One year ago, on October 19, 2025, on a quiet Sunday morning, four thieves decided to pull off the heist of the century. It was the first weekend of the Toussaint holiday, when schools close for their first two weeks of the school year and Parisians head in droves to enjoy quieter days in the countryside.
At 8:30 am, excited visitors began to line up outside the Pyramid of IM Pei, staking their claim to enter the Musée du Louvre and be the first to see the Mona Lisa.
Meanwhile, at the same time, four thieves left their homes in and around Aubervilliers north of Paris and headed to their meeting spot on the Avenue des Terroirs de France just outside the lovely Les Pavilions de Bercy and the Musée des Arts Forains in the 12th.
The Musée du Louvre opened as usual at 9 am, and hundreds of morning visitors headed straight for the Mona Lisa. The Denon wing guards slowly made their way to their posts. It should have been a regular Sunday morning in the Louvre.
At 9:15, the four thieves, two on high-powered scooters and two in a stolen nacelle lift truck, turned right onto the Quai de Bercy. The gang was led by the Yamaha TMAX scooter, which stayed 100 meters in front of the nacelle lift truck. Behind the nacelle, the Burgman high-power scooter followed close behind.
From the Quai de Bercy to the Quai de la Rapée, they crossed the Pont d’Austerlitz, turned right onto the Quai Saint Bernard, and passed the beautiful Jardin des Plantes. They continued on the Quai de la Tournelle and the Quai de Montebello, where the sight of Notre Dame should have given them a little divine intervention. CCTV shows them passing the Petit Pont Cardinal Lustiger on the Quai Saint Michel, then onto the Quai des Grands Augustins, Quai Conti, Quai Malaquais, Quai Voltaire, and turning right onto the Pont Royal.
That same morning, I was in a taxi, heading to meet a friend and head out to the Basilique Saint Denis. Looking back at my photos and texts, I was on the Quai Voltaire at the same time they were. Oh, how I wish I could have stopped them; I could have opened the taxi door in front of the nacelle, causing it to crash and save the day. Maybe I have watched too many caper movies.
Turning right off the Pont Royal and onto the Quai François Mitterrand, they traveled along the Grande Galerie built in the 16th century under Henri IV.
At 9:30 am, they arrived at the Petit Galerie, dating to the early 16th century. The two on the motorcycle block traffic on the Quai François Mitterrand and place orange cones around the truck to create the illusion of construction workers. Over the next 3 minutes, the truck driver maneuvers around and parks on the sidewalk facing oncoming traffic.
At 9:34 am, two thieves, who will come to be known as Abdoulaye N, wearing a yellow vest, and Ayed G, dressed in black and wearing a grey motorcycle helmet, hop onto the platform lift of the truck, intended for furniture, not people. On the ground, Rachid operates the lift, taking them to the balcony of the Galerie d’Apollon.
At 9:34 and 11 seconds, the thieves attack the lower right window with the large angle saw and trigger alarm no. 13, which rings at the command post but not in the room or outside the building.
At 9:34 and 58 seconds, a cyclist out for a morning ride had stopped just across the street when he noticed the strange activity and, as they reached the balcony, called the police.
9:34 and 59 seconds, the two quickly entered through the window. Ayed G, the grey-helmeted thief, pretends to rush toward the guards at the Salon Carré door. The guards quickly get the few visitors out of the room's jewel box, and one runs to the Salle des États, where the Mona Lisa is held, to let the supervisor know an attack is underway.
At 9:35, Abdoulaye N, wearing the yellow vest, reaches the first case of jewels, holding the Second Empire pieces of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, where the only piece considered to be a crown jewel is kept.
At 9:35 and 11 seconds, the first case alarm rings in the room as Abdoulaye N. attempts to cut a large rectangular hole in the case. The case fights back, and it takes several saw passes and a few hard shoulder blows to get inside. He violently grabs the beautiful bow brooch, then the true crown jewel, the Reliquary brooch, crushes the Imperial crown, and jumps a bit to reach the tiara. They left behind the pearl and diamond brooch, which he wasn’t able to reach.
