Five more arrested in France over Louvre jewellery heist, says prosecutor | Crime News

As the number of arrests rises to seven, none of the priceless Napoleonic-era jewels have been recovered.

Paris police have arrested five new suspects in the theft of the Louvre’s crown jewel, the Paris prosecutor confirmed, a day after prosecutors said two other suspects had “partially” admitted to theft and conspiracy charges.

The group includes a “main” suspect, according to Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the AFP news agency reported Thursday. Radio station RTL, citing judicial sources, stated that the sentences took place simultaneously throughout the Paris region late on Wednesday afternoon.

“We had him in our sights,” Beccuau said of the main suspect.

Details of Thursday’s five arrests, including the suspects’ identities, were not immediately available.

On the morning of October 19, as visitors walked the halls of the world’s most visited museum, a group of intruders broke into the Apollo Gallery through an upstairs window and snatched eight priceless pieces of jewelry in a four-minute robbery that has resonated throughout the art world.

The stolen jewelry, which has not been recovered, included tiaras, necklaces, earrings and a 19th-century brooch belonging to the wives of French emperors Napoleon I and Napoleon III.

Investigators have since raced to track down the thieves, who were initially believed to include at least four people.

On Wednesday, Beccuau said two suspects would be brought before magistrates to be charged with organized robbery, which carries a 15-year prison sentence, and criminal conspiracy, punishable by 10 years in prison.

The two, a 34-year-old Algerian citizen and another 39-year-old, who were arrested on Saturday in the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, had “partially admitted[ed] to the charges,” Beccuau said at a news conference.

Last week, the Louvre’s director told the French Senate that the museum’s security operations “did not detect the arrival of the thieves soon enough.”

The Louvre curator has estimated that the jewels are worth about 88 million euros ($102 million).

“Today we are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, for which I assume my share of responsibility,” said the director, adding that she presented her resignation to the Minister of Culture, who rejected it.