(MENAFN- Gulf Times) French police have arrested five more people, including a prime suspect, over this month's daring Louvre museum robbery, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday.
Dozens of detectives have been hunting for four thieves who used a truck with a moving lift and cutting gear to break into a first-floor gallery at the museum on October 19, fleeing with jewellery worth an estimated $102 million.
The latest arrests come after two suspects were charged on Wednesday with theft and criminal conspiracy. They are suspected of being the two who broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the five suspects detained on Wednesday included a main suspect whose DNA linked him to the brazen seven-minute heist, though none of the loot had been found.
"We had him in our sights," she said.
"As for the other individuals who are in police custody, they are people who may be able to provide us with information about the course of events." She said it was "too early" to give additional details about the suspects.
The five detentions took place in and around Paris, particularly in Seine-Saint-Denis, a region just outside the French capital.
Two suspects detained on Saturday were charged on Wednesday evening with theft and criminal conspiracy after they "partially admitted to the charges", according to prosecutors.
They were placed in pre-trial detention.
One is a 34-year-old Algerian living in France, who was identified by DNA traces found on one of the scooters used to flee the heist.
The second suspect is a 39-year-old unlicensed taxi driver from the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.
Both were known to the police for having committed thefts.
The first was arrested as he was about to board a plane for Algeria at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
The second was apprehended shortly after near his home, and "there is no evidence to suggest that he was planning to go abroad", the prosecutor said.
- Wider-scale operation? -
Last week, Beccuau told media that detectives were investigating "150 DNA samples, fingerprints and other traces".
She said public and private security cameras had allowed detectives to track the thieves -- some of whom wore balaclavas and high-visibility vests during the heist carried out in broad daylight -- in Paris and surrounding districts.
Beccuau on Wednesday said while investigators were certain of the involvement of four perpetrators, they had not ruled out the possibility of a wider-scale operation "involving a backer or individuals who may have been intended recipients".
But she said nothing pointed to "any complicity within the museum".
The thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they escaped.
The museum's director has said it was crushed while it was extracted from the display case, but could probably be restored.
The burglars however made off with eight other items of jewellery.
Among them are an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
PARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Police have arrested five more suspects linked to the theft of treasures worth $102 million from the Louvre Museum's Apollo gallery, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday, expressing hope the latest developments will help them find the jewels.
Four hooded thieves made off with their booty during opening hours on the morning of October 19, exposing security lapses at the world's most-visited museum in a brazen daylight heist that sent shockwaves around the world and prompted soul-searching in France over what some viewed as a national humiliation.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told radio station RTL on Thursday the latest suspects had been arrested in coordinated raids in Paris and its northern suburbs on Wednesday evening. One of them was identified through DNA traces left at the crime scene but it was not clear if all were suspected of direct involvement.
The investigation was gaining momentum after phones and other objects found on the suspects allowed investigators to study encrypted communications they made, she added.
NO SIGN OF THE STOLEN JEWELS
Beccuau said a police unit specialised in the trafficking of cultural objects was scouring the black market to locate the stolen artifacts. She said the jewels could be used as a means to launder money or as a bargaining chip in organised crime circles.
Finding the jewels will be harder than finding the thieves, art crime experts have cautioned.
The plunder included royal necklaces, tiaras and earrings -- artifacts that may now be difficult to sell on. Alternatively, their jewels, including thousands of diamonds, rubies and emeralds, could be broken up and the stones recut, and the gold melted down, in a bid to disguise their provenance.
Beccuau sought to encourage those in possession of the treasures to surrender them.
"I want to make it very clear to those who are in possession of them today that the courts would obviously take into account the fact that no loss was caused by this burglary," she said.
TWO SUSPECTS 'PARTIALLY ADMIT' INVOLVEMENT
Shortly before the latest arrests were made, Beccuau revealed that two other men detained over the weekend in connection with the heist had "partially admitted" their involvement in the robbery.
One of them, a 34-year-old unemployed Algerian national living in France since 2010, was detained by police as he tried to board a flight to Algeria.
"At that point, we obviously had to speed up the arrest operations," Beccuau told RTL.
The other man, 39, was already under judicial supervision in an aggravated theft case, Beccuau said. Both live in Aubervilliers, a low-income neighbourhood in northern Paris.
The museum's cameras failed to detect the intrusion swiftly enough to prevent the robbery, which took between six to seven minutes. The shortcomings forced the museum to transfer some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France under secret police escort for safekeeping, according to RTL.
Four people carried out the robbery, but Beccuau has said she did not rule out the possible involvement of a wider network, including a person who could have ordered the theft and been the mastermind behind it. (Reporting by Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Richard Lough, Philippa Fletcher)

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