Paris police arrest five more in connection with Louvre jewel theft

Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery in Paris, in which thieves stole crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m), the city’s public prosecutor has said, but the gems remain missing.

Laure Beccuau told RTL radio on Thursday the arrests had been made on Wednesday night in the French capital and the surrounding area, particularly the neighbouring Seine-Saint-Denis department. But they “did not help us find the stolen goods”, she added.

Beccuau further asserted that one of the men detained “was a target of the investigators. We have traces of DNA linking him to the robbery. He’s one we had in our sights.” The other four “can give us information about how the theft was carried out."

Beccuau told a media conference on Wednesday evening that two men who had been previously arrested on Saturday night had “partially admitted” their role and would be charged “with organised theft, which carries a 15-year prison sentence, and criminal conspiracy, punishable by 10 years”.

The four-man gang pulled up outside the world’s most visited museum at about 9.30am on 19 October in a stolen furniture removal truck fitted with an extending ladder and lift, in which two climbed to the ornate first-floor Apollo gallery, The Guardian reported. 

The heist lasted less than seven minutes, with the two who entered the gallery spending three minutes and 58 seconds inside. They dropped a diamond and emerald-studded crown but fled with eight richly gem-encrusted pieces.

The stolen jewels included an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave to his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diadem set with 212 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds that had once belonged to Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.

Beccuau said the two suspects arrested on Saturday, one of whom was detained at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris, reportedly as he was trying to catch a flight to Algeria, were believed to be the men who had entered the Apollo gallery.

Their DNA had been found on a display case and a scooter used in the getaway, the prosecutor said. She added that it was possible the gang had numbered more than four men but there was no indication so far it had benefited from inside help.