Police continued their search for suspects in the Louvre jewel heist on Monday, with the Paris prosecutor expressing concern that the “hasty disclosure” of the arrests of two other suspects in the robbery over the weekend could have a detrimental impact on the investigation.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said information about the arrests in the Louvre case should not have been disclosed.
“I deeply regret that this information was hastily disclosed by a person with knowledge of the matter without considering the investigation,” Beccuau said in a statement released by her office Sunday evening.
Beccuau added that “this discovery can only undermine the efforts of approximately 100 investigators” searching for the stolen jewels and the perpetrators who remain at large.
France’s National Police confirmed to ABC News that two men in their 30s from the Paris suburbs were arrested over the weekend and accused of involvement in the brazen jewel heist.
Police said one suspect was arrested at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport at 10 p.m. on Saturday while attempting to board a flight to Algeria.
An investigator from the Paris Brigade (BRB), the special police unit leading the investigation, and a French Interior Ministry source directly involved in the investigation, told ABC News that the second suspect was apprehended as he was about to travel to Mali in West Africa.
According to investigators, both suspects are French citizens living in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. Their names have not been released.
This article is excerpted from ABC News.
