Bologna, September 5, 2026 – Kidnapped, beaten, and held hostage at 23 years old. The incredible story involves a worker residing in Casalecchio di Reno who had gone missing the previous day. The news was reported by the police officers of the Mobile Squad of the Bologna Police Headquarters who, following an operation in San Lazzaro di Savena coordinated by the ordinary Prosecutor’s Office and the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, freed the young man held hostage and arrested three alleged kidnappers.
The complaint from the girlfriend and a friend of the young man
But what happened? Late Tuesday evening, the young man’s girlfriend and a friend contacted the State Police because they were unable to get in touch with the 23-year-old resident of the province. Contacts with the young man’s phone had been interrupted and then resumed upon explicit request that communications take place on specific applications that are difficult to intercept.
Forced into a vehicle, tied with zip ties, beaten, and kidnapped
During the nighttime contacts, however, the young man told his friend that he had been kidnapped, forced into a vehicle, tied at the wrists with zip ties, beaten, and taken to a farmhouse in the woods. His release was conditioned on the payment, in cash and with terms to be defined, of a significant sum of money.
The backpack with the money to be left in the countryside of San Lazzaro di Savena
The initial investigation activities focused on the Municipality of San Lazzaro in Savena (Bologna) where, after a complex negotiation, the kidnappers had requested that a backpack containing the ransom money be abandoned in the open countryside. At the isolated location indicated for the backpack drop-off, however, the men of the Mobile Squad of the Bologna Police Headquarters arranged a large police presence.
The raid and the hostage’s release
The intervention immediately allowed the kidnapped man to be located and freed, driven by car by one of the alleged kidnappers who was then stopped and arrested.
Three arrests: including a minor
Subsequent activities, which continued uninterrupted throughout the day, then allowed the two alleged accomplices to be located and arrested. The arrested are very young: a 23-year-old of Moldovan origin, a 20-year-old Italian, and even a minor.
The victim suffered 31 days of prognosis
The victim, due to the beatings suffered, including with a machete, fortunately used not on the blade side, sustained injuries judged to heal in 31 days. Investigations are ongoing, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court, DDA, and the Juvenile Court, to clarify the motive for the kidnapping, although inquiries are being made in contexts related to drug trafficking and consumption.
The motive
The kidnapping, during which the victim was also beaten with the handle of a machete, was triggered by a debt relationship between the victim and one of the kidnappers. A very high amount, accumulated in just one week, of as much as sixteen thousand euros. The backdrop to the story is the world of drugs. It is unclear whether the debt is related to drug consumption or dealing. The investigations, coordinated by the Prosecutor’s Office with the file entrusted to prosecutor Roberto Ceroni, will outline the details of the kidnapping. A story that allows the head of the Mobile Squad, Guglielmo Battisti, to send a message: “Drug use means coming into contact with a criminal world. It has rules: when you have a debt, more direct and sometimes extremely violent methods are used, such as kidnapping for extortion.”
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