British ÂŁ25K cryptocurrency broker kidnap plot smashed as three men are arrested on Costa del Sol:
This is the moment three British men were dramatically arrested over an alleged Costa del Sol kidnap plot involving a UK cryptocurrency broker.
Spanish police released footage today showing the moment they surrounded an Audi in which the trio tried to flee - after their victim managed to escape before officers cuffed the suspects on the ground at gunpoint.
The men had taken a trader hostage and demanded 30,000 euros (ÂŁ25,000) for his release after a chance meeting in Marbella led to him accepting an invite to an apartment in the nearby resort of Estepona.
That was where the kidnappers were thought to have been temporarily living.
The 34-year-old Hindi-speaking target got away by pretending to phone a customer he said had to give him half a code needed for accessing a crypto wallet.
He instead called a friend in London, explaining how he was being held against his will in language his captors did not understand.
His friend alerted the victim's mother, who told police what was happening - sparking an operation to locate the property where he was being held, which investigators initially only knew was in the Estepona area.
Heavily-armed officers managed to track down the apartment and were preparing to call in specialist reinforcements, when the kidnapped man took advantage of a momentary lapse in concentration by his abductors to escape.
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