Paris Prosecutor’s Office announced that the police have arrested a suspect connected to the theft of precious jewels from the Louvre Museum, with one of them attempting to flee France.
Paris police stated that on Saturday night, at 10 p.m., a suspect was apprehended at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria.
Information regarding the arrest of the other suspect was not provided by the police.
Both suspects, according to the police, are believed to have been involved in the Louvre theft last week and they come from the Seine Saint Denis suburb in northeast Paris.
The whereabouts of the stolen jewels have not been disclosed yet. According to Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau, the value of these jewels amounts to $102 million.
As reported by the French newspaper Le Parisien, the two arrested men are around the age of 30, and authorities suspect they are part of the four-member gang involved in the Louvre robbery.
Last week, the thieves broke into the Louvre exhibition hall in broad daylight and made off with priceless jewels within minutes.
The prosecutor did not specify whether any jewels were recovered after the arrest of the two suspects.
Under French law, the police can detain and question suspects for up to 96 hours.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez praised the efforts of investigators in a social media post on Sunday regarding this arrest operation.
According to French media reports on Sunday, one of the suspects was identified through DNA evidence found at the scene of the Louvre robbery.
The gang left behind items like gloves and a jacket at the crime scene. They also dropped a crown belonging to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III.
Paris prosecutors criticized the premature disclosure of information related to the case, stating that it hindered the efforts to recover the jewels and apprehend the thieves.