At 9:35 and 20 seconds, Ayed G, with the second angle saw attacks the south end of the central case. The alarm rings out, but he has trouble breaking into the case.
9:36 Police tele-security, aka Ramses button, which is connected to the Ministry of the Interior. Agents at the Salon Carré door; one tries to advance towards the thieves with a stanchion pole
9:37 Internal theft procedure 33.33 initiated, and all doors closed. Many doors automatically release and shut.
9:37 As soon as Abdoulaye finishes the destruction of the first case, he helps smash through the glass and quickly grabs the set of emeralds and sapphires; thankfully, the pearl drops of Josephine are out of reach.
At 9:38, they begin fleeing in panic. Abdoulaye in the yellow vest, dropped a few of the jewels and a glove and stopped to pick up the gems, but left the glove behind.
At 9:38, they fled out the same window they entered and rode the lift down to the waiting scooters. The thieves said they handed the jewels to the awaiting drivers as soon as they reached the ground.
While the two thieves were inside, one of them punctured the gas tank below. Security agents arrived to an overwhelming smell of gas, along with a discarded blowtorch, circular saws, a helmet, a vest, and gloves, all covered in DNA.
All four are now on two scooters and speeding away from the crime scene. If you have been in Paris, you know how the motorcycles bob and weave through traffic even as cars stand still, including a police car not far behind. They head back to the Quai in Ivry-sur-Seine, where a white van is waiting. They separate into two groups. Two on scooters and two in a van with two rotating beacons. All go in separate directions.
Back to the moments during the crime, as the four thieves panicked the southern edge of the Louvre the security in the Cour Napoleon sprang into action. This was far from the usual slow Sunday morning. As a few stood at the corner below the Pavillon Mollien, catching up on the weekend's events, the call rang out over their radios. Two guards ran from the Cour under the Pavillon de Lesdiguières, along the quai, straight toward the thieves as they descended from the Apollo.
One of the guards had a bit more pep in his step and turned on the turbo setting, outrunning his fellow guard but came to a screeching halt 20 meters out. They believed one of the thieves may have been holding a weapon, but in retrospect, it was most likely the bag of jewels. However, it did spook them enough that they fled instead of setting the truck on fire, which could have resulted in far more damage.
The first police to arrive screamed down the Quai into oncoming traffic from the nearby Île de la Cité, just as the thieves passed them on two high-speed scooters. Other police were able to follow them, but they were lost near the intersection of the Pont d’Austerlitz.
In the days following, their tracks were recreated using the CCTV videos from public and private cameras.
Earlier that morning at 7:37 am in northern Paris, two suspects left Aubervilliers in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, both wearing helmets: one driving a Burgman scooter, the other driving a white Citroën Berlingo utility vehicle. The two drove to Ivry-sur-Seine and parked the van on the quai along the Seine and returned on themotorcycle together to Aubervilliers.
After the theft, the four thieves returned to this area on the TMAX and Burgman high-speed scooters, being sure to take smaller side streets. They found them on Quai Marcel Boyer and Rue Victor Hugo in the gritty industrial area, empty on a Sunday morning. They approached the white Citroën Berlingo van with two orange flashing lights on the roof.
Two of the crooks got in the van, and at 9:46 a.m. they left. Where are the jewels? According to multiple CCTV feeds, the scooters traveled east, around the Château de Vincennes, then headed north. The quiet streets helped them cover ground quickly. Through Montreuil, Romainville, and Bobigny, and by 10:13 am were near the cemetery of Pantin and back to Aubervilliers. At 10:16 am, the two, identified as Abdoulaye and Slimane, entered what is now the infamous parking garage.
