PARIS — Five additional suspects have been arrested over their potential involvement in the spectacular heist at the Louvre Museum, prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Thursday.
Beccuau said in an interview with RTL radio that one of the individuals detained Wednesday evening is suspected of having directly taken part in the robbery in which the perpetrators smashed a window and grabbed an estimated €88 million worth of jewelry once belonging to members of France’s royal and imperial families, before fleeing on scooters.
She did not clarify what role the other four are suspected of having played in the theft.
The arrests took place in and around Paris, Beccuau said. She added that if the stolen goods — which have not been found — are returned, judiciary authorities “will take that into account” and reduce sentences of any suspects found guilty.
Beccuau told reporters at a press conference Wednesday that two other suspects arrested Saturday had partially admitted involvement in the theft. The duo was identified by DNA traces left on an abandoned scooter and on the window they allegedly broke.
Both men are in their 30s and hail from the northeast Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers, Beccuau told reporters.
One is an Algerian man who had booked a one-way ticket back to his home country. He was arrested at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The other is a French national who had already been sentenced for theft in 2008 and 2014 and is set to be tried in November in a third case. He was arrested at home, Beccuau said.
The brazen daylight robbery at the world’s most-visited museum drew global attention and quickly turned political in France, with strong reactions notably from far-right politicians. The president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, Jordan Bardella, called the incident a “humiliation” and the result of a “breakdown of the state.”
Culture Minister Rachida Dati and Louvre President Laurence des Cars came under fire after the break-in, with critics accusing them of failing to allocate sufficient resources to museum security — though concerns about the Louvre’s decaying infrastructure have been brewing for years.
Dati told lawmakers in the French Senate’s cultural committee on Tuesday that “security failures had existed” and pledged an additional €80 million to install more surveillance cameras in the Louvre.
Victory Goury-Laffont contributed to this report.



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