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- Two suspects in the Louvre jewelry heist had a previous theft conviction together, the Paris prosecutor said.
- Laure Beccuau said they had both been convicted in a theft case in 2015 in Paris.
- French police have made a number of arrests as part of an investigation into the Louvre heist.
Two of the suspects in last month’s daring Louvre jewelry heist had a previous theft conviction together, the Paris prosecutor has said.
Speaking to France Info on Sunday, Laure Beccuau said the two men had long criminal records, including a 2015 conviction in a theft case.
“What’s interesting about these criminal records, is when we compare them, we see that they were involved in the same theft case for which they were convicted in 2015 in Paris,” she said.
Four people — three men and one woman all in their thirties — have been charged in connection with the Louvre heist, which saw thieves break into the iconic museum’s Galerie d’Apollon and make off with several pieces of “priceless” jewelry.
Authorities say the thieves gained access to the museum using a truck with a lift system and an angle grinder to breach a window. They are said to have then targeted several display cases before escaping on motor scooters.
Beccuau said that those in custody were “clearly local people” who “lived more or less in Seine-Saint-Denis,” an area just north of the French capital.
She previously told BFM TV that around 60 investigators had been mobilized to track down the thieves, adding that authorities had “total determination” to recover the stolen items, which include royal jewels from the First and Second French Empires.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has said that the state had “failed” to protect one of its most famous landmarks.
Speaking on France Inter radio, Darmanin said: “We cannot completely secure all locations, but what is certain is that we have failed, since it is possible to set up a freight elevator in the middle of a Paris street, lift people up in a matter of minutes to steal priceless jewelry, and give France a terrible image.”