in the vast majority of cases, linked to drug trafficking. It is about recovering a debt, settling a dispute about goods which have not been delivered, which have not been paid for or which have been stolen.explains Yann mouseHead of the Central Office for Combating Organized Crime. For the victims, these methods can sometimes turn out to be simple warnings, aimed at scaring them.