Five more suspects have been arrested in connection to the historic theft of jewelry from the Louvre Museum, French authorities said on Thursday.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL radio on Thursday that the arrests were made Wednesday night during coordinated raids in Paris and its northern suburbs. One suspect was identified through DNA traces recovered at the crime scene, but it remains unclear what role the other four played in the heist.
The investigation was making progress after phones and other items seized from the suspects enabled investigators to study their encrypted communications, Beccuau added.
Four masked thieves broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris during opening hours on October 19, ransacking the Apollo Gallery for about $102 million worth of Napoleonic jewelry. Nine artifacts were taken, however the thieves dropped one of them, a crown, in their haste. CCTV captured the thieves descending from a window in the gallery before fleeing the area on scooters. The remainder of the loot has yet to be recovered by authorities.
Two suspects were arrested in connection to the heist on October 25. One man was reportedly detained while preparing to board a flight to Algeria at Charles de Gaulle Airport, while the other had not planned to leave France, Beccuau said.
Authorities described those two suspects as being in their 30s and from the Seine-Saint-Denis area of Paris. Earlier that week, investigators said they were focusing on a newly surfaced video allegedly showing two thieves, one clad in a yellow vest and another in all black, escaping the museum using a furniture lift.
Beccuau said a police unit specializing in cultural property trafficking was searching the black market for the stolen jewels, which could be used to launder money or broker deals within organized crime circles. Shortly after the heist, President Emmanuel Macron’s government revealed that the eight missing jewels were not privately insured. According to the French culture ministry, the country would not be reimbursed for any losses linked to the stolen items if they are not recovered by the police.
Beccuau added that no evidence so far suggests the theft was an inside job, and confirmed that none of the suspects were employed at the museum.
Louvre director Laurence des Cars told the French Senate that the heist exposed the museum’s security “weaknesses.” She added that she submitted her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, but Dati did not accept the offer.
