Catherine Field: Newstalk ZB reporter in Paris on arrests made following Louvre heist

Arrests have been made following last week's Louvre heist. 

Thieves stole an array of valuable jewels, worth $177million NZD, including a crown belonging to the wife of Napoleon III.

Newstalk ZB reporter in Paris Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that the thieves arrested were not masterminds, and were known to police. 

'They knew that these two were part of the gang, but they knew that they weren't the mastermind.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Francis, Tuesday morning. Catherine Field, morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Now, these are rists that we heard about over the weekend.
Do we know who they are? Are they part of
a wider group? Are they sophisticated? What do we know?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Okay, what we know is two males aged in their thirties,
one French Algerian and another one French but origin from Mali
in West Africa, were taken into custody on Saturday evening.
One of the men was actually at Charldonville Airport getting
ready to get on a plane to Algeria. Now police
say that was why they moved right then. They'd been

(00:33):
following these guys since about Wednesday, hoping that they would
lead them to the masterminds. They knew that these two
were part of the gang, but they knew that they
went the mastermind, So nab this guy at the airport,
nabbed the other one at the same time, he was
in a northern Paris suburb. Since then, they've been held
at the organized crime headquarters of Paris Police. Apparently they

(00:58):
are saying nothing as if we needed it, just to
show that how far from a James Bond type heister.
This was Mike. Police trace them because both men have
got quite a wrap sheet. They've experienced thieves known to police.
One of the men they found him via the DNA

(01:18):
that was on the discarded motorbike. How much that they
left behind in the rush to get away. The other
man in the rush to get away, he left behind
his hiver's jacket and they managed to get the DNA
off the fibers of that. So police still don't have
any clue where those Crown jewels are. They're hoping to
get to it sometime soon. But you're still looking for

(01:42):
those two who fled on the scooters. They're still at large,
and everyone's still hoping that the jewels are somewhere ready
to be collected.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
How long do they get to hold them for before
they got a stick them and caught with something.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Oh a long time, nineties six hours, mike. So they've
got them right through all Wednesday. But of course if
they still believe that, then they put them before a
judge and the judge says, well they should stay there
for a bit longer.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Now this is separate the Candie Owens thing, but this
case that involves the harassment of Bridget Macron. How many
people are involved with this and what have they done?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Allegedly allegedly at ten in the dark. They had their
first afternoon in court just today a couple of hours ago.
They left eight men two women, aged between forty one
and sixty years old. They are charged with online harassment
targeting Bridget Macarn with these same allegations about her sexuality

(02:42):
and about her gender identity. They all say that they're
not guilty. They say that that yes, these were online,
but they weren't addressed to the first lady. There was
nothing they said to show that she would actually read them.
Among those who are charged a spiritual medium, a conspiracy theorist,

(03:03):
a teacher, an I technician, IT technician, and a real
estate agent. The reason the Macrons took this case was
that they felt it had just gone too far. This
online harassment had gone on and on, as well as
that case that may well come to court soon in
the US, Candy Sowens. They just say that this had
to stop. All these allegations that Macron Brigitte was born

(03:25):
a man, that she's actually her brother, just went on
and on. It felt guilty. These defendants in court in
Paris could face up to two years.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Improvement It's very interesting the legals, isn't it, Because if
you're not addressing it directly to the person and you're
on the net, it's like and under what Laura, you
are arguing? You can't say? I mean, you're talking free
speech here, I guess, aren't you? To a degree?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Then is why this case has come up again. Originally,
Bridget Macrone won a case against these ten. It was
rejected on appeal because she'd tried that before the courts
under a law which Dick she didn't take defamation into account.
So yeah, it's incredibly difficult to find the right law
at the right time. And as I said, you know,

(04:07):
if you hadn't watched, you wouldn't have known. But of course,
one of the women up before the court to day
she did actually publish a four hour long video of
her thoughts of why bridges on just.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
The four just the four hours. Okay, how's mister lock
On you second time round? Going se ce running things nicely?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh, I still haven't got a budget mine. Everyone's looking
a little bit worried because there's less than sixty days
to go, counting it down because apparently it's the same
number of shopping days until Christmas. But everyone's a bit
worried because Moody's late on Friday change the outlook for
the French economy to negative, simply because public finances are bloated.

(04:50):
The minority government is having to struggle to get this
through bill by bill by bill, and the socials still
say that unless there are significant texting preas is on
the wealthy, they'll vote it down later this week and
bring the government down.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Okay, well we'll catch up, and that's what we've got
you on the program Katsine casern Field in France. For
more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
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