Thomaz Samel

Thomaz Samel died after being tortured and set on fire.

He had been kidnapped from his home in Rowley Close, Handsworth on 27 March 2019 at 8.45am and then driven 100 miles to Bickerstaffe in Lancashire where he was found knocking on doors, suffering from 75% burns.

He was taken to hospital but died three months later in a specialist burns unit in Liverpool on 21 June 2019.

It was thought that he had been kidnapped in a white Peugeot Boxer van.

He was found in Bickerstaffe about two hours after he was kidnapped in Birmingham.

The police later released CCTV images of two men who it was thought had taken Thomaz Samel to their van. They had been seen in a service station where they bought some high-visibility clothing which it was said they later used to pose as workers in order to get Thomaz Samel to open his door.

The police said that they were also trying to locate the current location of the van. The van had the registration OY55 MVT and was also seen in Bristol and Banbury.

A 44-year-old man was later arrested in connection with his murder in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 9 June 2019. The man was said to have been part of an international cocaine cartel. The man was initially arrested on another matter involving an international cocaine trafficking ring along with a number of other people and was one of four British people arrested. The arrests were carried out under a joint operation between the American Drug Enforcement Administration, Italian customs officers and Greek Police.

Thomaz Samel had been a Polish national.