A 28-year-old Danish man suspected of directing the kidnapping and 19-hour imprisonment of a woman in Avedøre has been arrested in Tangier, Morocco.
The arrest was reported on September 14, 2026 by DR. According to DR, the National Unit for Special Crime, NSK, had long worked to have the man detained in Morocco. Danish authorities will now seek his extradition for prosecution in Denmark.
In a written comment, NSK stated that it had asked Moroccan police to arrest a person suspected of serious crime committed in Denmark. Per DR’s information, the man is suspected of running a drug network from abroad and of ordering an attempted killing. A young Swedish man was arrested in Værløse in the summer of 2025 in connection with that case.
Held captive for 19 hours
The kidnapping case dates back to the spring of 2025, when the woman was held in an apartment in Avedøre, southwest of Copenhagen. DR reports that she was raped, burned with cigarettes and had her head shaved during the ordeal.
The imprisonment lasted 19 hours. Officers from Politiets Aktionsstyrke, the Danish police special intervention unit, freed her after her family contacted police. According to DR, the guard in the apartment acted on orders sent from abroad via the messaging service Signal.
DR reports that the man arrested in Tangier is the person believed to have given those orders. He is also said to have led a larger drug network operating from outside Denmark.
Targeted after a police arrest
The woman was not a random victim. DR reports that she worked as a so-called white courier in greater Copenhagen, meaning a driving cocaine seller. While out driving, she was surrounded by seven to ten unmarked police cars.
Officers searched her car and seized more than 33,000 kroner, along with cocaine and ketamine. She was arrested and taken to Bellahøj police station, then released after several hours of questioning.
Speaking in a podcast cited by DR, the woman said the network’s leaders concluded she must have told police more than she should have because she was let go. A revenge operation was set in motion against her, ending in the kidnapping.
Five people have already been convicted in the case. According to DR, they received sentences ranging from 5 months to 5.5 years in prison for their roles.
Among those convicted was a friend of the victim. She was found guilty of helping to lure the woman into an ambush that led to the imprisonment.
DR reports that the 28-year-old is suspected of very serious crime in Denmark. NSK did not name the suspect in its written comment.
