The public prosecutor suspects organized gangs were behind the spectacular theft of historical jewels from the Louvre in Paris. At this point, all elements point to organized crime, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The investigators ruled out the possibility that the coup in the famous museum could have been orchestrated by a foreign state.
There was a spectacular theft at the Louvre over the weekend.Image: keystone
According to the government, France has increasingly seen itself as a target of destabilization attempts and cyberattacks attributed to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.
There is no evidence of a parallel to the nine cases of disruption and destabilization actions that are already known to the Paris public prosecutor’s office and which were obviously controlled from abroad, the public prosecutor’s office said. These are actions in Paris attributed to Russia, such as the mass spraying of buildings with Stars of David in 2023 and a paint attack on the Holocaust memorial in 2024.
Louvre burglars face 15 years in prison
As the public prosecutor announced, the crime in the Louvre was not considered a robbery, but rather a burglary. The perpetrators faced up to 15 years in prison for gang theft. The investigating authority did not provide any information about possible progress in the search for the four fleeing perpetrators and their prey.
The sensational theft from the heart of the French cultural scene is making headlines around the world. According to the public prosecutor’s office, four masked perpetrators parked a truck with a lifting platform at the museum on Sunday. While two of them waited on scooters, the other two took the lift to a balcony on the first floor and from there into the museum through a window.
The thieves broke open two display cases, took eight valuable pieces of jewelry from former queens and empresses – including gem-studded tiaras, necklaces, earrings and brooches – and escaped with their loot. (dab/sda/dpa)
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