Five new suspects arrested in Louvre heist investigation

FRENCH POLICE HAVE arrested five new people, including a main suspect, over this month’s daring jewellery theft from the Louvre museum, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday.

“We had him in our sights,” Laure Beccuau said of the main suspect, adding that none of the loot worth an estimated $102 million had been found.

Over the weekend police detained two men suspected of being part of the four-man heist crew.

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Dozens of investigators had been tasked with tracking down the thieves who successfully robbed the Louvre in broad daylight on October 19, making off with royal jewels in just seven minutes.

The robbers had clambered up the extendable ladder of a stolen movers’ truck and, using cutting equipment, broke into a first-floor gallery.

They dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters, but managed to steal eight other pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.

The brazen theft has made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.