The mistakes made by the thieves at the Louvre. What did the investigators find in the case of the spectacular jewelry robbery
Investigators at the place where there are suspicions that the thieves who robbed the Louvre entered the museum Photo: ABACAPRESS, Abaca Press / Alamy / Profimedia
The French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, assured that the thieves will be found, even before the arrest of the two suspects in the case of the great robbery at the Louvre museum, Il Corrierre della Sera writes.
However, concerns about the jewelry, “often sold abroad,” persist. Meanwhile, the investigation takes another turn, as the interrogations of the two arrested men could provide crucial information for the capture of those who participated in the robbery and their possible accomplices.
The two detained men are between the ages of 30 and 40 and live in the same Aubervilliers district in the northern suburbs of Paris in Seine-Saint-Denis, the 93rd department, considered the most difficult district.
One of the men, a dual French-Algerian citizen, was stopped by police who had been following him for days at the boarding gates of nearby Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to board the last Air Algerie flight to the capital Algiers. His companion, a French citizen, was instead stopped in Aubervilliers and, according to sources in the investigation, was planning to flee to Mali.
Although the robbery seemed exceptional in its daring, efficiency and speed, the thieves still made numerous mistakes. The main one was the abandonment, as they left the museum in a hurry, of numerous objects, which were analyzed for days by forensic experts.
Evidence found by investigators
Among the 150 DNA samples and fingerprints examined, the first examined were those left on the crown of Empress Eugenie, the one with 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds, stolen from the Apollo Gallery window and then lost during the run, a few meters from the museum.
Then a motorcycle helmet, which had a few hairs inside, and a glove. Both were abandoned in the cab of the cargo truck, stolen a few days earlier from a seller found on the Leboncoin website and encountered by the thieves in the Louvres, a city with a similar name to the museum, near the airport.
The thieves then left at the scene the keys to the truck, a bottle of flammable liquid with which they tried unsuccessfully to set fire to the vehicle, one of the yellow vests used to disguise themselves as workers and a walkie-talkie.
Fingerprints and DNA evidence allowed the identification of the two men who were later arrested, who were already on the police record for jewelry store robberies.
Robbery to order, taken into account
It is possible that these specialists acted at the behest and with the complicity of a museum employee who could have reported security vulnerabilities.
During the robbery, video surveillance around the Louvre proved insufficient, and the thieves managed to safely park the truck on the sidewalk when the museum was already open, wearing yellow vests, without anyone stepping in to verify their identity and trigger the alarm.
Surveillance cameras spread throughout Paris proved to be effective, however, allowing investigators to track the trail of the two Yamaha TMax scooters on which the four thieves had left.
The arrests made on Saturday evening and revealed on Sunday morning confirm the theory of a major robbery and reduce the importance of the hypothesis of a hybrid war waged by Russia against France, a hypothesis that had not been completely ruled out at the beginning of the investigation, writes the Italian publication.
Even if the Louvre faces a complex reorganization operation that will probably last for years, at least the two arrests raise the morale of France and that of the authorities.
Material produced with the support of Rador Radio Romania
