Stole a quarter of billion dollars in cryptocurrenciesbut they were caught within a month. The reason for gang Minecraft’s American kids, the famous most sales video worldwide.
How luxurious cars, $ 500,000 bar accounts and a mysterious abduction attempt helped researchers to solve their lives robbery and capture the “unknown” gang of fans Minecraft who “put” in hand 250 million in cryptocurrencies.
As the ‘April revealed’ ‘New York Times“, An agent of FBIwho was out of service, accidentally saw the attempt to kidnap the parents of an 18 -year -old and thus “unfolded the tangle” of the case.
Specifically, on the afternoon of August 25, 2024, in the quiet suburb of Danbury, Connecticut, Sushil and the Radhika Chetal were in search of a house leading a luxurious Lamborghini takes care of worth $ 240,000.
Suddenly, a white Honda Civic hit the back of their vehicle, while a Ram Promaster truck closed the road. Six men in black clothes and covered faces kidnapped them day by noon. It was the beginning of a story that would reveal one of the most paradoxical links between the digital and natural world of crime.
As the kidnappers tied the Sushil and Radhika Chetal With packaging movies and beating them with a baseball bat, the FBI off -service watched the scene and alerted the authorities. The pursuit followed, and eventually, the kidnappers were arrested a few hours later. But it was not a simple ransom case.
The real target of kidnappers
As the New York Times reports in their extensive reports, the motives began to appear when police found the white Civic outside an Airbnb in Roxbury, along with two more suspects. And the real goal was not the couple themselves, but something much more valuable: the millions his son Sushil and her Radhika Chetal He had gained from one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history!
One week before the attempted abduction, a Washington resident fell victim to a telephone fraud. Believing she was talking to her security representatives Google and the Stock Exchange of cryptocurrencies Geminigave access to his accounts. Hackers got at that time 4.100 Bitcoin, worth $ 243 million.
The central researcher of the case was none other than the famous and anonymous ZachXBT – An independent researcher specializing in digital crime and has almost 850,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter).
THE ZachXBT Finding almost real -time transactions through special software that monitors the movement of cryptocurrencies. Led to a list of wallets associated with users of the underworld of the platform Minecraftand specifically the so -called «Com» – A network that started as a player community and evolved into a global criminal circuit. The name that stood out from the recordings was 18 -year -old Veer Chetal. He was the son of the abductors.
The son who lived for a while as a Croissant
THE Veeran excellent student, had suddenly begun to show a life full of luxury:
Corvette, BMW, Lamborghini, Gucci shoes, yacht party. He claimed he won them from “investment in Crypto”. But FBI’s survey revealed that he was a member of Comand even one of the key organizers of the robbery.
Investigations also led to others: the 20 -year -old Malone Lam by Singapore, known as Greavys or Anne Hathawayorganized by a luxurious party in Los Angeles spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in one night. Or Jeandiel Serrano21 years old, arrested at Los Angeles Airport with $ 500,000 and acknowledged his involvement and returned 20 million to bitcoin.
The FBI agent role
The FBIthrough the special unit Virtual Assets Unitin collaboration with private groups such as Cryptoforensic And some of the most capable independent researchers in the field began to “unravel the tangle”. With the help of analyzes blockchaindata from Discord and Telegram and even Instagram stories From a party, the federals began arrests and recitations of categories for Conspiracy, money laundering and abduction.
The connection to the abduction of his parents Veer It was revealed when authorities gained access to the kidnappers of the kidnappers. Suspects were chatting through group chatplanning the hit in the hope of blackmailing the young hacker to return the money. On September 24, a federal jury in Connecticut led charges of abduction, robbery and conspiracy to six young people from Florida.
The family case Chetal It reveals the new way in which the digital underworld acquires physical existence. The alien loose ‘trolls’ of Minecraft servers It has been transformed into an organized crime with international scope, which does not hesitate to resort to threats, torture and abductions.
As the researcher notes Allison nixon of the cyber security team Unit 221Bthe community of Com It has evolved from a chaotic group of adolescents in a criminal organization. Now, attacks are not limited to digital espionage, but they even include “brickings“, Armed robberies and”SWATtings».
By March 2025, five of the six kidnappers had been guilty and were sentenced to 15 years in prison. He himself Veer chetal He was arrested and accused of federal offenses.