Two men who allegedly stole $100 million worth of crown jewels during a daring daytime heist at the Louvre Museum in France were arrested on Saturday night, Oct. 25, with one suspect captured at the airport while trying to flee the country.
One of the suspects, who has not been identified, was busted as he was boarding a flight bound for Algeria at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris newspaper Le Parisien reported.
The men, from Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris, were detained by police as part of the investigation of “organized gang robbery” and “conspiracy to commit a crime.”
Police were tipped off on Saturday about one of the suspects likely to be flying out of the country and heading to Algeria in North Africa.
The second suspect was arrested shortly afterward in Paris.
The alleged thieves are known by police for past robberies and are believed to have conducted the high-profile heist on commission, Le Parisien reported.
Last week, the four-man crew dressed in yellow vests and motorcycle helmets as they broke into the famed French museum.
Using a cherry picker, the thieves scaled the museum’s Apollo Gallery and broke into the glass displays using chain saws as horrified guests looked on.
The heist was completed in less than four minutes as the thieves slipped in and out, making off with eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels, worth approximately $100 million.
The stolen jewelry included a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
The robbers descended back down using the same cherry picker before attempting to burn the bucket truck in the process of their escape, as they fled on two scooters parked nearby.
Eight pieces from the collection were stolen in the heist, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch were stolen from the famed museum.
Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown, with more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, damaged but recoverable.
Police have not publicly identified the other two suspects or the mastermind behind the action movie-like heist.
Officials collected nearly 150 traces of DNA, fingerprints and hair samples found at the scene to different sites across Paris to connect the individuals to the robbery.
The hair, believed to belong to the first thief that entered the museum, was found in a motorcycle helmet discarded near the scene and a vests, the outlet said.
The two men are detained at police headquarters, where they can be held in custody for up to 96 hours without any charges being filed.
Museum officials have since moved the French Crown Jewels to an ultra-secure Bank of France vault.
