French police arrest 2 Louvre jewel heist suspects amid manhunt
LONDON -- Two men from a Paris suburb have been arrested in connection with last week's major jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, the French National Police confirmed to ABC News amid a nationwide manhunt continuing for two other perpetrators.
One suspect was arrested at 10 p.m. on Saturday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria, police said.
The second suspect was nabbed by police as he was about to travel to Mali, in West Africa, an investigator with the Paris Brigade for the Repression of Banditry (BRB), the special police unit spearheading the probe, and a source with the French Interior Ministry directly connected to the investigation told ABC News.
Both suspects, whose names have not been publicly released, are French nationals who live in Seine Saint Denis, a suburb of Paris, according to investigators. One of the suspects has dual citizenship in France and Mali, and the other is a dual citizen of France and Algeria, investigators said, adding that both were already known to police from past burglary cases.
Investigators said they matched trace DNA evidence recovered from a helmet left at the scene of the crime to one of the suspects, enabling police to put the alleged thief under phone and physical surveillance.
Both suspects are believed to have played active roles in the brazen Oct. 19 robbery at the Louvre, in which eight precious pieces of jewelry, including crowns containing thousands of diamonds and other precious gemstones, were stolen, according to the sources.
Investigators say they're still determining whether a source inside of the Louvre may have had a role in the theft.
No new information has been made public on the whereabouts of the stolen jewels that Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau estimated to be worth $102 million.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez praised investigators for making the arrests in a social media post on Sunday.
"I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to the investigators who worked tirelessly as I asked them to and who always had my full confidence," Nuñez said in the post. "The investigations must continue in accordance with the secrecy of the investigation under the authority of the specialized interregional court of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office."
"We will continue with the same determination! Let's keep going!" Nuñez added.
Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for the Louvre suspects after the theft from the museum's Apollo Gallery on the morning of Oct. 19, shortly after the museum opened to the public.
The stolen items included crowns, necklaces, earrings and brooches, some of which once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.
The team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a "mobile freight elevator" equipped with a metal ladder on the back that was extended up to a window, according to the Paris police.
"They deployed the freight elevator, securing the surroundings with construction cones, before accessing the second floor, in the Apollo Gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder," according to the police statement.
"Inside, they then smashed two display cases, 'Napoleon jewels' and 'French crown jewels,' using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry," police said.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that authorities would catch those responsible for what he described as an "attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history."
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who is overseeing the investigation alongside the Justice Ministry, described the heist to ABC News as "a simple, but spectacular operation."
Soon after the theft, investigators said four suspects left the scene on two motorbikes, winding their way through central Paris and last spotted speeding southeast on Highway A6 out of Paris and in the direction of Lyon.
ABC News' Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
