Five more people have been arrested in the investigation into the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, but the treasures remain missing, the Paris prosecutor announced Thursday.
The five were detained late Wednesday night in separate police operations in Paris and surrounding areas, including the Seine-Saint-Denis region, Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL radio. She did not release their identities or other details.
One is suspected of being part of the four-person team that robbed the Louvre's Apollo Gallery in broad daylight on Oct. 19, the prosecutor said. Two other members of the team were arrested on Sunday and given preliminary charges on Wednesday of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an organized gang. Both partially admitted their involvement, according to the prosecutor.
"Searches last night and overnight did not allow us to find the goods,” Beccuau said.
It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million), shocking the world. The robbers forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.
One of those who has been charged is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in a suburb north of Paris, Aubervilliers and was known to the police mostly for road traffic offenses. His DNA was found on one of the scooters used by robbers to leave the scene, she said.
The other suspect, 39, was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers. The man was known to police for several thefts and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.
Video surveillance cameras showed there were at least four criminals involved, Beccuau said.
The four suspected robbers arrived on board a truck equipped with a freight lift that two of them used to climb up to the museum’s window. The four of them left onboard two motor scooters along the Seine River toward eastern Paris, where they had some other vehicles parked, she detailed.
Beccuau said nothing suggests that the robbers had any accomplices within the museum’s staff.
She made a plea Wednesday night to those who have the jewels: "These jewels are now, of course, unsellable ... Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods. There’s still time to give them back.”
French police have acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses – turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.
