French police arrest 2 Louvre jewel heist suspects amid manhunt

[ad_1] LONDON -- Two males from a Paris suburb have been arrested in reference to final week's main jewel heist on the Louvre Museum, the French Nationwide Police confirmed to ABC Information amid a nationwide manhunt persevering with for 2 different perpetrators.

One suspect was arrested at 10 p.m. on Saturday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport whereas making an attempt to board a airplane sure for Algeria, police stated.

The second suspect was nabbed by police as he was about to journey to Mali, in West Africa, an investigator with the Paris Brigade for the Repression of Banditry (BRB), the particular police unit spearheading the probe, and a supply with the French Inside Ministry straight linked to the investigation informed ABC Information.

Police stand guard outdoors the Louvre museum at Louvre, October 19, 2025, in Paris, France.

Remon Haazen/Getty Photographs

Each suspects, whose names haven't been publicly launched, are French nationals who stay in Seine Saint Denis, a suburb of Paris, in keeping with investigators. One of many suspects has twin citizenship in France and Mali, and the opposite is a twin citizen of France and Algeria, investigators stated, including that each had been already recognized to police from previous housebreaking instances.

Investigators stated they matched hint DNA proof recovered from a helmet left on the scene of the crime to one of many suspects, enabling police to place the alleged thief below cellphone and bodily surveillance.

Each suspects are believed to have performed lively roles within the brazen Oct. 19 theft on the Louvre, through which eight treasured items of jewellery, together with crowns containing 1000's of diamonds and different treasured gem stones, had been stolen, in keeping with the sources.

Investigators say they're nonetheless figuring out whether or not a supply within the Louvre could have had a task within the theft.

No new data has been made public on the whereabouts of the stolen jewels that Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau estimated to be price $102 million.

French Inside Minister Laurent Nuñez praised investigators for making the arrests in a social media put up on Sunday.

"I want to provide my warmest congratulations to the investigators who labored tirelessly as I requested them to and who all the time had my full confidence," Nuñez stated within the put up. "The investigations should proceed in accordance with the secrecy of the investigation below the authority of the specialised interregional court docket of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Workplace."

"We'll proceed with the identical willpower! Let's preserve going!" Nuñez added.

Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for the Louvre suspects after the theft from the museum's Apollo Gallery on the morning of Oct. 19, shortly after the museum opened to the general public.

The stolen gadgets included crowns, necklaces, earrings and brooches, a few of which as soon as belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his spouse.

The group of thieves drove as much as the facet of the museum in what police described as a "cell freight elevator" outfitted with a metallic ladder on the again that was prolonged as much as a window, in keeping with the Paris police.

"They deployed the freight elevator, securing the environment with building cones, earlier than accessing the second flooring, within the Apollo Gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder," in keeping with the police assertion.

"Inside, they then smashed two show instances, 'Napoleon jewels' and 'French crown jewels,' utilizing the angle grinder and stole quite a few items of high-value jewellery," police stated.

An infographic of the heist on the Louvre Museum.

Anadolu through Getty Photographs

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that authorities would catch these answerable for what he described as an "assault on a heritage that we cherish as a result of it's our historical past."

French Tradition Minister Rachida Dati, who's overseeing the investigation alongside the Justice Ministry, described the heist to ABC Information as "a easy, however spectacular operation."

Quickly after the theft, investigators stated 4 suspects left the scene on two motorbikes, winding their manner by central Paris and final noticed dashing southeast on Freeway A6 out of Paris and within the route of Lyon.