'I didn't think it was the Louvre': The incredible story of the 'Doudou Cross Bitume' thief
Many tourists gather along the banks of the Seine near the Louvre Museum, which remained closed following the October 19 robbery. Paris, France, on October 20, 2025. PHOTO: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
One of the alleged perpetrators of the robbery of the century at the Louvre would be “Doudou Cross Bitume” or “Legend of Motocross”, as he is known in the northern suburbs of Paris, 39-year-old Niakate Abdoulaye. In the late 2000s, he started posting videos of his motorcycle adventures on YouTube and Dailymotion, and then on TikTok, the Italian press writes.
Le Parisien newspaper notes that the videos, which 16 years later are still online and have been viewed by nearly 700,000 people, show him performing motorcycle stunts in the Landy district of Aubervilliers in the Seine Saint-Denis department, where he was born and raised, to the Champs-Élysées and Place du Trocadéro in Paris.
In recent videos, Doudou is filmed lifting weights at the gym or offering motorcycle advice to the neighborhood's younger residents. But his new notoriety, this time worldwide, is due to the fact that Niakate Abdoulaye, known as Doudou, born in Aubervilliers to a family originally from Mali, is believed to be one of the two men who broke into the Apollo Gallery to steal the French crown jewels. A sensational theft, committed on Sunday morning, while the museum was open, and a loot of 88 million euros, still unrecovered by law enforcement.
A few days after his arrest, Doudou partially admitted the facts, saying that he acted together with his accomplice Ayed Ghelamallah, aged 34, an Algerian citizen, who was also arrested. Niakate Abdoulaye and Ayed Ghelamallah are the first two people arrested on the evening of Saturday, October 25 in the investigation into the theft from the Louvre. The first was arrested in Aubervilliers and the second at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport as he prepared to board the last flight of the day to Algiers.
The profiles of the two men are far from those of famous thieves, even if they committed a theft that attracted worldwide attention. During the interrogations, they said that they did not think they had entered the Louvre, because they were convinced that the Louvre was only the building near the pyramid (entrance structure, ed.), and then that they were convinced that they would not find visitors, because it was Sunday, and they assumed that museums were closed on that day.
With 15 criminal records, Niakate Abdoulaye, alias “Doudou Cross Bitume”, is a familiar figure to the Paris police. The most serious crime he committed, before the Louvre robbery, was a May 31, 2014 robbery of a jewelry store in Barbès, committed with the help of fake assault rifles, a feat that ended with a getaway on Yamaha T-Max scooters, similar to those used after the Louvre robbery. For this robbery, Niakate Abdoulaye was tried alongside 37-year-old Slimane K., believed to be the third member of the Louvre gang. Slimane, together with a fourth accomplice, still unknown, would have waited in front of the museum for Niakate and Ayed, before fleeing with them on the two scooters.
Slimane K. was arrested on Wednesday, October 29, together with his 38-year-old partner, who had no criminal record.
Niakate Abdoulaye, known as “Doudou Cross Bitume”, is the son of a man who returned to Mali after retirement and had 23 children with three wives. Between thefts, menial jobs and an occasional activity as an illegal taxi driver, he was tried on Wednesday, November 5, for another crime: damaging the police station in Aulnay, where he was detained in 2019. Meanwhile, his videos are enjoying increasing success.
Material produced with the support of Rador Radio Romania