The van took a completely opposite route. With Ayed at the wheel and Rachid in the passenger seat, the van followed the périphérique clockwise until they reached the Porte d’Auteuil, took the A13, and headed north through many smaller towns. Investigators followed them through Orgeval and to the Vexin countryside. At 10:30 am, the trail goes cold, but the BRB takes a few shots in the dark, visits the town of Tessancourt-sur-Aubette, and picks up the trail at 10:35 am; they lose them again at 10:44 as they pass a gas station on the D14.
On November 4, the investigators discover the parking lot on Rue Leopold-Rechossière and obtain access to all the video footage inside from the owner. Lo and behold, at 11:19 a.m., the van arrives.
One burning question still surrounds the van. Did the thieves drop the jewels somewhere in the countryside, or was the so-called sponsor waiting for them? We don’t know, but covering that distance in that time is tight.
According to the fancy Google Map I created with every location mentioned in the investigation, the drive on a Sunday morning at that time would take 35 to 50 minutes. Knowing they were trying to be careful and not raise suspicion, they had to have gone straight to the parking lot.
Once they got their hands on the video, investigators saw a shocking sight as the van drove back through the countryside. At 10:27 am, the two scooters, with Abdalaye N, who violently ripped the jewels from the cases in the Gallerie d’Apollon, and getaway driver Slimane K, were seen entering an underground parking lot on Rue Léopold Rechossière in the Fort d’Aubervilliers district.
Unaware of the camera, the two thieves were seen pulling out part of the stolen jewels and passing them to each other. Officials who viewed the video note that not all eight pieces appear to be there. “Holding a large jewel, a piece seems to be missing.”
Investigators poured over every bit of evidence they could get their hands on. In the immediate aftermath, investigators picked apart every frame of the Louvre security footage. The Galerie d’Apollon has 12 cameras, 11 of which were functional that day. In the videos, investigators noted every surface the two thieves touched, including the window shade covering the window they cut through.
As they gathered evidence, they discovered three synthetic fibers caught on the edge of the glass in the Second Empire case.
Another investigation tool was utilized in this case that sounds like it came straight out of a fictional novel. They could actually collect smells. We have all watched crime and detective shows where a dog smells the thief's discarded shirt and sprints into the woods to track them down.
This new tech can gather the “olfactory signature” that each of us has; maybe some are stronger than others. To do this, they capture the fabric, wrap it in foil, and then seal in a sterilized jar to capture the scent and preserve it. Then the dogs come in later. After the perp is arrested, they use two dogs to sniff them out against the sample, to be sure it sticks in court.
Outside, it appeared the thieves intended to ignite piles of evidence, but luckily for investigators, that didn’t happen. Besides the truck itself, they left a bottle of water and Coca-Cola, both of the angle grinders, tools, a used Kleenex, a walkie-talkie, a lighter, an umbrella, numerous gloves and masks, a moto helmet, business cards, documents and license plates folded in half and stuffed under the seat.
On their escape, Abdoulay discarded his yellow vest on the Pont de Sully, which was found on the CCTV camera that they were able to pull more DNA from.
With so much left behind, especially items that are known DNA catchers like helmets and gloves, the investigation had close to 200 pieces that were used to track four of the five members arrested.
They first struck gold two days after the theft, on October 21 at 2:55 pm. Swab no. 28, taken from inside the case of the Second Empire jewels, matched a man well known to the police, Abdoulaye.
Six days after the October 25 theft, around 11 pm, the first arrests were made. Police found DNA evidence and monitored suspects for a few days before making arrests.
39-year-old Abdoulaye N cut into the window to enter the gallery and left his DNA on the window. Known on social media as Doudou Cross Bitume for his YouTube moto rodeos and teaching weight training to kids, he was well-liked by his neighbors and always helpful.
