Police recover kidnap ransom money (From Worcester News)

Police recover kidnap ransom money

10:04pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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Spanish police have confirmed they have recovered more than £100,000 in ransom money after arrests were made in the case of a five-year-old British boy's kidnapping in Pakistan.

Three people were arrested in the town of Constanti, in Spain's Catalonia region, two of whom collected the ransom in Paris, national police said in a statement.

The other two arrests were made in Paris and they are relatives of the suspects in Spain, police said.

The child, Sahil Saeed, was released on Tuesday almost two weeks after being abducted from his grandparents' house in central Pakistan. A senior Pakistani provincial official said a ransom was paid for the release of the boy, who is of Pakistani origin and lived in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Spanish authorities were alerted to the kidnapping by Interpol and later determined that the first call demanding a £110,000 ransom payment was made from Spain.

The child's father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, 28, travelled to Manchester as instructed by the kidnappers to pay the ransom. From there, he was told to go to Paris instead, where the payment was finally made.

Police were watching when the money changed hands on a street in broad daylight. Police started monitoring the suspects, while awaiting word of the child's release, the statement said.

The two who had collected the money were arrested upon their return to Spain, along with a third person in Catalonia. And French police arrested the two others in Paris.

Police did not give their nationalities, but El Pais newspaper said the suspects in Spain were two Pakistani men and a woman from Romania.

The three will go before a judge on Thursday, the Superior Court of Catalonia said.