Eugene Kaspersky's son kidnapped in Moscow?
heraldsun.com.au
heraldsun.com.au
It's almost impossible to pull off something like this. The money has to be transferred. Online? Follow the money trail. Cash? The police will embed tracking devices within the bills. (This is why you should immediately submerge your illicit cash in water. But I learned about that trick years ago, so surely the police would have waterproof equipment by now.)
If you do manage to get cash, then the three golden rules are:
1) Do not deposit more than $5,000 at any one bank.
2) Do not buy a house with cash.
3) Do not buy an expensive car -- law enforcement will notice your expensive Ferrari in front of your otherwise-middle-class house.
And at that point, have fun spending the rest of your life worrying whether someone discovers one of your fake identities, which leads them to your other identities, which connects you to the kidnapping. Not much of a life.
This is the same country who assassinated a former KGB agent a few years ago with Plutonium. The assassin was identified by British authorities. The Russians didn't realize that when you carry a vial of the stuff, you leave a "trail" wherever you go, which can be detected weeks later by special equipment.
Russia rejected Britain's extradition requests, saying it was "unconstitutional" (when in fact the Russian constitution opens the door for extradition, just when they want to).
Meanwhile, the assassin is now a member of the government, and his position grants him legal immunity. There is no chance he will be brought to justice.
With a government like that, it's not hard to see how organized crime may infest it, even at the highest levels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinen...
Can you imagine what a couple million euros is to a bunch of former goat farmers now brandishing AK's? It's very lucrative business in that part of the world.
A Belgian prime minister was kidnapped in the 90's and a ransom was paid for his release.
Whoever kidnapped Anthony de Clerck also here in Belgium got paid 250 million Belgian Francs, also back in the 90's.
Old (2001), but relevant article: http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5B...
It's very easy for kidnapping to be profitable.
All you need is a state with a pathetic justice system.
Start with a police force terrible at finding the real perpetrators of crime. This is very common in the world. It is often found in poor states, which don't have much money for any public spending including police and fire. Often the states are autocratic or formerly-autocratic, autocratic states don't really care who's actually guilty. Very often a state is both (ex-)autocratic and poor.
The next step you need is a bad judiciary and a pathetic set of laws. For example, even violent kidnapping which involved mailing fingers to the victim's family, could only earn the convicted two years in jail. I am not making this up, two years at the most, by law.
Then lastly, have incredibly messed up laws which actually make no claim on the ransom money even if you were found guilty. Thus you can do two years in jail, and they enjoy the ransom you extorted. Often the victim's families are not particularly wealthy, or if wealthy not really capable of exacting violent street style vengeance. So you can relax and enjoy your cash.
This is how kidnapping can become a real sector of the economy, look into Columbia in the 80s, and lots of other places.