REAL BOGUS SOCIAL WORKERS
France witnesses a bizarre case of conspiracy theory-fuelled kidnapping
A rare case of ostension (in which real-life events mirror an urban legend or folkloric motif) has seen the Bogus Social Worker (BSW) phenomenon being put to criminal use. Five men, described as “survivalists” by the French police, were arrested in April after two of them successfully posed as child protection officers to kidnap eight-yearold Mia Montemaggi from her grandmother in the town of Les Poulière in theVosges region of France. The five, aged from 23 to 60, met on social media where they moved in extreme right-wing circles and it is alleged that they were recruited by Mia’s mother, Lola Montemaggi, 28, to kidnap her daughter after she lost custody of her.
Mia was put in the care of her grandmother in January after Lola was reported to have made suicidal statements, expressed a desire to go “under the radar” and live on the fringes of society and refused all contact with social services. She also posted messages on Facebook indicating a belief in QAnon-related conspiracies, claiming there is a Satanic pædophile elite at the top of the French state who were guilty of the ritual sacrifice of children abducted for them by social services and child protection agencies.
The five kidnappers took Mia in what the police describe as “a military style operation”, reuniting her with her mother and then taking them on foot across the nearby Swiss border. Although they did not have previous criminal records, they were already under surveillance for their extremist views and so were swiftly picked up by the police, while Mia and her mother were found at a squat in a disused factory in St Croix. On being arrested, one of the abductors said he believed he was saving the child's life, although he admitted he might have been manipulated by the girl’s mother, while others said they were fighting against the state and “the doctors’ dictatorship”.
Further twists in the tale emerged when the police raided the homes of the kidnappers, finding bomb-making materials and documents suggesting they were planning to attack vaccination centres. Statements from the suspects also led the police to issue an international arrest warrant for a former French politician, Rémy Daillet-Weiderman, now living in Malaysia.
Daillet-Weiderman was originally a member of the centrist MoDem party but was banned from it in 2010 for his extreme views. The kidnapper’s statements led police to believe that he was the main figure in their so-called “movement” and had funded and masterminded the kidnapping at Mia’s mother’s request (possibly inciting her to make it). He has posted videos on YouTube calling for 5G networks to be destroyed and “scientifically useless” facemasks to be banned and has spoken out against chemtrails. On his website, entitled “Call for the overthrow of the government of the French Republic”, he details 81 measures he wants to implement once in power, including banning vaccination, suspension of fines and taxes, the removal of speed cameras, withdrawal from European treaties and the prosecution of all ministers since 1981. However, his following in conspiracy circles remains fairly modest. He has not denied involvement in the kidnapping, but denies it was a kidnapping, saying: “This is not an abduction but a return of a child to her mother at her request. There is a concern among the population about abusive placements.”
At the time of writing, Daillet-Weiderman had not been arrested, although the French police are also interested in speaking to him in relation to the defacement of a monument with Holocaust-denial graffiti and an attack on a gendarme by someone claiming to be his follower. Mia has been returned to her grandmother, Lola is awaiting extradition from Switzerland to France and the kidnappers remain in custody. BBC News, 16+19+20 April; Guardian, 21 April; Franceinfo, 22 April 2021.
She claims there is a pædophile elite at the top of the French state