After months of near silence, two suspects held in pre-trial detention have provided additional details about their role in helping carry out the Louvre Museum jewelry heist that stunned the world last October.
French newspaper Le Monde reviewed transcripts from two June interview sessions conducted as part of the ongoing judicial inquiry. In one of the exchanges, one of the men said the alleged “mastermind” who hired them for the job “thought we could have taken more.”
The statements come from two men living in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers: Abdoulaye N, a 40-year-old known locally for his online motorcycle stunt videos, and Ghelamallah A, a 36-year-old Algerian man reportedly suffering from Diogenes syndrome. Both were arrested in late October, roughly a week after the heist, and have “partially admitted” involvement in the plot.
According to Le Monde’s review of the interviews, Abdoulaye said he was promised between €15,000 and €20,000 (~$17,000–$22,700) as his base payment for facilitating the robbery and acknowledged that he knew it would take place at the Louvre. Ghelamallah, who claimed he was offered about €5,000 more than Abdoulaye, said the job was described to him as “a jewelry store where they make jewelry in Paris,” adding, “I would never have set foot there if I had known.”
Neither man would identify the person or entity that hired them, saying they feared retaliation against themselves or their families. Abdoulaye said he had not received a direct threat, but that he had been getting phone calls telling him to stay quiet while in detention. Still, both suspects maintained that the alleged “mastermind” was also directly involved in the theft.
“The person who ordered the theft wasn’t happy,” Abdoulaye said of the haul — seven pieces of jewelry from France’s crown jewels, worth about €88 million (~$100.2 million). “He thought we could have taken more. We had wasted time coming back in through the window.”
Le Monde’s review says the two men were told to meet two unnamed accomplices in Aubervilliers on the morning of October 19 with a cherry picker truck and two motorcycles. Abdoulaye said he drove the truck to the museum and positioned it beside the Apollo Gallery balcony, while he and Ghelamallah rode the cherry picker up and broke into the museum as the other two men stayed on the ground.
“When we got in, there was no one there, it was dark, only the display case lights were on,” he said. “In the distance, I could see security moving around, behind a door, or something. (…) Then, using the angle grinder, I smashed the windows, removed what was inside. (…) I’ve done worse than that; all I had to do was make a trapdoor.” Abdoulaye also admitted that he dropped Empress Eugénie’s crown from his bag during the escape.
After investigators showed him a photo of the badly damaged crown, he said, “What we did wasn’t right, it’s very serious. Luckily I’m not suicidal, otherwise I would have killed myself.” The two men said they fled the scene on motorcycles after pouring gasoline on the cherry picker truck, and that another relay vehicle was waiting to pick up the group of four.
Abdoulaye, who said he carried all the jewelry, alleged that he was taken to a garage in Aubervilliers, where he handed the loot to his client. Neither he nor Ghelamallah has any idea what became of the jewels, which are still missing. “I have admitted my involvement,” Abdoulaye said at the end of one questioning session. “I accept the consequences and I regret it. The rest (…) is beyond me.”
