Louvre jewel heist: French police arrest 5 more in ramped-up probe

Included in the group is one of the suspected robbers, who authorities say was identified with DNA evidence collected from the scene.

Five more people have been arrested in connection with the crown jewels heist at the Louvre, French prosecutors confirmed on Thursday.

Included in the group is one of the suspected robbers, who authorities say was identified with DNA evidence collected from the scene.

A four-person team ransacked the Louvre‘s Apollo Gallery in broad daylight on Oct. 19 after entering through a broken window and running away with $102 million worth of jewellery.

Laure Beccuau, the lead prosecutor in the case, told RTL radio that finding the DNA-linked suspect was “one of the objectives of the investigators — we had him in our sights,” she said, adding that “others taken into custody may be able to inform us about how the events unfolded.”

She did not disclose their identities or provide any additional details.

The thieves made off with a diamond-and-emerald necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave to Empress Marie Louise as a wedding gift, as well as crown jewels tied to 19th-century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.

Separate operations in Paris and the adjacent Seine-Saint-Denis have resulted in a total of seven arrests in connection with the heist.

However, the whereabouts of the jewels remain unknown, except for one relic that has surfaced — Eugénie’s crown, damaged but salvageable, which suspects dropped during their escape.