French police have made a further five arrests in connection to the Louvre heist, which saw €88m worth of crown jewels stolen in broad daylight earlier this month. The arrests were made on Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced on RTL radio. The news comes as two other suspects, arrested four days earlier, were charged for gang theft and criminal association. Beccuau said that the jewels have not yet been found.
According to Beccuau three of the suspects—whose DNA was found on tools and on a motorbike believed to have been used to escape the scene— have “partially admitted their participation in the theft”, which took place on 19 October. A fourth member of the group believed to have been on the ground for the heist is still being searched for. The prosecutor called on the perpetrators to return the jewels in exchange of some leniency. “Obviously if there is no damage, justice will take this into account,” she said.
Among the seven men arrested, four are considered as “persons of interest”, Beccuau said, adding that they were found following information gathered after the first arrests. She confirmed that one of the main suspects is an Algerian citizen, who was apprehended while boarding a flight to Algeria. The two men who have already been charged were known for thefts, including an attack on an ATM using a car, but were “not part of major crime gangs”.
Throughout the week the French senate has organised hearings and a parliamentary investigation is to be launched. France’s culture minister Rachida Dati also opened an administrative investigation, stressing that she intends to gain clarity on who was responsible for the failings that led to the theft—and will act accordingly.