“We’re from the Civil Guard, we’ve come to get you out of here”

The Civil Guard has distributed a video showing the rescue of a Galician businessman who had been kidnapped and held for five days near Lalín, a small town in Pontevedra province.

The footage reveals where the highly disoriented man was being held: in a small space normally used to store pig feed, with a mattress on the floor. The temperature at the time of the rescue was 6.5ºC, yet the man was barefoot, and had also been hooded.

The first thing the law enforcement agents ask him in the recording is whether he needs "a hand to get out," after which they explain that they are from the Civil Guard. As the man starts to put on his shoes, the agents are heard to say: "We've come to get you out of here."

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping

The victim asks where he is, to which a civil guard replies: "You'll see where you are in a minute, they've been hiding you out here."

"But where? Which place?" the businessman insists, to which a civil guard replies: “In Lalín, near Lalín."

The victim is heard sobbing as he ties his shoelaces and exclaims "Jesus!" Meanwhile, the officers continue to coax him out: "Come on, it's all over. Watch your head coming out."

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of the entrepreneur, who runs a family business in the timber industry. Investigators will now have to determine the exact motive behind their actions, which they suspect might go beyond the 70,000-euro ransom they were demanding from the victim's family, with the threat of "killing him" or "cutting off" parts of his body if they failed to comply.

Sources familiar with the investigation told Europa Press that they were ruling out debts that the businessman might have with the kidnappers, but noted that his company accounts would have to be investigated for clues.

The kidnapping is believed to have been masterminded by the brothers Jesús and José Manuel M., who, like their victim, are from Galicia. Investigators are now trying to determine the exact role played by the other members of the kidnapping gang.