The arrest took place simultaneously in the 16th district of Paris and on the outskirts of the city, according to prosecutor Laure Beccuau; The value of the stolen material was estimated at around 88 million euros
Five new suspects were arrested in the investigation into the theft of jewelry from the Museum of , including one of the possible four thieves from the group that carried out the robbery, said this Thursday (30) the prosecutor of , Laure Beccuau, in a radio interview RTL. The five were arrested simultaneously in the 16th district of Paris and on the outskirts of the city, specifically in department 93 (Seine-Saint-Denis), during the afternoon and evening of Wednesday (29), detailed the prosecutor.
One of those arrested on Wednesday night “was the target of investigators” and they have “DNA evidence linking him to the robbery. He was one of the suspects we had in our sights”, he added. She highlighted that the other four arrested yesterday “can provide information about how the robbery occurred”.
Police searches carried out during the afternoon and evening of Wednesday did not allow the stolen items to be recovered, the prosecutor said.
The material value of the jewels was estimated by the Louvre at around 88 million euros, while the heritage and historical value is invaluable, according to experts.
The prosecutor compared the investigation to “Ariadne’s thread” and said that her role in this process is not to worry about where the jewels are, but to remain “steadfast” in trying to find them.
The latest arrests took place on the same night that the two arrested last Saturday – who “partially” acknowledged their participation in the robbery – were formally indicted by the investigating judge in the case for “organized robbery and criminal association” and taken to pre-trial detention, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced.
These two men, around 30 years old, “partially admitted the facts”, explained Beccuau, at a press conference held on Wednesday afternoon. The suspicion is that they were the ones who “entered the Apolo Gallery to steal the jewels”, he explained.
According to the prosecutor, the two arrested in the first operation had criminal records, one of them for trafficking crimes and the other for aggravated robbery, specifically, she explained, for trying to steal an ATM by throwing a car at it.
The first, aged 34 and of Algerian nationality and based in France since 2010, was trying to return to his country when he was detained at Charles de Gaulle airport at around 8pm (local time) on Sunday (26). According to the prosecutor, his DNA was found on one of the motorcycles that the commando used in the escape.
The second, 39 years old, was arrested 40 minutes later near his home in Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris, where he was born. Their DNA was found on one of the two display cases they broke to steal the jewelry in the Paris museum’s Apollo Gallery, as well as on some of the objects abandoned by the thieves in their escape, Beccuau said.
The prosecutor added that “nothing at this stage suggests that the perpetrators had accomplices within the museum”. However, investigators are not ruling out the possibility that this is a much larger group than the four perpetrators identified by surveillance cameras, he said.
Around 100 investigators from the Organized Crime Repression Brigade (BRB, its French acronym) and the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Goods (OCBC) are working to try to find the fourth thief and any other possible accomplice in the robbery at the Louvre on the 19th.
*With information from EFE
Published by Nícolas Robert
