Quentin Cepeljac, a 21-year-old Belgian barber to football stars, boarded a Eurostar to London last October expecting a romantic rendezvous. Instead, he was ambushed in a Shepherd’s Bush basement flat by three machete-wielding thugs. For nine hours, they tortured him, demanding access to cryptocurrency accounts they believed held half a million pounds. Their plan imploded when they discovered his digital wallet contained a meager £6.71 barely enough for a London pub lunch.
The gang’s scheme unraveled through a chain of fatal miscalculations. Davina Raaymakers, a 20-year-old Dutch woman, had spent months cultivating an online relationship with Cepeljac via TikTok and Instagram, exploiting his posts about crypto trading success. Unbeknownst to his captors Alexander Khalil, 30; Adlan Haji, 28; and Omar Sharif, 24. Cepeljac’s luxury lifestyle was funded by his elite barbershop clientele, not digital assets. After verifying his near-empty wallet, the desperate kidnappers settled for draining £2,000 from his traditional bank account before releasing him. Sharif even paused the crime to comply with an electronic curfew tag.
This kidnapping exposes Europe’s escalating "wrench attack" crisis, where criminals use physical violence to steal virtual wealth. Similar cases have surged from Paris to Brussels, including a French crypto influencer kidnapped after flaunting fake digital fortunes and a Belgian investor’s wife held hostage for blockchain ransom.
Security expert Eyal Gruper of RITREK warns that flaunting crypto online "is like dangling a Rolex in a dark alley".
Metropolitan Police traced the gang through coerced bank transfers, Airbnb records, and CCTV. All four perpetrators pleaded guilty to blackmail and face sentencing this September. Cepeljac, now battling PTSD and insomnia, has abandoned social media promotion. "They believed the persona," he told investigators, referencing his now-deleted crypto brags.