Known to the police, Abdoulaye had multiple convictions and prison sentences, including one that may shed light on the Louvre heist. On May 31, 2014, at 11 am, three men armed with rifles entered the Vanessa Bijoux jewelry shop at 24 Blvd de Barbes. While one stood guard, the other two smashed cases with an axe, grabbed as much jewelry as they could, and fled on two TMAX high-powered scooters. They were lost by the police but were eventually tracked down and arrested.
That arrest also led to the DNA of two of the crooks being added to the system, and they would strike again. Abdoulaye N and another buddy you will know shortly.
The investigation also uncovered multiple burner phones that tied Abdoulaye to the area around the Louvre the night before the heist, though he denied it.
Shortly after the DNA matched Abdoulaye, the investigation narrowed in on another member. Police identified Ayed G., a 34-year-old Franco-Algerian man, by hair found in a motorcycle helmet.
After matching the DNA, police stepped up surveillance, adding GPS trackers to the vehicles of Abdoulaye and Ayed, as well as family members. Undercover officers also tracked them for days, watching their every move with caution and suspicion.
On October 25, investigators heard Ayed on a wiretap talking with his wife about a flight and a terminal at CDG. Just hours before he made a call to Air Algérie, the police panicked: if he gets on a flight, they will lose him, and Algeria won’t extradite him back to France, and what if he has the jewels?
The police checked with Algerian Air, and he was booked on the flight. They had to act quickly, but it would involve a lot of coordination. They tracked Ayed and his wife and followed them to CDG, where other police mingled with travelers.
At the airport, the couple said their goodbyes, checked his luggage, and headed to gate B21. It was just before 8 pm when the police got the go-ahead to bring him down.
Worried that word of his arrest would reach suspect no. 1, Abdoulaye, they decided to take him at the same time. He had spent the early evening traveling around his home and making small stops, but they couldn’t get too close.
At 8:34 pm, they were told that they had Ayed in custody and to grab Abdoulaye as soon as possible. At 9:40 pm, Abdoulaye, with his son in the car, stopped at a red light; at that moment, the police sprang into action and arrested him.
Over the next three days, investigators interviewed both at length, but they remained tight-lipped. Finally, on the 28th, they changed their strategy a bit. First, it was Abdoulaye who said he was approached on the 17th by a man with a Slavic accent while he waited for his pot dealer in a nearby park. He was told it was an easy burglary that would pay 10,000 to 15,000 euros. He would need to cut through a window. In need of money, he easily agreed.
Abdoulaye said that his name was given to the mysterious Slavic man by some guys he served his last prison sentence with.
That same day, Ayed G was questioned again and the two were placed in cells 100 feet apart. Was this a tricky move by investigators? We don’t know, but it was the first time they'd been this close since the arrest. The two were overheard by officers.
“Did you confess?” Ayed asked Abdoulaye.
Abdoulaye responded, “I said, like we said back in the hood, that I didn’t know it was the Louvre and that I was forced, but they have a record of me in the room”.
Remember the 2014 jewelry heist I mentioned? When arrested over a decade ago, Abdoulaye said it was a “gypsy from Montreuil or Romainville” that called the shots. Nobody was ever found.
When Ayed was questioned, he recalled that he didn’t know it was the Louvre until just 10 minutes before and that he was recruited the day before by a dark-skinned Arab man who was tall, thin, and bald, and known around Aubervilliers. He said he was upset when he learned it was the Louvre and that he wouldn’t harm France's heritage, but it was too late to back out.
The next arrest came four days later, on October 29 at 7:05 pm, when four suspects were arrested while in line at the Jean-Bouin stadium for the Paris FC vs Lyon football match. Two were released the next morning, but Slimane K, one of the getaway drivers, and a fifth suspect, Stephanie, his wife, were arrested. Her DNA was found in the truck and on the lift,
Since the 26th, the BRB had been following and tracking Slimane and his wife. For days, he switched between his car and a moto, moving around La Courneuve, where his wife and children lived, but leaving before 6 am every morning. On the evening of the 29th, they decided that was their moment and arrested them without incident.
