Two suspects had been arrested Saturday night time (October 25) in reference to the audacious $100 million crown jewels heist at Paris’ Louvre Museum, with one nabbed whereas trying to board a flight to Algeria.
The boys, each of their 30s from Seine-Saint-Denis, a tough suburb north of Paris, had been detained as a part of an investigation into “organized gang theft” and “conspiracy to commit a criminal offense.” Police acquired a tip Saturday about one suspect planning to flee the nation and arrested him at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport as he ready to board a aircraft sure for Algeria.
The second suspect was arrested shortly afterward in Paris. Two different suspects stay at massive.
The arrests come precisely one week after the Hollywood-style heist that shocked the artwork world. On October 19, 4 thieves wearing yellow vests and motorbike helmets executed the brazen daylight theft in lower than 4 minutes. Utilizing a cherry picker, they scaled the museum’s Apollo Gallery and broke into glass shows with chain saws as horrified vacationers watched.
The crew made off with eight items from France’s Crown Jewels assortment, together with a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring linked to Nineteenth-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense. In addition they stole Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her massive corsage-bow brooch.
One piece of stolen jewellery—Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown containing greater than 1,300 diamonds—was later discovered exterior the museum, broken however recoverable.
The thieves descended utilizing the identical cherry picker earlier than trying to burn the bucket truck throughout their escape, fleeing on two scooters parked close by.
In line with Le Parisien, the alleged thieves are identified to police for previous robberies and are believed to have carried out the high-profile heist on fee. Officers collected practically 150 traces of DNA, fingerprints and hair samples from the scene.
Hair believed to belong to the primary thief was present in a motorbike helmet discarded close to the scene. The 2 arrested males are being held at police headquarters, the place they are often detained for as much as 96 hours with out fees being filed.
Police haven’t but recovered the stolen jewellery or publicly recognized the opposite two suspects or the mastermind behind the operation.
Because the heist, safety has elevated round France’s cultural establishments. Museum officers moved the remaining French Crown Jewels to an ultra-secure Financial institution of France vault.
A preliminary report by France’s Court docket of Auditors discovered the world’s most visited museum had insufficient video surveillance methods and safety spending was a lot decrease in 2024 than twenty years earlier.
France’s Minister of the Inside Laurent Nuñez celebrated the arrests Sunday morning (October 26) on Twitter, writing: “I lengthen my warmest congratulations to the investigators who’ve labored tirelessly as I requested and who’ve all the time had my full confidence.”
Nonetheless, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau criticized media leaks concerning the arrests, stating: “This revelation can solely hinder the investigative efforts of the 100 or so mobilized investigators, each within the seek for the stolen jewellery and for all of the perpetrators.”
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