The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on the 2nd of November that the daring robbery of jewels worth at least 80 million euros was carried out by petty thieves, not professionals from the world of organized crime, writes the news agency Reuters.
On Sunday morning, the 19th of October, when the museum had just opened, the criminals entered the museum through a second-floor balcony using a retractable ladder, opened the stands with angle grinders and left the scene in less than eight minutes, taking with them the jewels, which are considered a national treasure.
Three of the four robbers have now been detained, but the jewelry has not been found. Authorities say the criminals’ profiles do not resemble the master thieves seen in Hollywood blockbusters, and they are petty criminals from a tough northern suburb of Paris. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccau said this was not an ordinary theft, but it was also not the type of crime usually associated with organized crime.
Beccau said the four people arrested (one of the perpetrators’ girlfriends was also detained)
did not fit the usual type of organized crime professional who could carry out complex operations.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the robber, who is still at large, was likely the mastermind and organizer of the crime. French media have speculated that the robbers were amateurs because they left behind the most valuable item, Empress Eugenie’s crown. Tools, gloves and other items were also left at the scene, and while fleeing, they failed to set fire to the truck they had arrived in.
The prosecutor’s office has informed that all of the detainees have already had contact with law enforcement agencies. Beccau also does not rule out that other individuals participated in the robbery in addition to the three detainees and one thief who is still at large.
Read also: Suspects arrested in Louvre robbery
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