The puzzle pieces of the Louvre robbery begin to form a clearer picture. The last member of the commando wanted for what is now known as the robbery of the century at the Parisian art gallery was arrested this Tuesday morning in Laval (Loire). He is currently in police custody in Paris accused of “robbery in an organized gang” and “association of criminals”. In addition to this man, three more suspects were arrested: a man and two women aged 31 and 40, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The only problem, however, is that the jewels still stolen on October 19, with a value of about 88 million euros, are still missing.
The police have been completing the investigation work for the last month and a half. Two other suspects, also from Aubervilliers, were arrested on October 25 and are being held in custody. They are accused of having entered the gallery wearing yellow vests to pass themselves off as workers.
The DNA of one of them, Abdoulaye N. (known on YouTube as “Doudou Cross Bitume”), was found in one of the fractured display cases and on abandoned objects. This man, a clandestine taxi driver and known for previous crimes, admitted having participated in the robbery on behalf of unidentified individuals. The DNA of his accomplice, a 34-year-old Algerian who has lived in France since 2010 and who was trying to return to his country when he was detained at Charles de Gaulle airport, was also found in one of the scooters used for escape.
The third suspect was arrested on October 29. He is originally from Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, and has an extensive criminal record with eleven previous convictions for crimes such as violence, traffic violations and aggravated robberies. The Louvre was not his first job with the other detainees. In 2015 he had been convicted with one of the first two suspects.
The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, pointed out that those involved are local people with unusual profiles in organized crime, but who quickly commit serious crimes.
The stolen jewelery is valued at around 88 million euros and, as it cannot be sold on the market, it is feared that it may have been dismantled to be sold separately. A set of 8,700 diamonds, 34 sapphires, 38 emeralds and more than 200 pearls, a synthesis of centuries of French political history. As a preventive measure, the Louvre has now moved some of its most valuable jewels from that same gallery to the Bank of France, which stores the country’s gold reserves in a huge vault located 27 meters underground, and which is just 500 meters from the museum.
The museum’s reputation had not been so damaged since Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who had worked as a glazier at the Louvre, stole the museum.Mona Lisa in 1911. But the theft of Napoleon’s jewels was not the last chapter. Two weeks ago, the art gallery was forced to close another wing of the museum due to security problems in the facilities.