Prague - Czech police believe that the five men who kidnapped Czech entrepreneur Petr Vlach from Nice, France, and eventually murdered him in Italy, have also tried to blackmail other Czech businessmen. Police are now looking for more people who have been contacted by the gang, said anti-organized crime squad (UOOZ) spokesman Robert Slachta at a press conference, adding that police have identified several cases that involve the same five men.
The five men, operating abroad under various identities and names, have apparently selected several wealthy Czech entrepreneurs and lured them out of the country under the pretext of a business offer.
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One of these entrepreneurs arrived in Nice only one day after Vlach's murder, but the gang did not meet him because he was not traveling alone.
The five men were put in custody and charged with murder, blackmail and restriction of personal freedom. They face a life sentence in prison. All of them have served prison sentences before, and it is possible that the gang was actually formed in prison.
The gang contacted Vlach at the end of 2012 and met him for the first time in Nice on 6 March 2013, under the pretext of discussing the sale of two luxury mansions in the Czech Republic.
Eventually, they threatened to kill his family to make him reveal his account numbers and passwords, which they used to steal thousands of euros from his foreign bank accounts. On the following day, the men took Vlach by car to Italy, where they murdered him. His body was found by Italian police on April 2.
Some of the defendants have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with police.
Police are also considering the possibility that the case is linked with the 2008 kidnapping of Czech entrepreneur Jan Motovsky, who disappeared under similar circumstances.
The UOOZ started to investigate the case on March 9, and eventually began to cooperate with Italian, French, Swiss and Austrian authorities.
"On March 26, we arrested three people in Prague and Central Bohemia, the following day two more people in the Zlin region and the Plzen region," said Slachta.
The gang includes two brothers from Zlin, well-known to the local business community as well as the criminal underground.
Slachta also complained that French police have released some information about the case to the French media already at the beginning of March, when the investigation was only starting. "We consider it very unfortunate," he said.
