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PARIS, France--French police have arrested two men suspected of involvement in the recent $102 million jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed on Oct. 26.

[Image via iStock.com/AlxeyPnferov]

According to Reuters, both suspects are in their 30s and from the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. Le Parisien, which first reported the arrests, said one of the men was detained at Charles de Gaulle Airport while preparing to board a flight to Algeria. The pair were already known to police.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed the arrests but withheld further details, criticizing the leak of information to the press. "This revelation can only hinder the investigative efforts of the 100 or so mobilised investigators, both in the search for the stolen jewellery and for all the perpetrators," she said, as cited by Reuters.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised investigators' progress in a social media post but provided no additional information. The report noted that none of the stolen jewels have yet been recovered.

The heist occurred on Oct. 19 when four masked thieves used a crane to break an upstairs window during museum hours and fled on motorbikes. The stolen items included a tiara and an earring from the collections of Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, along with a crown belonging to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. The crown was later found damaged outside the museum.

Learn more in this news report by Reuters.