French prosecutors have formally charged two additional suspects in connection with last month’s $102 million jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, authorities confirmed on Friday.
According to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, the suspects — a 37-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman — were charged with organized robbery and conspiracy to commit organized robbery. Both have denied any involvement in the high-profile crime and have been remanded in custody pending trial.
Their indictment brings to four the total number of people formally charged in the case so far. Prosecutors also confirmed that three of the five suspects arrested on October 29 have since been released from custody.
The robbery, which occurred on October 19, saw four masked thieves break into the museum’s Apollo Gallery, home to France’s royal jewels. They escaped with eight pieces of 19th-century jewelry estimated to be worth $102 million, in what police say was a precisely timed seven-minute operation.
The theft — the Louvre’s most audacious robbery in decades — sparked a nationwide outcry and one of France’s largest manhunts in recent history.
Despite multiple arrests and forensic breakthroughs, the stolen jewels remain missing, officials said.
Last week, investigators arrested one suspect at Charles de Gaulle Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Algeria, while another was detained shortly before departing for Mali.
Both men were previously known to authorities for burglary-related offenses, and investigators are probing whether the suspects have ties to organized crime networks operating across Europe and North Africa.
French investigators continue to analyze DNA evidence, phone records, and security footage as they attempt to trace the missing jewels and identify additional accomplices.
Officials have not ruled out the possibility that insiders at the museum may have assisted in the operation, given the thieves’ apparent knowledge of the building’s layout and security blind spots.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the probe remains “active and ongoing.”
