French authorities arrested five suspects following the 30-hour captivity of a magistrate and her mother in a cryptocurrency ransom plot. The 35-year-old magistrate and her 67-year-old mother were found injured on Friday in a garage in Drôme, southeastern France, the Lyon public prosecutor's office said. The two women managed to escape and alert police without any ransom being paid. The incident sparked a major police operation with 160 officers after the magistrate's partner, who holds a leading role in a cryptocurrency startup, received a ransom message accompanied by a photo of his partner. The kidnappers threatened to mutilate the victims if the ransom was not transferred quickly, according to Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran. The authorities previously faced similar cases, including the January 2025 kidnapping of French crypto boss David Balland, co-founder of Ledger, and a May kidnapping involving a Malta-based crypto firm executive's father. Both cases involved severed fingers and multi-million-euro ransom demands. This series of kidnappings highlights growing threats to wealthy cryptocurrency industry figures and their families in France.