Attempted abduction in the heart of the Spanish capital: the target was passwords to digital asset funds and a €100,000 watch.
A Canadian entrepreneur in the digital asset sector narrowly escaped a violent kidnapping on Monday evening in Madrid’s Salamanca district, one of the most exclusive areas of the Spanish capital. The attack occurred around 11:00 PM at the intersection of Calle Claudio Coello and Calle Jorge Juan.
The businessman had just left the restaurant Lobito de Mar when three individuals forcibly dragged him off the street. The attackers used pepper spray to immobilize the victim before forcing him into a nearby parked Ford Transit van.
What could have turned into a tragedy was prevented thanks to the quick reactions of numerous witnesses. Several passersby and residents watching from balconies immediately alerted authorities, providing crucial details that enabled law enforcement to intervene.
Officers from the National Police located the suspicious vehicle on Ronda de Toledo, approximately fifteen minutes from the scene of the attack. The operation ended with the arrest of two of the three assailants, while the third accomplice managed to escape and is still being sought. The suspects were identified as Serbian nationals aged 33 and 45, both with no prior criminal records in the Spanish judicial system.
While police focused on apprehending the suspects, the victim managed to free himself from the plastic restraints binding him and escaped from the van, flagging down a taxi that took him to La Princesa Hospital for medical treatment. The injuries sustained during the initial assault were not life-threatening.
Investigators determined that the attackers’ primary objective was to force the entrepreneur to reveal the passwords to his digital asset wallets, thereby gaining direct access to his holdings. A secondary objective was the theft of a luxury watch valued at approximately €100,000.
The criminals had followed the victim from Barcelona to Madrid, where the businessman had traveled to finalize a digital asset transaction. The van used in the kidnapping had a falsified license plate and had been specifically rented for the operation.
Inside the vehicle, officers found plastic restraints used to immobilize the victim, sedative pills intended to subdue him during transport, and firearms. GPS data recovered from the van’s navigation system revealed the intended final destination: Petrer, a town in the province of Alicante, hundreds of kilometers from Madrid.
The attempted kidnapping in Madrid is part of a growing criminal trend across Europe. Cybersecurity experts refer to these incidents as “wrench attacks,” a term describing the use of physical violence to obtain wallet seed phrases or private keys.
