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- A Belgian celebrity barber has been kidnapped in London after being mistaken for a crypto billionaire
- The gang, including the woman who lured him over social media, demanded £500,000
- After discovering he only had £6.71 in crypto, they released him at St Pancras station
A Belgian celebrity barber was lured to London by a woman he met on social media, only to be kidnapped and held hostage by a gang who wrongly believed he was a cryptocurrency billionaire. The gang demanded hundreds of thousands of pounds from 21-year-old Quentin Cepeljac before settling for a small bank transfer and eventually dumping him at a railway station. Several suspects have appeared in court in London, where they admitted blackmail and are awaiting sentencing.
Lured Through Social Media
Quentin Cepeljac, 21, who cuts the hair of several Belgian footballers, began chatting with 20-year-old Davina Raaymakers on TikTok and Instagram. Posing as someone from a wealthy family, Raaymakers invited Cepeljac to London for a weekend stay in a luxury apartment, but when he arrived on May 5 last year, the promised flat was suddenly “unavailable.” Instead, he was taken to a bedsit in Shepherd’s Bush.
Once inside, Cepeljac was attacked by Raaymakers’ accomplices, including her boyfriend Adlan Haji, who held a machete to his neck, stabbed a knife into his leg, and beat him while demanding he transfer $675,000 from his crypto holdings. They even showed him a video of an apparent stabbing to intimidate him. But when Cepeljac revealed he had just £6.71 in crypto, the gang realized they had made a terrible error; still, they demanded $2,700 from his bank account and made him call a friend in Belgium to arrange the transfer. Instead, the friend alerted authorities.
Kidnappers Traced Through Phone Usage
Eventually, the kidnappers realised that Cepeljac wasn’t worth ransoming and returned his passport and phone before putting him in a taxi to St Pancras station. There, Cepeljac was met by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad, who followed him back to the flat, which had since been scrubbed with bleach. However, phone data helped police trace the gang, and all four suspects were arrested.
The gang appeared in Isleworth Crown Court this week, where Raaymakers, Haji, Alexander Khalil, and Omar Sharif all admitted blackmail. Sharif, who wore an electronic monitoring tag following a previous conviction, even had to leave during the kidnapping to comply with his curfew.
The incident is reminiscent of other incidents that have taken place recently, particularly in France, where wealthy crypto holders and their families have been the targets of kidnapping attempts.
