Suspected mastermind in brutal kidnapping of Danish woman arrested in Morocco

A 28-year-old Danish man suspected of masterminding the brutal kidnapping of a woman has been arrested in Tangier, Morocco, DR reports.

Morocco World News also reported the arrest. According to information obtained by DR, the man is suspected of serious crimes in Denmark, and the National Unit for Special Crime has been trying for some time to have him arrested in Morocco.

He is suspected of running a drug ring, commissioning an attempted murder that led to the arrest of a young Swede in Værløse in the summer of 2025, and ordering the confinement of a woman in Avedøre, southwest of Copenhagen.

Danish authorities will now seek to have him extradited to Denmark for prosecution. The National Unit for Special Crime said in a written statement that it had asked Moroccan police to make the arrest.

Woman held captive for 19 hours

The case began with a kidnapping in spring 2025. The woman was held captive in an apartment for 19 hours and subjected to a series of abuses. She was raped, had cigarettes stubbed out on her body and was forcibly shaved.

Specially trained officers from the police action force freed her after her family contacted the police. The woman later described the confinement anonymously in DR’s podcast De livsfarlige bånd.

According to DR’s information, the arrested man also led a larger drug ring called Jimmy the navn, which he ran from abroad.

The woman was not a random victim. She worked as what is known as a white courier in the Greater Copenhagen area, acting as a mobile cocaine seller.

One day, while she was driving, she was surrounded by between seven and 10 unmarked police cars. Officers searched her vehicle and seized more than 33,000 kroner, cocaine and ketamine. She was arrested and taken to Bellahøj Police Station, but was released after several hours of questioning.

In the podcast, the woman said the suspected masterminds believed she must have told police more than she should have because she had been released. A revenge operation was then launched, ending in her kidnapping.

According to the woman’s account, the guard who held her captive carried out the abuse on orders from a person abroad using the Signal messaging and calling service. DR reports that this person is the man arrested in Morocco.

The guard and four others were convicted in the case this spring. They received prison sentences ranging from five months to five and a half years. The woman’s friend was among those convicted for helping lure her into an ambush that triggered the confinement.