Arrests in Louvre heist show power of DNA databases in solving crimes

All three suspects already had their DNA on file because of their criminal histories

- Catherine Porter

It took less than a week for the police to track down two of the suspects who they say broke into the Louvre on Oct 19 and made off with eight of France’s historic crown jewels.

A third person, a suspected accomplice, was tracked down on Oct 29.

In all three cases, DNA was an essential part of the search.

The chief prosecutor, Ms Laure Beccuau, said the DNA of the two men who broke into the museum and snatched US$100 million (S$130 million) worth of jewellery was found on the window and on one of two high-powered motor scooters the thieves used to get away.

The DNA of the accused accomplice was found on the bucket of a truck-mounted mechanical ladder that was used to raise two of the thieves to the second-floor balcony of the Louvre, Ms Beccuau said in an interview with radio station France Info.

While the spectacular heist may have seemed like an advertisement for the lack of security at European museums, the speed of tracking the suspects was testament to the power of DNA in police investigations in France.

It is also a sign of how sloppy the thieves were in the end, after pulling off what seemed like a well-planned heist in one of the world’s most famous museums in broad daylight. Among the objects they left behind in their haste to evade the police and security guards were a glove, a crown that they dropped, and the truck with the mechanical ladder, which they had tried unsuccessfully to set on fire.

Investigators have processed 150 forensic samples related to the crime, from the scene and from objects the thieves left behind. All three people who were arrested already had their DNA on file because of their criminal histories, mostly for theft.

“I am convinced that we would not have found these people if the DNA that was found at this theft hadn’t matched with this database,” said Mr Gaetan Poitevin, a criminal lawyer in Marseille whose master’s thesis was on France’s DNA database.