Small-time criminals behind $102 million Louvre heist? What we know about suspects

Small-time criminals are believed to be behind the brazen jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, Paris’ top prosecutor said on Sunday (Nov 2), adding that two of the suspects are a couple with children. This comes after a gang of four broke into the world’s most-visited art museum and fled with French imperial jewels worth an estimated $102 million within seven minutes in broad daylight. Earlier on Thursday (Oct 30), the French authorities arrested five more individuals, including the prime suspect in the high-profile jewellery theft that happened last month. Despite the arrests, none of the eight stolen items have been recovered so far.

The thieves used a truck with an extendable ladder below the museum’s Apollo Gallery, which houses the French crown jewels. They broke into a window and used angle grinders to cut into glass display booths containing the treasures.

Two men, who broke into the Louvre, and their accomplices who waited outside, have been detained, charged and remanded in custody. While two more suspects – a man and a woman – were charged and remanded in custody, the prosecutor said on Saturday (Nov 1).

What we know about the Louvre suspects

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Sunday that the suspects, who live in the French capital’s northern suburbs, were believed to be small-time criminals, ruling out their being part of organised crime groups.

Beccuau added that their profiles do not correspond to those “generally associated with the upper echelons of organised crime.” She added that at least one other person is still being sought.

The 37-year-old man and 38-year-old woman charged on Saturday were a couple and had children together, she said. However, the two have “denied any involvement” while the man refused to make any statement. The man has been charged with organised theft and criminal conspiracy, while his partner has been charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy.

The woman was in tears as she appeared at a court in Paris on Saturday, as she feared for her children and for herself. The couple was arrested after their DNA was found in the basket lift used in the theft.

The prosecutor said that “significant” DNA evidence linking the man to the crime was found in the basket lift, adding that traces of his partner’s DNA were also found. She added that the woman’s DNA may have been transferred through contact with a person or object.

“All this will need to be investigated,” Beccuau said. According to the man’s criminal records, he had been convicted 11 times, most of them for theft.

Suspects ‘clearly local people’

She added that suspects are “clearly local people,” adding that “They all lived more or less in Seine-Saint-Denis,” referring to a region north of Paris. “Some are connected, particularly the couple,” she said.

Two of the male suspects were earlier convicted in a 2015 theft case together, Beccuau added.

She said that the search for the jewels is continuing, adding that “All avenues are being explored,” she said. The treasures “could be used for money laundering.”

“We are examining all the possibilities offered by the black market for selling this jewellery, which I hope will not happen any time soon.”