Louvre jewel theft suspects were petty criminals from Paris suburb – prosecutor

The suspects who stole royal jewels from the Louvre in October were petty offenders living in a poor suburb of Paris, Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said, according to BBC.

“This is not exactly a case of organized high-level crime, but rather a type of low-level delinquency not typically associated with such heists,” Beccuau told Franceinfo radio.

Four people — three men and a woman — have been charged in connection with the theft. All live in Saint-Denis, a low-income area north of Paris. Two of the men have prior convictions for theft, while a 38-year-old woman and her 37-year-old partner, who have children together, deny involvement.

Earlier, police arrested two other suspects — a 34-year-old Algerian national residing in France and a 39-year-old taxi driver from the Paris suburbs — both of whom partially confessed to the crime, according to law enforcement sources.