She said she “deeply deplored” the hasty disclosure of this information by informed individuals adding that it could harm the investigation into the daring theft of loot worth £76m
A French public prosecutor has described their fury at the way the arrests of two suspects in the Louvre jewellery heist were announced.
Confirming arrests had been made on Saturday night, French public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said: “I deeply deplore the hasty disclosure of this information by informed individuals, without consideration for the investigation. This revelation can only harm the investigative efforts of the hundred or so investigators involved in the search for both the stolen jewellery and all the perpetrators.”
She did not specify how many people had been arrested but Ms Beccuau did say that one man had been arrested as he was preparing to leave the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
French media reports say a second man was also arrested on the same evening, also in the Paris region. Ms Beccuau d did not give an update on the whereabouts of the jewels that the crooks took from the Louvre.
French newspaper Le Parisien is reporting that both men are originally from Seine-Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. They were grabbed in lightning raids by cops after investigators had been watching them for days. Police made their move when they realised one of the men was about to flee the country.
French media reports one of the men was arrested as he was about to board a flight to Algeria.
Ms Beccuau, who is Paris Prosecutor and head of France’s anti-organised crime jurisdiction known as JUNALCO – a national court to combat organised crime, said it was too early to provide any further details.
The suspects are currently in pre-trial detention as police investigate “organised theft” and “criminal conspiracy to commit a crime”. They can be held for up to 96 hours and Ms Beccuau said she would share more details on the case following the end of the period of police custody.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised the investigators for “working tirelessly,” and said “the investigations must continue while respecting the confidentiality of the inquiry,” in a post on social media.
Cops suspect the men of being part of the criminal gang who pulled of the audacious daylight robbery at one of the world’s most famous museums. The masked crooks used a cherry picker to reach a window in the Apollo Gallery before taking jewels worth £76m.
Items stolen in the brazen raid include several “priceless” royal items including sapphire and emerald necklaces, and a diamond brooch containing 2,438 diamonds. The clumsy crooks also swiped he emerald crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie but dropped it as they made their escape, it was later recovered having suffered damage.