Paris prosecutor says arrested man is thought to be 4th member of Louvre heist gang

PARIS (AP) – A man arrested by French police earlier this week is thought to be the fourth member of the team that stole France’s crown jewels from the Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor said Friday, meaning that the entire gang that carried out the brazen heist is now believed to have been caught.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is heading the investigation, said the 39-year-old man has a criminal record, with six previous convictions, including for receiving stolen goods, for which he was given a 2-month suspended prison sentence in 2010.

He has now been handed preliminary charges of robbery by an organized gang, punishable by 15 years imprisonment, and criminal conspiracy, which can carry a 10-year sentence if he is convicted for his suspected role in the stunning Oct. 19 theft at the world’s most-visited museum. The robbery gang’s haul of loot was worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million) – a monetary value that didn’t include the jewels’ huge historical value to France.

The prosecutor’s statement didn’t say what role, exactly, the man is thought to have played in the daylight heist, carried out with angle grinders, a freight lift and subterfuge, with robbers dressed as workers in bright vests.

Three other people also taken into police custody for questioning this week have been released without charge, the prosecutor said.

Police investigators are continuing their work “to locate the stolen jewels and to precisely determine each person’s role in this organized criminal group, as well as to clarify how the theft was planned and perpetrated,” she said.

The robbery is believed to have been carried out by a four-person team – with two breaking into the museum’s ornate Apollo Gallery where the jewels were displayed and then being whisked away on motorbikes by two associates who waited outside.

Three men, the robbery team’s other suspected members, were arrested in October and handed preliminary charges of theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy. DNA traces were found at the scene or on items linked to the robbery.

Police also arrested a woman in October. She faces preliminary charges of complicity in theft and criminal conspiracy. She is the longtime partner of one of the alleged robbers. The couple have children together and live in the northern suburbs of Paris, also home to other suspects.

The woman denied any involvement, her lawyer said.

The haul hasn’t been recovered. It includes a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.

The robbery has focused attention on security at the Louvre. The museum’s director has acknowledged a ″terrible failure” and promised the installation of new surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems.

The thieves took less than eight minutes to force their way into the museum and leave, using a freight lift to reach one of the building’s windows. Footage from museum cameras showed that the two who broke into the Apollo Gallery used grinders to cut into jewelry display cases.

The emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum.