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KIDNAP

Spanish indie band in Mexico virtual kidnapping

Members of Spanish Indie group Delorean were on tour in Mexico when they became the victims of what’s known as a virtual kidnapping.

Spanish indie band in Mexico virtual kidnapping
The last time the group were spotted was during their performance at the electonic music festival Mutek, in Mexico City. Photo: Lookout Records

The Basque quartet found themselves being unknowingly taken "hostage" while in Mexico City on Saturday.

Relatives of the four band members from Zarautz (Gipuzkoa) received a phone call from men who claimed to have kidnapped them, Spanish newspaper El País reported.

Although it remains unclear whether the "kidnappers" asked the families for ransom money, Spanish police worked jointly with Mexican authorities to ascertain why nobody had been able to reach the Delorean band members since soon after their Mexico City gig.

The alternative dance group unexpectedly cancelled the US concerts which were next in line on their American tour, leading Spanish and Mexican police to suspect they were dealing with a virtual kidnapping.

The usual modus operandi in these types of fake abductions involves convincing the alleged hostages they are in danger in order for them to become unreachable or mysteriously absent.

Scammers will pretend to be police officers when they call the victims and either ask them to hide out in an area with no phone signal or tap their mobiles so that nobody can reach them.

This will in turn give more credibility to their story when posing as kidnappers on the phone to the hostages' relatives.

Although full details of the case have not yet been released by Spanish or Mexican police, Spanish news agency EFE reported that all four Delorean group members were in good health.

Kidnappings have become commonplace in Mexico in the past few years.

Mexican stats agency Inegi recently stated that 105,000 abductions took place in the Latin American country  in 2012– which equals one in every thousand Mexicans.

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POLICE

Spanish police arrest man over alleged kidnap of daughter at gunpoint in Britain

Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested an Algerian man who allegedly snatched his two-year-old daughter at gunpoint in Britain and fled the country with her.

Spanish police arrest man over alleged kidnap of daughter at gunpoint in Britain
File photo of a man in handcuffs. Photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP.

The 44-year-old was detained on a plane at Madrid airport during a scheduled stop en route to Oran, Algeria's second city, on August 1st, the same day he abducted his daughter in Nottingham, a police spokesman said.

The man, who had lost custody of his daughter, turned up at the house where she was staying “and took her by force after threatening the staff with a firearm and tying them up,” police said in a statement.

“Officers located and detained the fugitive in a plane which was about to take off. The girl was with him”.

British police said reports that the girl had been in a children's home were inaccurate and she was in fact taken from a family home.   

As part of the same investigation, British police have also arrested and charged a 43-year-old woman for child abduction, possession of a firearm, false imprisonment and aggravated burglary.

The girl was handed over to social services in Madrid until she can be returned to Britain, the Spanish police spokesman said.   

The man is waiting to appear before a judge in Madrid who will decide whether to extradite him back to Britain to face trial, he added.

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