A crypto trader in the Netherlands gruesomely tortured by robbers

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In what has become a worrying rise of crypto-connected crimes, a Dutch crypto trader was gruesomely tortured by robbers for over an hour. According to a report by Dutch media outlet De Telegraaf, the crime is most likely to have been linked to crypto. The criminals tortured the victim by a ‘heavy drill’ for over an hour, all while his four-year-old daughter watched.

The crime took place on February 10 at ten o’clock in the evening. The robbers broke into the victim’s house located in Drouwenerveen, a small village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. They were wearing balaclava masks as well as bulletproof vests, with police coats. 

The robbers carried firearms and threatened to shoot the victim, all in the presence of his daughter. The Dutch police have deployed a 15-person team, usually in charge of murder investigations, to investigate the crime.

As revealed by De Telegraaf, the victim was a seasoned crypto trader. Police suspect that the robbers were after his crypto holdings. However, there has been no proof that the robbers got access to the man’s crypto stash. The victim had been working in Italy and Thailand, the publication’s investigations concluded. His current farmhouse was reportedly paid for in cash to the tune of half a million dollars. 

The police have withheld details about the investigation saying that they need to conclude the investigations first. They however revealed that they are investigating the origin of the bulletproof vests and the police coats.

The macabre robbery is the latest in what has become an increasingly worrying trend of crimes targeting crypto traders. Robbers target crypto owners and force them to hand over their private keys and passwords, usually at gunpoint.

Late last year, police arrested a Swedish man, Makaveli Lindén, for allegedly stabbing a Norwegian crypto trader to death. The victim had just completed an in-person crypto sale in his apartment in Oslo, Norway. Shortly after, Linden allegedly stabbed the victim to death, with the police suspecting it was a crypto deal gone wrong. 

The crimes are not restricted to Europe. In South Africa, an unknown number of criminals kidnapped a teenage boy and demanded a $100,000 ransom paid in crypto. They had also attempted to kidnap a girl, but they were unsuccessful. The criminals returned the boy to his family a few days later, with no indication as to whether they had received the ransom or not. South African police arrested the criminals last month.