Report: Amsterdam man abducted by mistake

Soufyan Essabaouni was not the intended target when he was kidnapped from a parking lot in Slotervaart on Thursday, Het Parool reports. According to the Dutch newspaper, he was mistaken for his cousin Mohammed, whose car he was driving and who is a business associate of Wendel Meijer - kidnapped from Zaandam on Tuesday.

Both kidnapped men are still missing.

According to Het Parool, Meijer is a suspected drug trafficker. He was kidnapped upon leaving his company on an industrial estate in Zaandam on Tuesday. His partner reported him missing on Wednesday. Surveillance footage shows three men forcing him into a white Audi A4 station wagon. A burnt out Audi A4 was found in Lelystad during the early hours of Sunday morning. The police believe it was the car used in the abduction.

Soufyan Essabaouni was in his cousin Mohammed's black Audi A1 in a parking lot in Zwanenburg just after midnight on Thursday. Surveillance camera footage shows a white Seat Leon forcing him off the road. Soufyan jumped out of the car and ran off, while his attackers shot at him. It is unlcear whether he was hit. He's been missing ever since.

Essabaouini is a team leader at an Albert Heijn in Amsterdam-Zuid. Friends and acquaintances from the neighborhood in which he grew up, around Delflandlaan, described him to Het Parool as a quiet, polite boy who leads a good life. His cousin Mohammed on the other hand, is well knon in the criminal environment of Amsterdam-West, according to the newspaper.