The Paris prosecutor announced on Sunday that two individuals have been apprehended in connection with the theft of crown jewels from the renowned Louvre museum. The arrests were made by investigators on Saturday evening, with one of the suspects intercepted while attempting to board a flight out of the country.
One of the suspects, who was on the verge of departing France, was detained at Charles de Gaulle Airport around 10 p.m. on Saturday, while the other suspect was captured later in the evening in the Seine-Saint-Denis district north of Paris. Paris police have not yet provided any official comments on the matter.
The theft occurred on October 19 when thieves broke into the museum and stole eight valuable pieces of jewelry valued at approximately $143 million Cdn from the Louvre’s collection before fleeing on motorcycles. The incident exposed security vulnerabilities as the perpetrators used a crane to break into an upstairs window of the world’s most-visited museum during operating hours, making their escape on motorcycles.
The robbery made headlines globally, leading to introspection in France regarding what some perceived as a national embarrassment. According to Le Parisien, the two suspects are both in their thirties and originally from the Seine-Saint-Denis region. They were already on the radar of French law enforcement, with one of them reportedly planning to travel to Algeria.