Once in custody, a small key was found in Slimane’s pocket. Using phone records and his connection to the Wi-Fi router, investigators were led to a bicycle storage room in La Courneuve. The small room had been transformed into a workbench where investigators found beacon detectors, signal jammers, a disc saw, locksmith tools, and touchstones used to test gold. Also found were a 7-caliber bullet, a GPS tracker, an odd contraption used by crooks to pick locks, and a set of license plates.
Investigators held their breath when they found a small safe, but large enough to hold the jewels. The door was ajar and sadly empty; still no jewels.
Stephanie is questioned and told that her DNA was found on the crank of the nacelle truck, but she sticks with her story that she hadn’t ever been close to or even knew about the truck. Before a judge, in a panic about what her children would do without a parent, she is let go but still under judicial control. Not much has been mentioned about her either since the spring.
Slimane was as cool as a cucumber every time he appeared before the investigators but did get a bit agitated when it came to his wife and her role in the crime. The two are mostly estranged, but he still comes by to see his kids from time to time.
This is when investigators started to tie them all together. Slimane and Ayed are cousins, and the 2014 jewelry store robbery was pulled off by Slimane and his friend Abdalaye.
The last arrest came almost a month later, on November 25. The fourth commando member was not found with DNA. At a loss, the investigators dug back into the CCTV footage and focused on the van. Reviewing the garage cameras and those from surrounding businesses, they saw a man matching the description enter a white Clio and, luckily for them, the camera got a clear shot of the license plate. The car is owned by a woman who lives across the street, but a traffic ticket issued to Rachid H. is attached to it.
Very well known to the police, he was a pimp and served time in 2021. He fell into the pimp life the old-fashioned way, through his girlfriend who became a prostitute. He ended up running a small ring that rented an Airbnb for daytime trysts and kept his ladies safe.
Rachid H was the second high-powered scooter driver, and all hopes of finding the jewels were left with him.
Investigators tracked him down and placed trackers and even wiretapped his work vehicle. On November 14, a recording revealed him talking to his sister, saying he thought he was being followed by the police since the “19th”. He also said he was promised 15 to 20,000 euros for the job after his release from prison.
After the theft, he hid several times at the apartment of a former prostitute in Paris, until he took a construction job in Laval, where he thought he could hide out. A
Rachid might have been the crew's most seasoned thief. He was the only one who knew how to use the Nacelle.
On November 25 at 5:30 am the police decided to take Rachid into custody, as well as his sister Nadia, his brother Hamza, and Jessica, his former prostitute and friend. They questioned everyone and released all but Rachid.
Rachid recently made news when he asked to be released in September, but the investigative judge refused. He is the only one not tied to the crime by DNA.
On June 2 & 22, Abdoulaye N and Ayed G. spoke to investigative judges and revealed a bit more about the crime that shook the Louvre. The two practiced the day before the heist using the disc saws to cut concrete. Once in the room, Ayed had problems with his tools, which angered Abdoulaye, cost them extra time, and kept them from stealing more jewels.
They both claim that there was a sponsor and that they were involved in the crime itself that morning, and the police have the “wrong people”. Fearing for the life of his family, Abdoulaye stayed tight-lipped, but the name “Jo” was mentioned as someone who could have been the proxy for the sponsor.
Beyond the massive dead end they have hit in the search for the jewels, the trail to the vehicles used that day has also gone cold. The only one discovered was a BMW scooter used the morning before the theft as a relay vehicle, which was discovered discarded on the Rue des Berges in Pantin. It had been stolen a few months before, in July. They obtained 33 DNA samples that matched Ayed G, the second crook in the Galerie d’Apollon.
As for the vehicles used in the crime itself. On the night of October 23, the first scooter left, followed by the van, and the second scooter left on October 25. As far as we know, they were lost, but we haven’t had an update in over four months.
