Five additional suspects have been arrested over the €88 million jewellery theft from the Louvre Museum in Paris, according to the city’s public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau.
They were detained on Wednesday night during coordinated raids in Paris and its suburbs, including Seine-Saint-Denis. One of the suspects is believed to be part of the four-man team captured on CCTV during the heist.
Two of the alleged thieves had already been arrested and have partially admitted their involvement, while the fourth remains at large. It is still unclear what roles the newly arrested individuals allegedly played, but Beccuau told French radio RTL that they “may eventually inform us about how the incident took place.”
Phones and other objects seized from the suspects are being examined for encrypted messages. Those detained can be held for up to four days before being charged or released, reports BBC.
Beccuau confirmed that DNA evidence from one of the men arrested on Wednesday could link him directly to the crime scene. “We had him in our sights,” she said, adding that the latest arrests stemmed from “other elements of the case,” not from information provided by earlier detainees.
The daring daylight robbery took place on 19 October, when four thieves broke into the museum’s Galerie d’Apollon and stole French crown jewels valued at €88 million. The robbers arrived at 9:30 a.m. in a stolen vehicle equipped with a mechanical lift, climbed a balcony near the River Seine, and used a disc cutter to open display cases.
They fled after just four minutes, escaping on two scooters before switching to cars and heading east. No one was injured during the heist.
The first two suspects, both men in their thirties with criminal records, were arrested last week. One was caught trying to board a one-way flight to Algeria. Investigators say there is no evidence that the theft was an inside job.
France’s justice minister later said the Louvre’s security protocols had “failed.” The museum’s director admitted that the only camera in the Gallery of Apollo had been facing away from the balcony used by the thieves.
Since the theft, security around France’s cultural institutions has been tightened. The Louvre has also moved its remaining crown jewels to the Bank of France, where they are now kept in a high-security vault 26 metres underground.
