Paris
 — 

It was the photo of a loved one nobody wants to receive.

When the partner of a 35-year-old magistrate in France checked his phone last week, he saw a picture of his partner accompanied by a stark warning: pay a ransom in cryptocurrency or we will mutilate her.

The man – an associate in a start-up that has cryptocurrency activities – reported the demand to French police on Thursday morning, sparking a multi-agency manhunt involving as many as 160 officers, local authorities said.

The magistrate and her elderly mother were held for 30 hours in a garage in southern France’s Drôme region…