BFMTV INFO. The alleged perpetrators were arrested on Thursday, June 27, before being taken into custody, less than two months after the robbery that occurred on May 18. A large part of the loot, estimated at 7 million euros, was found.
It’s a vigorous investigation. According to information from BFMTV, three people, suspected of having participated in the spectacular robbery of the Harry Winston jewelry store, on May 18, on avenue Montaigne in the 8th arrondissement in Paris, were arrested this Thursday, June 27, by investigators from the banditry suppression brigade (BRB) of the Paris judicial police department.
The suspects were taken into custody after being located, less than two months after the events, in an apartment located in a building in the 16th arrondissement in Paris.
Damage estimated at 7 million euros
Still according to our information, the search of this accommodation resulted in the discovery of almost all of the jewelry stolen during this armed robbery. The damage was estimated at nearly 7 million euros.
Investigators from the BRB’s general investigations group, in charge of the investigations, tracked down the suspected receivers after meticulous cross-checking, in particular with two previous armed robberies carried out in the heart of Paris.
This Friday, June 28, the hearings of the three suspects, aged around thirty, were still in progress. “They are handsome guys (Editor’s note: major criminals),” confides a source close to the case, on the profile of the arrested suspects.
On May 18, around 11:40 a.m., three unknown men, dressed in dark clothing and wearing helmets, perched on two powerful two-wheelers, parked in front of the store of the famous American jeweler, located a stone’s throw from the Champs-Élysées.
One of the drivers rams his scooter into the front door of the jewelry store to allow these two accomplices to rush in. An employee and a customer can do nothing against these two robbers, also armed with small axes, who break, one after the other, nine display cases containing jewelry, rings, bracelets and necklaces set with diamonds.
The “signature of a team of professionals”
The third accomplice stands guard, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and even orders passers-by who get too close to cross the street. The same man alerts his two accomplices when he sees two police officers, guns in hand, walking up Rue Clément Marot, parallel to the store, the target of this armed robbery. The trio of robbers, back on their Honda scooter and a Yamaha Tracer 900 motorcycle, quickly leave the scene without being disturbed.
On their escape route, they come across other police officers in a car: one of the criminals points his assault rifle at them in order to keep them at bay. In less than ten minutes, they managed to seize loot estimated at 7 million euros – without using their weapons – before disappearing towards the department of Seine-Saint-Denis.
The “signature of a team of professionals”, according to a senior official. Informed, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the charges of “organized gang robbery”, “criminal association” and “violence against persons in authority with a weapon in a group”. The suspects’ custody can last up to 96 hours.
