A woman arrested this week, along with four other suspects, over the unprecedented jewel heist at the Louvre on Saturday, appeared before a judge who will decide whether to detain her, according to French media reports.
She has been charged with complicity in organized theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime. The 38-year-old woman was in tears as she confirmed that she lives in the northern La Courneuve suburb of Paris, an AFP journalist reported.
At the request of the prosecution, the hearing continued behind closed doors. Earlier on Saturday, the Paris public prosecutor’s office did not specify how many suspects would be brought before the court.
Last month, thieves wielding power tools raided the Louvre, the world’s most visited art museum, in broad daylight. They took just seven minutes to steal jewelry worth an estimated $102 million.
French authorities initially announced the arrest of two suspects. This week, prosecutors revealed that police had arrested five more people, including a prime suspect. The five detentions took place in and around Paris, particularly in Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
One of the five people arrested this week was released without charge on Friday, according to his lawyers, Sofia Bougrine and Noemie Gorin. “In these serious crime cases, we find that waves of arrests look more like drift nets,” Bougrine told AFP on Saturday, highlighting what she described as the indiscriminate nature of some of the arrests.
The first two men previously arrested were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after “partially admitting to the charges,” Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said earlier this week.
One suspect is a 34-year-old Algerian national living in France, identified by DNA traces found on one of the scooters used to flee after the heist. The second suspect is a 39-year-old unlicensed taxi driver from the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers. Both suspects were known to police for previous theft offenses.
The first man was arrested as he was about to board a plane for Algeria at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. The second was apprehended shortly after near his home. Prosecutors confirmed there was no evidence suggesting he planned to flee abroad.
They are suspected of being the two who broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.
The stolen loot remains missing. During their escape, the thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III.
The burglars made off with eight other pieces of jewelry, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave to his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds that also belonged to Empress Eugenie.
Master jeweler and Parisian gem appraiser Stephen Portier told CBS News it would be difficult to sell the stolen gems. “The whole world knows about this robbery. Dealers will have pictures of every single piece up in their offices,” he said. “So if they think they’re being offered diamonds from the Louvre, they will ask some hard questions — and contact the police.”
Experts have also noted that even if the jewels were broken up and sold on the black market, they would still be worth millions of dollars.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/louvre-crown-jewels-heist-woman-charged-reports-say/
