Paris, Oct. 30 (LaPresse) – Ten days after the spectacular theft of eight French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, on Wednesday evening, October 29, five people were arrested and taken into custody, including one of the main suspects. This was announced by the Paris prosecutor to RTL. The arrests took place “in different locations” around 9:00 p.m. in Paris and its surroundings, according to Laure Beccuau. “One of them was a target of the investigators (…) he was one of the suspects we had in our sights,” she specified. The other four arrested “could be able to provide us with information on how the events unfolded.”
On Wednesday evening, two other men suspected of taking part in the spectacular Louvre robbery were formally indicted and taken into custody, but the jewels are still missing. The two men, aged 34 and 39, arrested on Saturday evening, were charged with “organized robbery and criminal conspiracy” and taken into custody, announced the Paris prosecutor’s office that evening.
After their client appeared before the judge for liberties and detention (JLD), the lawyers of the 34-year-old suspect, Réda Ghilaci and David Bocobza, emphasized the need for “absolute respect for the confidentiality of the investigation and inquiry” in this case. “The only observation we can make tonight is that there is a vast gap between the extraordinary nature of this case and the entirely ordinary personality of our client,” they told journalists. The loot from the sensational theft is estimated at 88 million euros, Laure Beccuau stated.