Police have detained a 35-year-old member of an organized criminal group which media have dubbed “the finger-cutting gang”.

The group specialize in brutal kidnappings for ransom, sometimes dressing as police officers. Usually they hold their victims in rented homes near Warsaw and are suspected of at least 20 abductions, torture, and three murders.

The man had been on the wanted list for five years. He drove into a police trap when he stopped at a toll booth on the Kraków to Katowice motorway. He was driving a car with false licence plates, carried false id documents, and he had seven mobile phones as well as a collection of phone cards. He faces a prison sentence of up to 12 years. (ek)