From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

I would surmise that visa free movement within the E.U., mass migration,
open borders in the U.S. might partly explain the change from high trust societies to high danger societies. The rise of billionaires at the
expense of everyone else might also explain the increase in organized transnational crime in the former "Free World."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/26/wrench-attacks-leave-crypto-billionaires-living-in-fear/

The digital currency has prompted a rise in physical assaults against
those who profit from it

The charming French town of Vierzon should have been an oasis of calm
for crypto executive David Balland and his wife.

Instead, it became the scene of 48 hours of terror.

The cryptocurrency executive, who founded Ledger, was kidnapped from his
home in the town by a criminal gang demanding a $10m (-u7.4m) ransom.

French police launched a desperate manhunt and after more than a day,
their special forces unit rescued Balland. About 24 hours later, his
wife was saved.

But before he was rescued, the hostage takers had severed one of Mr BallandrCOs fingers.

The attack on Balland shook the cryptocurrency world. Digital coins such
as Bitcoin have made many of the industryrCOs participants overnight billionaires.

But the hostage crisis has forced many to confront that they are also
now potential targets for violent criminals.

The kidnapping of Balland is the most high-profile example of a
so-called rCLwrench attack,rCY which is becoming a growing threat to crypto executives.

The name derives from an internet cartoon from 2014, which envisions two
goons plotting to batter someone with a wrench to get the victimrCOs
computer password.

Billions of dollars in cryptocurrency are stolen every year in cyber
attacks, scams and frauds. In 2025, about $3.4bn in digital currency was stolen, according to blockchain experts at Chainalysis.

But in 2026, physical assaults are on the rise.

A report from Certik, a crypto security business, found there had been
34 physical attacks on industry figures in the first three months of
2026, a 41pc increase on 2025.

These attacks resulted in publicly reported thefts of more than $101m in cryptocurrency.

In total, last year, there were 81 publicly recorded attacks that
resulted in the loss of $52m in cryptocurrency. These records, based on
police reports and public news stories, are thought to significantly underestimate the problem.

Gart, a personal security business, has documented 340 wrench attacks worldwide in the past decade, with the vast majority occurring in the
last three years.

In one high-profile incident in New York last March, William Duplessie
and John Woeltz, two crypto investors, were arrested after allegedly
drugging and applying electric shocks to a man they held hostage in an apartment to force him to give up his Bitcoin password. The case is ongoing.

Gart has also recorded at least 26 fatal crypto-linked attacks.

In December, two Ukrainian men were arrested in Vienna in connection
with the death of a man who had been lured to an underground garage.

The victimrCOs teeth were knocked out and he choked to death on his own
blood after surrendering his cryptocurrency encryption keys. His body
was found burned in the boot of his own Mercedes.

Continued here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/26/wrench-attacks-leave-crypto-billionaires-living-in-fear/
--
"This is the first Quantum War, the observer effect is being expertly
used by both sides. Schr||dingerrCOs Strait is simultaneously open and
closed, it switches states depending on who is observing it and talking
about it. The War is over but it was never a war. The ceasefire holds in
spite of there being no cessation of fire. Freedom of navigation is
sacred and inviolable, thatrCOs why werCOre blockading the Gulf of Oman." posted by 'Chunk' on MoA blog.

"He who panics early, panics best, stock up and stack uprCa" Jeremy Rhymings-Lang

https://www.globalgulag.us

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2