Petty criminals are behind the theft of jewels in the Louvre museum in Paris, said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, saying that in the case of two of the suspects, a 37-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, they are a couple with children. TASR informs about it according to a Reuters report.
A four-member group only needed seven minutes to steal jewelry from the Louvre with an estimated value of 88 million euros. In broad daylight, the thieves parked a truck with a retractable platform under the Apollo Gallery, where the French crown jewels were displayed. They broke the window and used angle grinders to get into the glass display cases with jewelry. They then fled the scene on scooters.
Two men who allegedly broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside had earlier been charged and both taken into custody. On Saturday, the prosecutor’s office announced the indictment and detention of two other suspects, a 37-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman. According to the Paris prosecutor, these are petty local criminals.
“They all lived more or less in the Seine-Saint-Denis area,” the prosecutor said, referring to the region north of Paris. They were not members of an organized group because their profiles did not match the character “generally associated with the higher levels of organized crime”. Police are still looking for at least one more person.
The man and woman who were charged on Saturday are a couple and have children together. Both deny any involvement in the Louvre burglary, Beccuau said. She added that the man refused to testify. A 37-year-old man has been charged with theft by an organized group and criminal conspiracy, while the woman is accused of being an accomplice. She cried when she was brought before the Paris court, she said she was afraid for her children and herself.
The pair were arrested after DNA was found on the platform, which is linked to the man. Traces of his partner’s DNA were also found, but they could have been transferred by contact with a person or object, the prosecutor added. “All of that will have to be checked,” Beccuau said, adding that the man had already been convicted 11 times, mostly for theft, according to the criminal record.
The first two men, who were detained earlier, are also known to the police from previous burglaries. Both lived in the city of Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, Reuters writes. Three people detained this week along with the couple have been released without charge.
The thieves lost the diamond-emerald crown of Empress Eugenia, the wife of Emperor Napoleon III. However, they managed to escape with eight valuables, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave to his wife, the Empress Marie Louise. According to the prosecutor, the search for the jewelry continues. “We are exploring all alternatives,” she added, adding that the valuables “could be used for money laundering.” “We are examining all options offered by the black market for the sale of these jewels, but I hope that there will not be a sale in the near future,” Beccuau said.
