The theft of crown jewels from the Louvre museum led to the arrest of two suspects, as confirmed by the Paris prosecutor on Sunday. The arrests were carried out by investigators on Saturday evening, with one of the apprehended individuals found attempting to leave the country. The first suspect was intercepted at Charles de Gaulle Airport around 10 p.m., while the second suspect was detained later in the evening in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris.
The heist, which occurred on October 19, involved thieves stealing eight valuable jewelry pieces valued at around $143 million Cdn from the Louvre’s collection. The security breach highlighted vulnerabilities in the museum’s defenses, as the perpetrators used a crane to break into an upstairs window during operating hours before fleeing on motorcycles.
The incident garnered global attention, sparking introspection in France about the perceived national embarrassment. According to reports from Le Parisien, the two suspects are in their thirties and hail from the Seine-Saint-Denis region. Both individuals were familiar to French law enforcement, with one of them reportedly planning to travel to Algeria.
