Walter Finch
THIS is the moment Spanish Policia Nacional intercepted a car speeding down the motorway carrying a drug kidnap gang on the Costa del Sol.
Police had been tipped off after the kidnapped man’s ingenious snap of the car steering wheel logo which he managed to send to a friend along with his location.
It led to his dramatic rescue from the armed gangsters who were holding him at gunpoint over a €30,000 drug deal dispute.
The victim was bundled into the boot of a car in broad daylight on Sabinillas promenade last week, before being subjected to a terrifying 16-hour ordeal during which his captors filmed themselves pressing a pistol to his head.
But in a stroke of quick thinking that would ultimately save his life, the captive managed to secretly photograph the interior of one of the kidnappers’ vehicles and send the image – along with GPS coordinates – to his partner while being moved between locations.
Policia Nacional launched an urgent operation after receiving reports of the kidnapping on January 23. The victim had been snatched by a gang demanding information about an associate who had allegedly conned in a drug deal.
Officers managed to track down the vehicle from the photo of the steering wheel logo somewhere in Torre del Mar.
They set up a surveillance operation that revealed the presence of another car in the area, which matched one of the cars used in the Sabinillas kidnapping with a man in the driver’s seat.
Police moved in, leading to a dramatic pursuit along the A7 motorway towards Malaga.
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The high-stakes operation culminated in the victim’s rescue – unharmed – and the arrest of four suspects, who now face charges of kidnapping, criminal organization membership, and illegal weapons possession.
The entire rescue operation took police less than 16 hours from receiving the initial report to freeing the victim.
